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#1: Lollipop (lollipop) on Oct 11, 2013

Gorgeous. Thank you, Linda.

Great pic, Linda ... :) but isn't it a crossing with barrier? :)

very good

What a great image! Thank you again, Linda. I am enjoying travelling through the country side with you!

Oooh Linda, now you have me so curious about your destination!

Let's see… if you're on the Lakeshore Limited skirting the lake, then you are traveling through my husband's 'homeland' of northeast Ohio. You could continue on through NY and maybe end up in Boston where we live (yay! come visit us!), or switch trains and go through Pittsburgh, the area where I was born and raised (south of Pgh actually, in coal country) on your way toward Washington DC.

But if you're on the Cardinal, then you're way down south near Cincinnati and will travel through some gorgeous mountain scenery in WVA and VA, then maybe also end up in DC.

Hmm, if you're skirting lake Erie on the LSL, you probably wouldn't see too many Amish, so I think maybe it's the southern route for you. So my unscientific prediction is that your childhood home is somewhere in central Virgina!

I enjoy your puzzles so much!

Wow, amyfaith. You really know your trains. :)
Beautiful puzzle, Linda.

@lollipop - thank you as always for solving my puzzle and for the comment.

@Thomas - thank you! yes - there is an invisible barrier - I struggled to do a gate with stripes and the "x" shaped rr crossing sign but couldn't make it readable. :-)

@erim - thank you! I appreciate your comment.

@kim - thank you - keep traveling with me...we've only just begun...

@amyfaith - i'm thoroughly impressed by your knowledge of the train routes and u.s. geography! you're a walking gps. I can't remember the name of the train I rode but it did go through Pittsburgh, where I had a 5-hour layover! and it was in Pittsurgh that I switched from the private sleeper to coach, to make a 5-hour journey even farther east, to my hotel, which was an hour and a half from my childhood home. I love your mind, and from this clue I bet you can deduce exactly where my childhood home is. p.s. I've been to boston and it is beautiful - I enjoy history and historic building and boston definitely has its share. thank you for solving my puzzle.

@norma dee - thank you so much for solving my puzzle and for the comment!

I really enjoyed the comments on this puzzle. Here in rural Ontario there are no Amish but there are still lots of private rail crossings with no barriers so I didn't even miss it in the puzzle. I love the buggy! Great job Linda

Comment Suppressed:Click below to view spoilers

There is a large Amish community in Southwestern Ontario in a small town called St.Jacobs. St.Jacobs is also the head office and main warehouse of one of the largest home renovation and hardware suppliers in Canada. They are called Home Hardware. St.Jacobs is a beautiful little town with lots of historic shops and buildings. Another wonderful puzzle Linda.:)

I love a geographic challenge - you're on! (and for the record, while I have taken many trains from Pittsburgh, I don't have all this info in my head; thank the Amtrak website for that!)

Ok. Since the only train from the west thru' Pgh is the Capital Ltd, and you said you changed trains, that means you must be on the Pennsylvanian, and 5 hours would put you in the Harrisburg area. You wouldn't be driving either west or east from there, or you would have just gotten off earlier or stayed longer on the train. It wouldn't be south either, because you could have just stayed on the Capital Ltd, which goes down through the panhandles of WVa and Md, and been closer to your destination. So north to northeast it is.

I predict you are from the Wilkes-Barre area, and if so, I'll call you cousin if you're of Welsh descent because my "people" stopped in W-B -- "hard coal" country -- for 2 generations after immigrating before coming over the mountains to "soft coal" country in SW Pa.

How did I do?

@ susan - thank you, my friend, for doing my puzzle. I always appreciate your comments. my city still has some private rail crossings with no or minimal barriers.

hi beth! yes, I am still (puzzle-wise) on my destination to my family home. thank you for the kudos!

@aldege - I just googled St. Jacobs, and thus home hardware. it seems like they're a lot like ace hardware stores in the u.s. since they tend to be smaller than home depot. if I was ever in St. Jacobs i'd go straight to the farmer's market. I live for farmer's markets and the produce from the Amish/Mennonite farms is second to none, as I discovered on my train trip.

@amy faith - I did indeed end up in Harrisburg, which is where my hotel was. And my friend drove me the one and a half to 2 hour trip eastward to my family home. I do have English and Irish ancestors among the many, and I could also have Welsh. So I'll call you cousin, anyway :-) What is the difference between hard & soft coal country?

Hard, or anthracite coal is harder, has more carbon, and burns hotter and cleaner than soft or bituminous coal. Eastern PA has extensive anthracite deposits, and many experienced Welsh miners (among others) came there in the 19th century (including some of my ancestors).

Southwestern PA has huge soft coal deposits (that extend into WVa and OH) and also attracted many, many immigrants. This was the coal that fired the steel mills of Pittsburgh in its heyday, and created the wealth of the steel barons like Andrew Carnegie.

I like to joke that I owe my existence to coal, since all of my ancestors converged on SW PA to be miners.

I hope you had (are having?) a restorative visit back east!

thank you for the lesson on coal. I swear I learn more from this puzzle site than from other more "so-called" educational sites! so have you guessed the exact location? I don't have any miner ancestors (that I know of) but I had a rather notorious aunt who told fortunes to the miners in cripple creek Colorado in the early 1900's.

Are you going directly home after seeing your old house?

What a lovely trip! We often visited Shipshewana, IN (the closest Amish community to Kalamazoo, MI), and ate at the Blue Gate restaurant.

I spent most of my youth in Birmingham, AL, a totally different area for coal and steel.

@tom - yes, I did return home - with a totally different perspective on life, as the trip had a cathartic effect on my life.

@Kristen - I just googled the blue gate restaurant and now i'm hungry. pressure fried chicken, amish noodles...yum and then some...what a lovely building!

Quite fun. Rewarding solve. Great use of color.

Buen puzzle.

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