I was two days and two time zones from my home in Maine. On a Wednesday morning in March, I had walked out my front door and up the street to catch the Bangor Community Connector bus to the Concord Coach station in time for the 7 o’clock bus to Boston. Now it was Friday morning, and I had an hour in Denver to find breakfast.

Writer Hank Garfield shares tales from his cross-countrytrain travel journey from Bangor, Maine to California.