I'd Like to Order Some More Travel Options, Please

Ok y'all, it is 2 pm on a Saturday, and i'm just getting up. Why you ask? No, I didn't go to a disco till sunup. No, I wasn't burning the candle at both ends. No, I was merely returning from a trip for work, and I didn't get to bed till, oh say 4:30 am or so. All I was doing was returning from Little Rock to Athens Ohio. Ok, it is almost 800 miles, not exactly close. But my meetings were done by 3 pm Friday, and if it had been 1938 or something, I could have gone to the train station and gotten on a train to St. Louis, then Indianapolis to Columbus. Or to Memphis, then to Nashville, Frankfort, and on to Athens. I could have had a nice dinner on the train, a drink or two and a card game with Richard from the office, and then slept in a berth, waking up at a normal morning hour and being in Athens, refreshed and ready for a day. In need of a shower no doubt, but ready at 8 am for a normal day. Instead, thanks to "progress," I have lost half a Saturday. Missed my Pilates class this morning and a few installments in the Athens Film Fest that happened this morning. Instead, I got to sit in the Little Rock airport for hours, then the DFW airport for hours, and then drive my last hour and a half from 2 till 3:30 in the morning, all because of a little weather, and the k-martification of air travel since 9/11. Sheesh. "Progress" is a bill of goods we've been sold for generations now, folks. I want passenger train travel back, and I want it back NOW, and I think General Motors and Firestone should have to pay for it. Diminishing options and choices in life are what "progress" sounds like to me, often. I'd gladly give up all the Blackberries and iPods of the world for a few options when it comes to travel. And much as i like my Beetle, i'd gladly drive it over a cliff if i had another way of getting around. Ok, going to have my breakfast now, at 3 pm.