Ironically, my wife and I met a picker and his wife from just that part of Kansas where the train derailment occurred, on the cruise (a kind of temporary shrug) we just got back from. The job of "picker" would have been a perfect one for Rand to have added for irony to AS.

When we were in St. Thomas, I got a wave from someone on a sloop flying pirate colors just as our excursion was leaving the pier where Royal Caribbean's ship was docked toward the private yachts where he had just unmoored. The sloop was one of three ships in St. Thomas' harbor flying such colors. I'm glad I had gotten my cash out of the safe. ;)

I checked out St. John's, one of the islands on the list of possible Atlantis venues, at the suggestion of another Gulcher on the Atlantis site finding team. It is definitely one to keep under serious consideration.

Trivia Question: How many train derailments were described in AS, and on what pages?