I hate driving. Not just being behind the wheel, but also as a passenger in a car going anywhere on a highway. Driving’s easy, but most people suck at it and don’t understand or follow the basic rules of the road. This frustrates me every time I drive somewhere, but is it simply a pet peeve of mine? No, it’s a bona fide problem. Worldwide every year, nearly 1.3 million people die in road crashes. That’s an average of 3,287 deaths a day, 137 an hour, or more than 2 per minute. An additional 20-50 million are injured or disabled. I’ll spare you the math, but if you were some sort of cosmic being that could sit on a star, legs dangling over the edge, and look down at the earth and all of the roads crisscrossing it, you’d see a global demolition derby unfolding, with hundreds of people killed or maimed every hour. If you were looking down on the U.S., you’d see more than 37,000 people die in road crashes every year, and some 2.35 million injured or disabled.

No surprise here, as on the highway there’s no courtesy, and no common sense. Here are the basic concepts so many find difficult to grasp: If you’re doing 100 mph, be in the fast lane (that’s the far left one), not the one other drivers are using to enter or exit (that’s typically the lane all the way on the right). If I’m doing 80, and you’re passing me because my snail’s pace is just too slow for your liking, pass on the left, not the right, and don’t be looking down at your cell phone as you’re buzzing by. It’s amazing how often I see this.

If you must weave in and out in attempt to get to wherever you’re going sooner, please use your directional (aka blinkers). These aren’t necessarily for your benefit (although they will minimize your risk of crashing into someone else doing the same stupid thing as you, or the rare good driver switching lanes in an honest fashion), but rather for other drivers. As difficult as it may be, think about them sometimes too.

And by the way, that weaving and speeding and passing isn’t going to shave any time off of your trip. Look at the ETA on your GPS at your current speed of say, 65 mph sometime. Now increase your speed to 80 mph, and see how much sooner you’ll get there. Maybe it’ll take a minute or two off, until you hit the same traffic jam or red light as you’d encounter at the lower speed. Now you’re getting there at the same time, but with twice the risk of getting injured or killed while spending nearly twice as much on fuel. Go ahead, calculate it. You’ll see. It’s a losing proposition, but well beyond the comprehension of most zombies on the road.

My sincerest apologies. I honestly didn’t intend to lecture or rant… I just really hate driving.

So now to the point. Aaaaah…. Trains. No one cutting you off, flipping you the bird, or passing you at 90 mph while looking down at their cell phone. No one doing 40 mph in the fast lane, or tailgating you so closely you’re not sure if you’ve forgotten if you had agreed to tow them somewhere or they’re trying to nick something you have in your trunk. On the train, we’re all going the same speed, shoes off, feet up, reading, writing, having a drink or snack, the steel wheels humming in blissful cadence as we ponder life through the window, watching a captivating blend of humanity and nature passing by.

A few years ago, I had to go to a meeting to explore a potential new project far north of Los Angeles. I can honestly say my absolute least favorite thing in life is driving to LA. Driving through it en route to somewhere else is even worse. It was a period in my life when I was exceptionally busy, had plenty of work, and getting this potential project seemed both superfluous and a bit of a long shot to boot, so I dreaded the four plus hour drive that much more.

I looked at the Amtrak schedule and lo and behold, taking a train would get me close enough for my colleague to agree to pick me and drive me to the meeting. Getting up there would take a few hours longer, but I didn’t care. I’d be on a train. I love riding on trains. I’d never been up the coast this far on one, and didn’t know what to expect, but was excited I didn’t have to get in a car and deal with all of the unpleasantries discussed above.

And little did I know I was about to embark on what must rank up there with some of the most beautiful train rides in the world…

Most of these pictures were taken through the window of the train moving at full speed. Snapping away, I caught some interesting images of people as well as landscapes…