Riding the rails to New Orleans, Washington, NY and Chicago

In about 2004, we made a two-week-long journey on the Amtrak railroad to New Orleans, Washington, D.C. New York, Chicago, Dallas and back to San Antonio. My brother, Norvel, joined us. I had a local Travel Agent plan it so we could stop and spend a day or two at all the cities along the way and have hotel rooms reserved and waiting for us. The food on the train was good and the adventure was outstanding in that we could see so much along the rails and in the cities we visited.

Barbara and Norvel at the Lincoln Monument
The FDR Memorial in Washington

We did quite a bit of sightseeing on tourist buses in the cities as we traveled. Norvel had joined us on this tour and we enjoyed our time with him. We saw so many historic places and monuments that it was awe-inspiring.

Barbara at the National Mall
Barbara looking at the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial
Carroll standing in bread line with the other poor
The White House
Carroll visiting the Smithsonian institute

The post-WWII tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union has resulted in 40 years of uneasy peace. During the Cold War, American troops were stationed around the world to contain the expansion of communism. Conflict erupted in Korea in June 1950, and our Reserve and National Guard Units were deployed to the Far East. A cease-fire in 1953 ended major combat, but U.S. troops remain yet today to enforce the peace. The inconclusive end to the United Nations ‘police action’ led many to refer to Korea as the “Forgotten War.”

The senate and House of Congress Building
The Korean War Memorial
The World War II Monument

This war occurred the time when I was on Guam for 18 months and saw many troops from Australia and New Zealand coming through Naval Air Station at Agana, Guam on their way to North Korea to take place in the fighting that was going on there. I was a Builder in the Seabees that were responsible for the upkeep of the Air station but we were part of the Mobile Operation Battalion (MOB 11) that was based in the Philippines.

The Iwo Jima Monument
Another view of the WW II Monument

We enjoyed walking around so much of New York and to Wall Street and the Bull (as in Bull Market). We really took pleasure in taking the tourist bus and having the experts give us so much information about the city. We especially seeing the Roosevelt memorials that reminded of the good that he had done in bring about labor for so many.

There were so many things to see in the various memorial parks that it would difficult to describe them. It was a reminder to us of the hard time our country faced and how we were able, like the Phoenix, to rise from the ashes to rebuild our country.

Barbara standing near markers at Arlington National Cemetery
The Empire State Building

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carroll and friend .

                                    .       .                      Carroll, always the genealogist, attempts to get informatin on his family’s past history.