Riding the Lake Shore Limited into the new year

Travel has its dignities and indignities. I spent the night of Dec. 29 on the Lake Shore Limited passing through Rochester, Buffalo, Erie, and Cleveland, on the way back to Iowa from Burlington, Vermont. From my railcar window I watched the swirls and eddies of lake-effect snow lit orange by streetlamps. Around me everyone had done what they could to get comfortable: reclined their chairs or lain across tray tables, twisted their legs and opened their mouths. We rattled without privacy towards the new year.