Three Weeks From Now...

...we'll be arriving in Chicago, Illinois, two-thirds of the way to our destination.

Traveling by train across the United States was high on Phil's "bucket list," and should, we hope, be more pleasant than today's air travel, especially as we'll have a private tiny bedroom in a sleeper car. We'll return home by air.

Our destination is a series of small cities and towns in southwest Virginia where my maternal ancestors clustered, roughly in the area noted by the yellow dot southwest of Lynchburg (we'll rent a car there to continue our journey). I have kinfolk still living in that area, including a 92-year-old aunt whose memories of my mother, grandmother, uncles, and others long gone will be wonderful to hear.

(Addendum: Here's the map above in a larger version.)