This was a Patron Only Podcast on my Patreon Page, when I had one. Now It's available to everyone! Enjoy.

From early 2020: leaving San Antonio when COVID was still a new thing. 

"But in the San Antonio bus station on St. Mary's Street, the only thing anyone was worried about was whether their bus was running on time. And although I, too, was mostly concerned about my bus being on time, I walked to the bus station in plenty of time – about 5 hours, to be exact. Interestingly enough, in spite of San Antonio being an early epicenter of the outbreak, the streets were crowded with people: young and old, parents and children. A family of 5 kept trying to avoid me on the sidewalk, but 2ndoldest son, about 5, was pushing the youngest in an umbrella baby carriage like it was a shopping cart and the rest struggled to keep up. At one point, the mother snapped “STOP THAT” at her son... and then turned casually to me and informed me she wasn't talking to me.

I was relieved. I didn't feel like stopping, for fear the crowd behind might wash me under one of the carriages drawn by over tired, heavy shod horses."

As I prepare to get rolling again, I'm posting some older episodes that didn't make general distribution. This one could probably be categorized as "long distance travel strategies."

I call it train Tai Chi, but really started on the bus.

I've said before that one of the things that makes traveling by train so genteel is the ability to get up and walk around; and that's still true. But on cross country schedules, sometimes when time permits and sometimes to coincide with a scheduled maintenance stop, train travelers get “fresh air stops... the PC version of smoke breaks. And unless I'm asleep, I always take the opportunity to step off and stretch my legs.

On a an Amtrak delay in Alderson, WV, I learned a little about the region, from long-standing poker games to the Martha Stewart connection.