Locomotion.

I love trains. Somehow they instill much less anxiety than flying, and everything about them is just so relaxing to me. Because I’ve flown so much more often than I’ve had reason to go on a train, until my trip to Europe the train did instill a lot of anxiety in me because I just didn’t know how to navigate them. How long will it stop? How will I know when to get off? What if I can’t get off quickly enough? After Europe I came to appreciate it because of all that it offers, and stopped having flashbacks to scenes from "Fried Green Tomatoes" (2:55). Rather than getting to see our country’s finest six lane roadways, you see woods and bodies of water. You aren’t burdened by traffic, and you can go the most direct route possible. I simply adore the convenience of the train.

These days it breaks my heart that it isn’t more economical to take the train or I would take it so much more. There’s a certain old time glamour to the train that makes me feel more connected to the past. My grandparents just returned from a train trip across Canada leaving my grandmother disappointed. It simply didn’t have the “Dick and Jane” era charm that she’d remembered. The dining car was just that, not the social scene she’d remembered with laughing and networking. There was no music and dancing, no getting to know the couple in the next cabin over. "Things just aren’t like they used to be," she mused.