The train attracts kooks.  There is no doubt about it.  If you are a student of psychiatry or psychology you could hardly find a better case study than the dynamics of a thirty hour train ride between New Orleans and New York City.  To begin with, both your city of origin and your destination are […]

When you travel east on the train out of New Orleans the first stop is Slidell, Louisiana.  You never get to see too much of a town from the train, but unlike large cities, which funnel the train through areas of industry, small towns always seem to have a neat little station in the center […]

Part I It is raining: heavily.  My roof taps out an oddly syncopated roll of snare-like rhythms and I can only think this is what it sounded like below deck on Noah’s Ark (minus, of course, the braying and mating of sundry beasts).  I typically love the rain… I find it soothing.  This morning, however, […]