There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway

The whale left me exhilarated and gleeful, like Jon; but deeper down, I also remember feeling shaken, like Dave. This was Jon’s third summer in Alaska, and he’d worked his way up to leading expeditions, taking out vacationers for days at a time. Dave remembered landing in Gustavus the night before we got underway and casually asking Jon a lot of questions: Where are we going, exactly?

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