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