Looking like a couple of times through Chicago! I’m thinking the first one may just be a layover, but I think it’s several hours so maybe time to get out of the station and meet people or see sights, and I have a lot more room to maneuver for the second one so maybe stay for a night or two…

I have requested the time off. I assume it will be approved, but not actually booking the first leg until it is

Tentative plans add up to 200 hours on trains, which is 28% of the 30 days the pass is good for. The four days of Jazzfest will eat up some of that off train time (17% if my notes are correct, leaving 55% unaccounted for! But some of that will be transfers and layovers regardless), hopefully I can scatter the rest effectively

But I have decided, I think, on what the first leg should be, which is Coast Starlight to PDX ETA 4/17 3:40 PM (Friday). I have family there who I would like to see, and also, I think, Buffistas? SA, erin_obscure? Who I would also like to see! Looks like I can be there for about 3 hours or overnight. If anyone has suggestions of where to go and what to do in that time I will take them happily!

And next stop Seattle, either getting in at 11 pm or 10 am on 4/18 (Saturday). The Empire Builder leaves at 5PM, so that's basically a day to hang out. I know I want to go here because I missed it at the F2F, but other than that just seeing as many of y'all as I can is the goal there, possibly being a tourist if that fits in

Which gets me into Chicago 4:45 pm Monday + whatever delays arise

And then I want to catch the City of New Orleans at 8:05pm on Tuesday to make it to said city on Wednesday. So already I might have a spare day to not be on a train somewhere along the line

I’d to see you and host you on any stop you make through NY/CT! I’m about 35 min from the Stamford Amtrak station. Have a guest room for you and a guest room for anyone who’d want to come see you while at my place.

Definitely let me know when and for how long you’ll be in NYC!

We should definitely do an NYC thing.

OK! I had halfway thought I might not get to NYC but I'll rethink. And javachik I will definitely take you up on that, thank you!

Vacation time approved ::does happy dance::

And apparently I have a "lounge pass" that expires 3/28. I have no idea where that came from, but I do feel like I should use it...which means getting to a station that has a lounge by the end of March and the closest ones are Portland and Los Angeles. Hm. Maybe I should go to Portland for a weekend in March and just go straight through to Seattle in April? A silly idea, but maybe secretly a good idea?

The DC/Balto. region is still on the tour, yes? I mean, if you're going from New Orleans to NYC, it kind of has to be, so... well, whenever it happens, I'm around and looking forward!

Yes! The plan is PDX->SEA->CHI (with overnight if train is sufficiently on time)->NOL->Richmond->DC->CT? NY? Boston? have not figured out how to order that part but those are all places I want to get to. DC (by which I mean the greater area although I will almost definitely pass through Union Station) is pretty certain however the rest gets arranged

Then probably back to Chicago and maybe a big diagonal down to LA before home. We'll see if I run out of time/segments before that, I guess

RailPass update: I have booked the segments home to Portland, Seattle to Chicago, and Chicago to New Orleans. My Jazzfest wristband and shuttle pass are supposed to be mailed to me "in early April", presumably early enough to get to me before I leave. Mostly plan to be at the fairgrounds all day every day, we'll see if I am amped up and ready to go out in the evenings or more in a collapse at the hotel kind of state, game time decision. I do want to spend some time walking around my old neighborhood - Google Street view is telling me my, um, fourth place in the LGD is not even there any more! Just an empty lot, maybe even a park? And the building on the corner that was being renovated the whole time we were there is now a Buddhist center. So I want to see what that looks like.

Anyway, if I keep to my regular sleep schedule or some approximation thereof I will have time to leisurely sample breakfast possibilities before catching the shuttle. I am going to try to get out to the Parkway for a po-boy Thursday before heading into the fairgrounds because I don't think I've ever actually been there (we used to be in that neighborhood regularly when Whole Foods was out there but the lines at Parkway were always too long when we thought about going) and I should fix that. And one of my high school friends highly recommended a specific dish at Dooky Chase so I might make a reservation for that for Friday night. And I am very excited that my old favorite Lebanon's out on Carrollton is still there, so I will try to get there at some point.

I went slightly vacation mad and booked another night in town at a Holiday Inn Express so instead of hopping on the Crescent Monday morning I will take the Mardi Gras out to Mobile and back because why the hell not? When am I going to have a better opportunity for that? A few hours in Mobile is probably fun, right? And they serve muffalettas in the cafe car. So. It's only $24 each way so kind of a waste of the pass, but I can just pay for the tickets or cash in points and save the segments for something else.

So Tuesday 4/28 is when I will hop on the Crescent heading northeast.

This is where I might just stop planning and start winging it? I could just ride the Crescent all the way to DC, layover for a couple of hours and catch an Acela (Next Gen even) and be in Boston the evening of 4/29. Which seems very fast and exciting! And would put me about as far from home as I expect to get with six segments and over two weeks left for getting back. Which should allow for some directionless, wandering, right? I can get home from, for example, DC in three segments/five days if I really push it, so that's some significant slack to work with