The train was late. We were worried that we would miss our connection in Chicago, but the attendant said that we had lots of time and Duane discovered that he was looking at the wrong time on our tickets. While we sat in the station something happened outside. Some altercation between a [...]

We had more trouble finding our way out of Quebec than into it. The trouble was in reading signs incorrectly and not map reading well. Still it didn’t take as too far out of the way and took us into a neighborhood where we observed temporary garages. These are metal or plastic pole [...]

Quebec City is our next destination. The freeway parallels the St Laurent, but comes within sight of it only occasionally. We take one side trip to Joliet, see the benedictine (?) dominican (?) monastary (?) as we drive by. It is a samll town with a university. There is not much [...]

On the next day our long walk to Outremont reveals more of the hard-luck side of Montreal. We pass through boarded up, grafittied, grass gone missing, dead plant, skinny cat, lonesome dog, broken railing, paint-peeling, housing. Through little Cuba and the rest of Latin America. Up to the park near Mont Royal. [...]

The Hotel d’Elysee is blue with a red awning. It is located in a row of hotels and apartments, all virtually one building. Former row-houses. Three steps down lead to the door lead to a door below street level and several steps up lead to a double glass door, this is not the entrance. [...]

Next morning we were lickety-split for Pennsylvania. Richmond, VA to Washington D.C. We spun around D.C. like we were in a vortex, thinking we were in Baltimore. When we realized were had nearly circled D.C. on the outer loop (taking an hour to do it), we spun ourselves off, located our position [...]

It was our intention to drive the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway all the way to Asheville, but we had no idea how slow the going would be. It was quite beautiful, but top speed was 45 and we were often going much slower. It was twisty and narrow with patches of ice. I [...]

From Bethlehem to Allentown. Wow, Allentown was amazing. I’d never seen anything like it. Driving down a relatively narrow street and on either side rowhouses, for blocks and blocks and they are all just a few feet from the street. Street, sidewalk, rowhouse. No lawns.
It was our plan to [...]

The train station in Rochester was pretty empty and pretty depressing. We obtained a cab straightaway to the airport where we picked up our rental car from Alamo. We would have the car for two weeks and two days, no charge for mileage. We ended up putting 3,000 miles on the little [...]

Traveling by train is a tour of backyards and junkyards. Some of the junkyards are sanctioned and some are clearly illegal dumps. In every city and in almost every town grafitti tags buildings facing the tracks. It’s the backside of America, gritty, run down, broken down, abused and abandoned. It is [...]

This is what I remember about Havre, North Dakota. On the second day of the journey a man, whom I thought was Latino sat about 2 rows in back of us. He wore a cap the whole time (so did Duane) and his eyes had a way of boring through mine whenever we [...]

[Portland, OR —a dream the night before we left. I am in middle eastern country, Iran I decide. I am staying with a family, and it is dinnertime. I am nervous about not knowing the customs, and offending someone. The entire dream is imbued with a sense of anticipation. Suddenly, I [...]