SprintBob, based on your comments, I think I will go back to the Travis picking book and at least put in some time on Freight Train, the version in the Travis book, before tackling the one in the Solo book.
And thanks for asking Mark about fingering on the exercises. He did such a great job of addressing how to fret the more difficult parts of Red, White and Blue Rag in the Solo book. I was really disappointed in the lack of that same information for the exercises. The whole point of the exercises gets derailed for me when I struggle with figuring out fingering, which isn't what the exercise is about!
Tony, I don't know about SprintBob, but I know that I am not yet to the point of deciding much about arrangements...which ones I prefer. Heck, I'm thrilled just to be able to figure out ANY arrangement at this point and be able to play it.
Although I do know that I prefer chord-melody over Travis. But since Hanson is a Travis guy, it seems, and his books appear to be the most useful for me at this stage, then I'm a Hanson gal, at least for now. hehe