South Carolina

On Wednesday last, Tom, Judy, and I arrived back in Minnesota from our trip to South Carolina. The journey home was uneventful except for a two hour delay at Atlanta Airport due to runway construction at Minneapolis/St. Paul. Still, we didn’t find the time long as we had lots to talk about our marvelous train trip and, particularly, our time with Adam, Sara Beth and their children, Joseph, Kallsen and Parker.

I think of how nice it must have been for Tom and Judy to see their family and their grandchildren again. It was nice for me; I can only imagine how it must have been for them. I am eternally grateful to them for sharing this marvelous trip with me and for giving me the opportunity to be part of this great family.

Three years ago, a journey to America was the furthest thought in my mind. Now as I sit here in Atlanta, I try to make sense of it all. Because of my chance meeting with Judy and ultimately with Tom and the rest of their family, I am now in the middle of my second trip to the USA in one year. With their help and, of course, with the help, and encouragement to make this trip, of my family in New Jersey, I have been to Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. In addition, this time our epic train journey on the way to see Tom and Judy’s family in South Carolina took us through Indiana, Maryland, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina South Carolina, Ohio and of course, Georgia. If my math is correct, I make that 16 states I have visited or touched on during my two visits.

It was a marvelous experience to make the train journey to South Carolina to see Tom and Judy’s family. The journey consisted of three stages but Judy is doing some great posts about that, so I will refer you to her blog to read all about it.

For my own part, during the time leading up to the train journey, I was secretly hoping that perhaps we might get to travel some way on the train called the City of New Orleans which is immortalized in song by Arlo Guthrie and, again, by Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. It was not to be however, the nearest I got to the City of New Orleans was seeing its arrival time at Chicago Amtrak Station. Not travelling on that train though was no disappointment, the Empire Builder and Capitol Limited served the purpose very well and gave us a most enduring experience. Again, I urge you read all about it here on Judy's Blog.

Well, that's it from me. I will now leave you in Judy's cabable hands to tell you all about our trip to South Carolina. I would however, like to thank Adam and Sara Beth for the marvellous time they gave us while we were there. I would also like to post a few pictures taken on our drive to Atlanta Airport as Adam took us to catch our plane for home.

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