Pusan, South Korea was one of my first port visits in the Navy. Though its as far away from the DMZ as it can be and still be on the Korean peninsula, I could still feel the tension between the North and South. Even there I had this sense that things weren’t quite normal.

I never did get up to the DMZ (which in hindsight was probably a good thing) and so I was fascinated to read Bob Harris’s account of a tourist trip he took up to the North Korean border. Harris’s writing captures the crazy atmosphere of that part of the world.

I think this is as close to the DMZ as I’d like to get, thank you very much.

Attention photogs: the N.C. Transportation Museum’s Virginia Autumn Excursion Train is running Saturday and Sunday. It will leave Spencer Shops at 7 AM and then leave Greensboro’s Amtrak station at 8:15 AM before heading through the rolling Piedmont on the way to Charlottesville, VA.

While riding through rolling hills in a beautifully-restored passenger rail car is exciting, the $135 ticket price for coach seating is a bit more than I can justify. The real show will be taking place outside of the train as these vintage rail cars pass through the scenic countryside. As a railfan and a photographer, seeing this rolling steel pass over hills bursting with autumn colors may be too much to pass up. The ultimate trestle shot is calling me!

My plan is to meet the train in Greensboro after carefully studying the track route in Google Earth to find the best vantage points. I’ll spend a few hours chasing it north before returning to Raleigh for the night. If you’d like to join me, drop me a line. We can coordinate our stops, leap-frogging stops and sharing shots so that every crossing is covered.