I’m an American – I love a road trip.  But I also love a train trip, especially those long-haul rides. This weekend, we’ll be on a trip like that – getting on board here, in the urban dark, and whisked to our destination overnight, without having to do anything but drink our bottle of wine, eat our sandwiches-on-rye and look out the window at the Midwest in autumn.  At one point, the train is thisclose to one of the actual Great Lakes – crazy.

At this time of year, everything across the Great Lakes takes on its fall color, the last blaze before winter comes. It being the Midwest, it does so with serenity – a sweet procession.  It knows it’s beautiful.  No need to make a fuss.

One of these mornings, in the next day or two, I’ll look out the train window, and this is what I’ll see.