Three Weeks on The Rails

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo shared by Timitrius

Tomorrow I hit the road again, actually so Saturday I can hit the rails. This is the start of a 3 week trek to the East coast and back. Having done a lot of airline travel, and in 2011-2012 going back and forth by driving, I got this idea/hallucination that it would be fun to travel by train. That way, I go at a slower pace than flying, am not squeezed into a tiny spot, but am not responsible for driving. You know, I am just sitting there looking wistfully out the window, or reading intense novels, or getting caught up in all night poker games.

Standard stuff (that happens in movies).

The reasons for doing this are two events, a May 21 workshop at The College of Wooster (Ohio). For the past few years, Jon Breitenbucher has invited me in via Skype to do a 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story workshop for the Wooster Faculty Fellows program. I suggested to Jon that it might be better to do this in person! And he bought that one.

The second event is the Schwartz Symposium on Communication and Communication-Intensive Instruction at Baruch College on May 31. I’ve had the opportunity to participate as a facilitator a few times; this time its that was well as co-presenting a workshop in storytelling with none other than Barbara Ganley.

Here’s the plan, green is eastbound, pink is west:

View CogDog on the Rails in a larger map

So my grand scheme was to do both trips together, and try the train as a means to get there. Ask me how this plan looks after the first 48+ hour leg. I am able to catch Amtrak out of Flagstaff (friends will drive me there and back). It’s not quite the friendly departure, since I leave 4:40am Saturday morning. I get to Chicago 36 hours later, and with a 6 hour layover, I hope to meet up with GNA Garcia for dinner. I then motor out in the evening to get to Cleveland on May 20.

I will have a few extra days to hang out in Wooster; on the May 25 I have another crazy early train out of Cleveland, a stop in Schenectady, and then on to Rutland, Vermont. I get a few days to visit and stay with Barbara Ganley in Middlebury (and hopefully a trip up the mountain to see Bryan Alexander). I then travel with Barbara into New York for the symposium at Baruch.

After the event, I’ll visit Mikhail Gershovich for a Memorial Day BBQ, and ten start the route back in June 2. I’ve planned a few days in Chicago so I can visit longer with GNA as well as to catch up with Steve Dembo (and maybe David Jakes if he is around). I aim back to Arizona on June 6, getting to Flagstaff on June 7.

I might have stretched it more, but I am scheduled to do a Grand Canyon Rim to Rim hike on June 13.

The fun part comes tomorrow morning as I try to get 3 weeks of clothes in my small bag

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

I am hoping the train is a relaxing mode to go, between seeing the country roll by, getting to read, listen to podcasts, etc, usual contemplate meaning of life stuff. As internet allows, I will see what kind of ds106 radio I can pump out.

Yep, dog on the train!

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by contemplative imaging