I'm with Wayne on this one. When I first started visiting the USA as a grad student, I went everywhere by train - using the time aboard to study, prepare papers, analyze data, and meet interesting people. I went all over the East coast, from FL to MA, and from TX all the way to Seattle and back via AZ and LA. The train ride through the desert, in the clear top train car, was something else - all those bright stars. I will never forget it. If one has the time to spare, the train offers great views, comfort, the ability to walk around, and a significant price break in many cases. Of course, one has to like train rides :-)
Not sure yet if I will go to the ESA meetings, but will definitely try to include the train, for both the beauty and the social responsibility. Astrid Caldas, PhD Science for Better Environmental Policy P: 240-4605275 I blog at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/astrid-caldas/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/acaldas http://twitter.com/climategeek >________________________________ > From: Wayne Tyson <[email protected]> >To: [email protected] >Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2013 5:11 PM >Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Take the Train to ESA Minneapolis > > >Ecolog: > >I don't doubt McNeeley's experience, and maybe it's gotten worse in the 14 >years since I took my last train ride. I got the small sleeping (2 chairs, >two bunks) "room" for the two legs of my circular route from San Diego CA to >San Francisco CA, to Lassen NP (CA), to Reno NV, to Salt Lake City UT, to >Grand Junction CO, to Aspen CO, to New Orleans LA, to Tucson AZ, to Phoenix >AZ, to San Diego CA. The train legs were San Diego-San Francisco and New >Orleans LA-Tucson AZ, and I enjoyed both. I do remember waiting on sidings >for freight (this used to be the other way around--freights had to give way >to passenger trains, and is an outrage, but this is what corporate disregard >for the public interest and bureaucrat-run trains gets you. > >I found this much more relaxing than the flying legs (Reno-Salt Lake City, >Salt Lake City-Grand Junction, Grand Junction--New Orleans, and Phoenix-San >Diego). The other three legs were by rented car. > >I'll still take the train next time (if there is one), but then I'm in no >hurry. I would take the vouchers. I love to fly, but as J. Frank Dobie once >said of travel by airline, "It's not traveling, it's just being >transported." > >WT > > >
