RAILforum: Trip Report: Introduction

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Posted by Michael Christiansen (Member # 3604) on :

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).]

Posted by maxmarch (Member # 2495) on :

Wow, Micheal. Your Trip Report could pretty much represent the trip that my family and I made two years ago from Orlando - DC - Chicago - LA - San Diego - back to Orlando... I agree with everything you say... I remember bring plenty of reading yet never bothered reading... always something interesting in and outside of the train. Our next trip is Zephyr, Coast Starlight, Empire Buider, starting and ending in Chicago... I hope this all repeats itself.