Travel Show host Erik Hastings experiences Carson City’s rich history, culture, recreational and culinary attractions. Erik tours Nevada’s historic capital and finds plenty of food, fun, and scenic beauty of this authentic American West destination. Visit www.VisitCarsonCity.com for more information.

Queensgate Yard in Cincinnati, Ohio

In August/September 1999, I and my friend James went on a trip by rail via Amtrak. We went from Kansas City to Los Angeles to San Francisco to Seattle to Chicago to New Orleans to Los Angeles and back to Kansas City. After going through a tunnel at the peak of Raton Pass, we come down the other side of the mountains in New Mexico. On the Way James meets a couple of au pairs from Germany who are done with their contract and are now traveling the United States via Amtrak. We see the "S" curve where both ends of the train are visible and come down into the heat of Albuquerque. There we get to detrain and visit the curious goods shops by the tracks, which are run by the natives of the area -- a tradtion that goes back to the old Santa F ...

Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? Where are we? -- Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods (1848)