Of Long, Long Trains And Trains Under Water

by Kevin Burton    “There’s something magical about train travel for just about everybody,” writes the Interesting Facts website, “whether you’re an engineering nerd, a hopeless romantic, a world traveler, or an easily excitable 8-year-old.”    The longest train ride I have taken so far was (round-trip) from Wasilla, Alaska up to Denali National Park. …

All Aboard For Interesting Facts About Trains

by Kevin Burton    My dream vacation is to accompany my bride on a long, interrupted train ride along the Mississippi River.    The plan is to ride the City of New Orleans train on Amtrak – the one that Arlo Guthrie sang about – from Chicago to Memphis, get off and explore that town …

How Horse Logic Rules The Whole World

by Kevin Burton    You have to wonder sometimes, why things are the way they are. Who exactly is running the asylum?    Not sure who first came up with the quip that status quo is Latin for “the mess we’s in.”    Later in life I have learned to not ask certain things. If …

Thursdays With Mom: Golden Memories

by Kevin Burton    I took custody of the gold yesterday.  Didn’t make me any richer, not in the monetary sense anyway.     The transaction took place at my mother’s apartment at an assisted living facility twelve miles north of where I live.  I go there to visit her just about every Thursday.  We are …

A Magic Carpet Ride To New Orleans

by Kevin Burton    While at the Quiet Knight bar in Chicago, Steve Goodman saw fellow singer/songwriter Arlo Guthrie, and asked to be allowed to play a song for him, according to a story on Wikipedia.    “Guthrie grudgingly agreed, on the condition that if Goodman bought him a beer, Guthrie would listen to him play …