This picture is from my 2014 Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Rail trip. It’s a Veteran’s Honor Flight from New Mexico that I encountered by chance at the World War II Monument in Washington, DC. My own travel to and from DC was neither a flight nor a drive but a train ride. I had once before attempted to reach music in Washington via Amtrak, but that train had been canceled. This train wasn’t canceled, but it was more than four and a half hours late leaving Cincinnati, which toppled the first in a series of dominoes that resulted in a sleepless night in Union Station. I did make it to the concert that the trip was built around, then spent an additional three nights in the city near the National Mall. From there, I attended a play at Ford’s Theater, visited museums and monuments, and watched in awe and appreciation as those New Mexico vets took in their monument. My train home left right on time, but still managed to be over an hour late in reaching Cincinnati.

Trip Peeks are short articles published when my world is too busy or too boring for a current events piece to be completed in time for the Sunday posting. In addition to a photo thumbnail from a completed road trip, each Peek includes a brief description of that photo plus links to the full-sized photo and the associated trip journal.