With snow on the ground and very cold temperatures, my husband Kenneth and Daisy, my mother’s old Jack Russell terrier, drive me to Asheville to meet my sister and her family for my trip over to their home in Franklin, North Carolina, and onward later that night to Toccoa, Georgia, to board the Crescent, the first of four that would finally deliver me to San Diego and within a block of the pier to embark on the MV Explorer. I’ve flown over the country from coast to coast so much I really wanted to take the trains this time to see this beautiful and expansive country on the ground.

Rita and Tony wait with me at the tiny station. There are more people waiting for and disembarking from the train than I would have thought. It is on time. Getting on the Crescent in late evening in Toccoa is a challenge with my five pieces of luggage, packed for five months of travel in widely varying climes, through to the back and sleeper car of a very full passenger train on its way to New York City. But I finally get all of it in my cabin, take the time to eat a delicious biscotti my sister Rita had made, and fall into bed.