Michael follows America's iconic River Hudson north through New York State. Beginning at New York City's Penn Station, Michael rides the national rail carrier service Amtrak. He hears from Amtrak's police chief how railroad policing began to tackle the nation's most notorious train robbers, among them Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. In Poughkeepsie, Michael visits a university built just for women. Now co-educational, as a women's college, Vassar counted Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Meryl Streep among its former students. He discovers the tumultuous history of the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge and follows the train line to the Catskill Mountains, where he bravely admires the scenery from an altogether different type of line, a zip wire. Back on safe ground, he learns how the magnificent landscape inspired artists of the Hudson River School. Arriving in New York's state capital, Albany, he samples a drop of Albany Ale before rubbing shoulders with the state senator.