Well, this is pretty cool. Second-to-last stop before DC, and it was the place where John Brown tried to start a revolution. A place synonymous with slavery, abolition, the Civil War. It’s funny; back in New Mexico, an Amtrak employee told us the story of an ambush site we were passing, a battle on the furthest frontier of the Civil War. Now I’ve passed through another site inextricably linked to that war…but it feels much different from the first. This is Harper’s Ferry. This is West Virginia. Maybe it was the awesome beauty of the Appalachians that started it, but more than ever, I feel as though I’m moving backward in time. These are the American colonies, and I have no reference point in my life for what comes next. All I have is history.

Next, Washington. I’m going to get a good look at the equal opportunity red light district: the place where EVERYBODY gets screwed.