Omaha, Nebraska

After departing Chicago, my train rumbled through rural Illinois and
Iowa, with a landscape of farms sitting upon endless rolling hills,
gliding by my window. My seatmate is Anele, a nice young Zulu lady on
holiday from grad school in Durban to spend the winter working at a
ski resort near Lake Tahoe, and to see snow for the first time. During
dinner, I spoke with Lloyd, an older gent from Colorado Springs, also
a Stanford alum, and very knowledgable on railroads and antique cars.
I then met Frank, an American expat from France who works as a
freelance writer for magazines and NPR. Long-distance rail passengers
aren't in a hurry, unlike airplane passengers, and so seem more
relaxed and social. An Amish lady, en route with her husband and 7
kids to Montana, even came by to chat; it's amazing these folks have
successfully preserved their culture for 400 years in assimilitative
America! That takes hard work.