As 2020 comes to an end, I think it is fair to say that little went as planned after mid-March.  That was certainly the case in my life.  This website isn’t meant to be a wide open door in to my personal life and I’m not changing that now, but I did want to share a few reflections on a year that ended up looking nothing like what I thought it would twelve months ago.  

I expected to have two big trips during 2020, and one of them took place as scheduled.  In mid-January, I flew out to Los Angeles, a good friend of mine and I took the Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle to Austin, and spent a few days there.  I then flew up to Denver where Mrs. Oren’s Transit Page and I attended a wedding.  Those were my only Amtrak and flight segments of the year.  

I had thought I’d mark a significant website anniversary in September, as I have now been running this website for 20 years!  However, there were some significant life changing events in my household each month from May through October.  Some were unexpected, and dealing with those meant whatever I could have potentially planned to commemorate this milestone had to be pushed off.  Building, maintaining, and adding to this website is truly a labor of love.  What started with about 200 photos 20 years ago now has over 11,000 photos from across the United States as well as nineteen other countries.  It has introduced me to transit fans from all over and based on email I’ve received over the years, has been a useful resource to many.

While some of the big life events in the summer and early fall months were unexpected, others were not.  Most notably, Mrs. Oren’s Transit Page and I welcomed an Oren’s Transit Page Baby (AKA Baby OTP) in to the world in May.  I never would have guessed that at age 7 months he is still waiting for his first ride on public transit, but I still hope to have that opportunity with him soon, and he comes to tolerate my hobby at a minimum should he rather not partake in it.  

One advantage to limited travel opportunities is I did have time to get through my photo queue, which had photos in it dating back to 2017.  In addition, I also went through and created sections for some photos that were uncaptioned and unsorted for a number of years because I wasn’t sure where to place them on the website, and I now had the time to consider those decisions in a thoughtful manner.  As I write this, there are only seven (!) photos in the Uncaptioned and Unsorted Photo Gallery, whereas the number has usually had three digits for most of the past few years.  I look forward to highlighting what I’ve added to the site very soon.  

If I had some degree of confidence about how 2020 would turn out when considering the question on December 31, 2019, I can say with a high degree of certainty I have no idea what will come in 2021.  I hope to be able to travel more extensively than I did in 2020, as Baby OTP has many relatives who have yet to meet him in person.  At the very least, I hope it is safe for him to experience transit beyond his singing cuddle bus toy.  

So here’s to hoping for a less eventful 2021 for everyone!  As hard as it is for people who are likely visiting this site to do this, please avoid traveling and make safe choices (including getting vaccinated as soon as possible) so that we can go back to adventuring, seeing friends in person, and enjoying our passions to the fullest once again.