Jack and I left Grand Island at 6:30, fully an hour before the sun appeared behind us over the Platte River valley of Nebraska. West we went on U.S. 30, past Alda, Wood River, and Gibbon. Through Kearney, Odessa, and Elm Creek. Then Overton and Lexington. These are towns along the busiest freight train corridor in North America, maybe the world, triple-tracked for the 100 miles from Gibbon to North Platte. We saw snow-covered farm fields, herds of cattle, occasional cars and trucks. What we did ...