Trew Travels by Train

By: Dan Trew

Amtrak Trane, Opening Picture

Photo Courtesy of Amtrak

Great adventures start with simple ideas-I want to visit my friend.

Easy enough of an idea, except that my friend now lives in Montana. This is less of a problem in the age of commercial airlines than in, say, the 18th century. I can now seal myself into a flying, aluminum can and in a few hours, and some very overpriced water later, I wind up socializing with my friends. I no longer have to grab my family’s musket and ride out on my horse for six months. There is a certain efficiency to modern travel (and a slightly lower chance of cholera), but there is a touch more of a romantic appeal to that old way. While 6 months would make for an excellent adventure, I don’t think that my friend would wait that long to see me, besides my family doesn’t even own a horse.

I still want to visit my friend though, so it’s time to brainstorm some travel options. I’ve done the whole “drive across the country” thing, been there, done that. With automobiles checked off and planes having been scratched off as well, that leaves trains. My first thoughts were probably the same as anyone who was born after the Taft Administration: trains are slow and they only go a few places. But curiosity prevailed, and after some initial plausibility testing, I found that Amtrak offers a USA rail pass. While not as flexible as a European style rail pass, the 30 day and 12 day segment options immediately appealed to me.

Now the challenge was less of how I was going to visit my friend and more of how was I going to use this pass to its fullest. My first order of business was to setup how I would get to my friend, especially considering that that was the whole idea of the trip. With that route firmly in place, I began looking over the other rail way lines on a map. Pretty soon an obvious route began to form in my head, and after some gentle tweaking, I came up with the following plan.

Itinerary Picture

I would leave Altoona, Pennsylvania, head west, and arrive at Chicago. After a day there, I would hop another train across the northern reaches of The United States and arrive in Spokane. There I would grab a rental car, and cruise around the Montana/Idaho area visiting my friend and exploring a bit. I’d then return to Spokane to drop off my car and drop myself onto the remaining northern segment to Seattle. And after a day in Seattle, I’d ride the west coast down to Sacramento, and from there, East back to Chicago. My first plan was to take the next more southern route, but the last train I needed ran every other day. Faced with spending a day in LA or New Orleans, I chose New Orleans. This meant my route would head due south out of Chicago and then cut across the Southern most railway to LA, where I would spend all of 6 hours before catching the last train to Chicago. Coordinating with the rest of my family’s vacation, I arranged to be picked up in West Virginia and ride back home with them. All in all, it will be an 11,900 mile trip back and forth across the middle bit of the country 4 times, and boy am I looking forward to it.

As I continue with the journey, I’ll be sending all types of different updates. Ranging from the neat places I travel all the way down to preparation, you guys surely won’t miss a detail, so tune in as I make my way across the country.

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