Not quite as irrelevantly as I first thought: I'm vaguely toying with making my next vacation a 30-day US Rail Pass on Amtrak - 10 segments in 30 days for $500. I'm thinking I will do a giant loop-de-loop of sorts - here to Chicago because I have never taken that route, Chicago to NYC, bop down to Baltimore because why not, onwards to NOLA because I kinda have to, then San Antonio because I hear that Riverwalk is nice, LA since I really like Union Station, up to Seattle to hit that restaurant I missed going to during the F2F (if it's still there), down to Portland to see my sister and whoever else is around, and back home. It's about 10 days on the train, so about 20 days to sight see or whatever in the various destinations.
Checking my PTO accrual, I'll be able to take 4 or so weeks off by maybe next August but definitely next November, although do I want to be travelling in November? And if I'm looking that far off, might as well see when Mardi Gras is in 2024: 2/13/24, two days after my 55th birthday, so that is starting to look like something I have to do whether it is part of this great train venture or on its own...
Oh, man, I should probably be thinking about eclipses. Hm. That's April 2024.
That sounds amazing, and when you bop down to Baltimore from NYC, I would love to bop up to Baltimore from NoVa!
vaguely toying with making my next vacation a 30-day US Rail Pass on Amtrak
Consider doing a trial run first.
My aunt and uncle took Amtrak from Omaha NE to Truckee CA last year, stayed there with their son for a week, and then took Amtrak back to Omaha. They had a terrible time on both travel legs.
I learned about sussuration from Terry Pratchett. He'd be bummed that he did not have time to create an antihero called Omnipresent Sussuration. There would be a religion and everything.
I've travelled by Amtrak a fair amount. It's not great for being on time, but otherwise I like it fine, and I figure for a trip like this being on time is of very low importance. It'd mostly be about riding the rails for a month and the romance of that. What kind of a terrible time did they have?
They complained that it was very noisy, the food was meager and bad, and the equipment was not well maintained. There was a substantial delay when their train hit a pickup truck at a level crossing, which (although they acknowledged it was not the train's fault) just made them angrier every time they told the story.
I think their expectations were too high to begin with.
The Amtrak route between DC and Denver is beautiful. I will echo -t in re: timing. Sometimes the train is wildly early, as well. But, if you are flexible, it is an unforgettable experience. Folks who travel that way tend to be interesting conversationalists, in my experience.
I guess it is kind of noisy if you aren't expecting that. I do live near train tracks and find the sound of trains going by pretty soothing, mostly, and the noise from inside the train is, if memory serves, not as loud as from nearby outside. I've always been pretty pleased with the dining car food, though I haven't had that in a while and snack car food is kind of meh, so maybe I should take a trip that includes dining to make sure it's still pleasing to me. That shouldn't be hard to arrange.
