Leaving Kansas City:
Mendota, IL:
Naperville, IL:
somewhere in upstate NY:
The difference between driving through this country and riding the train through:
They [whoever] put all the un-aesthetically pleasing things near the train tracks not near the highways. Luckily, actually I really enjoy the scenery. There are miles of nothing (i.e. seemingly untouched land), then you get to a city and you can see: basic tagging, intricate graffiti, junkyards, heaps of trash, abandoned buildings, junk car lots, abandoned appliance lots, railroad ties (this is actually a logical place for those), and sometimes shanty towns (well, single residences). The train was moving to fast for me to catch worthwhile pictures of any of these things.
There’s also the on-train scenery:
My seat neighbor from L.A. to Chicago, who currently teaches UFC fighting in Detroit (he’s originally from the L.A. area), had traveled all over the world. I learned from him, for example, not to drink ice cold liquid when you’re in Northern Africa on a really hot day—apparently causes heat stroke.
And in Chicago’s Union Station were several Amish/Mennonite people, many commuters, and one young man recently released from prison who needed money for a train ticket home (but refused the actual train ticket in lieu of money).