As many of you know I recently returned from an Amtrak vacation that took me coast to coast, over 7300 miles. It was a very enjoyable trip. I have typed up a trip report, that is rather lenghty and will post in sections. It is less about train specifics, as it is about the whole journey: places seen, things experienced etc. I tried not to dwell on the minute details too much.A few observations before I begin:
I really like rail travel, it is so leisurely and relaxing!
I was impressed by the varied amounts of people that I met.
I absolutely loved the sleeper car and, based on experiences, would have a hard time travelling coach again.
I loved the sense of community that begins to develop on the long distance routes.
This trip ended up costing me $618 dollars which I found to be very cheap for what I got. This price was for the original planned trip of 3 rivers, zephyr, CS, EB, LSL. Because of the cancellation of the Zephyr they just transferred me to the SWC (and the buses and San Juaquin) with no change in price.
I want to thank everyone on this message board for helping to make my trip more enjoyable. Before I found this site my original trip was to take the EB out to Seattle and then fly home. To say that the actual trip morphed a bit is an understatement, one that I am very happy for! There were problems that came up along the way, the cancellation of the Zephyr was a big problem but thankfully I was able to work out an alternate route (and as it turned out, i much preferred having a lay over in LA than a 12 hour layover in Sac).
I hope you enjoy (and if you read them all, god bless!) reading my reports as much as I enjoyed living them!
-Mike
[This message has been edited by Michael Christiansen (edited 01-29-2005).]
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