Anna asked me what kind of people one meets on a long-distance train. I said “The adventurous, the bold, lovers of the life on the rails and those terrified of flying. Those are they who do accompany me on this journey. Perhaps I will learn more of their ways in the coming days.” I did end up meeting many phenomenal folks, though none ego mentioned a fear of flying. Here I will tell about some of them and share some sights I saw along the way.

I met this lovely couple in the observation car. If you have never ridden in a car like this, you have missed out on an experience. The seats are arranged for people to enjoy the views and mingle. The windows are large and wrap around to the ceiling. The people who gather here are those who truly enjoy traveling. Roger and Judy in the picture above are such people. They have traveled many places and are huge bike enthusiasts, having toured in Nova Scotia and ridden from Santa Rosa (north of San Francisco) to Mexico. They are also part of the cult of Bike Friday, a manufacturer of folding bicycles. They toured on a folding tandem bike. They were also just a delight to talk with. I was also randomly seated with them and an aspiring bike tourer the next day at lunch, where tales of travel continued.

Me in the observation car, below. (I should let everyone know that these cars are only on western trains because they are too tall for eastern tunnels.)

I had two seats to myself most of the journey. I was disappointed to see this character sitting in the seat next to mine after I took an extended trip to the cafe car which included a stop in Rochester, N.Y.

My disappointment did not last, however. Ryan, pictured above, was seriously interesting. (Terrible lighting makes him look older and much graver than the light hearted fellow I met.) He is an activist who helps prevent evictions. He works against evictions that don’t make sense for anyone, but are driven by interlocking sets of rules intended to protect banks and their loan insurers. This will probably take some research and time to explain properly. He also separately works at a homeless shelter for a pretty bad ass nun. They take folks in who can’t handle the rules of the other shelters. They don’t take government money so they don’t have to abide by federal regulations.

I should mention about a movement to change the approach to homelessness, called “housing first.” The idea is that it is a lot more sensible to address homelessness by providing homes rather than shelters and other emergency services for most homeless folks. It’s much cheaper and had much better outcomes for the folks served, since it’s much easier to get your life in order when you’re not homeless. The other thing I learned is that Boston has one of the best anti-eviction organizations in the country, who’s name I am forgetting, so put it in the comments if you know it.

I am home now, but have a few more posts for this blog. I have a bunch of pictures to share of various parts of the trip, extended gear reviews and a few other things, before I put this blog into hibernation. Perhaps it may awake later for other (shorter) bike adventures.