2022 marked an attempt, after two and a half years of drought, to return to our historical pattern of two trips per year, typically one big international trip and a smaller domestic trip. Due to testing requirements to return to the US from abroad (and the resulting possibility of being stranded at our own expense in a foreign country) we instead planned a big domestic trip and a smaller domestic trip. Our smaller domestic trip, originally heading south from Dallas to San Antonio and Austin, was almost itself cancelled when Amtrak cancelled our trains to the latter two cities due to staffing shortages. We decided to keep the trip alive by reconfiguring it, and instead headed north from Dallas and Fort Worth to Little Rock and Saint Louis.