Capitol or Cardinal eastbound, most scenic?

[Asher]

Nothing too much except a few local forum members think it is a little less than the best station that Amtrak services, which made me curious. That we are also travelling through two of the greatest stations in the world, LAX and WAS makes for a great contrast.

The reason for this particualr route is twofold.
We also enjoy buses, not so much tour buses but buses that have somewhere to go, Thruway or Greyhound types. We get a bus experience earlier in this trip from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo before catching a Surfliner south. Then again from BNL to Indianapolis. We are visiting your country and are interested, sometimes bus life and road travel is very different from Amtrak, a different view of America.

Second, from the first time I saw there was a place called 'Normal' I needed to go there to meet normal people (a rarity in life).

Simple reasons really.

After two years of pandemic I’m not sure what normal is. I’d guess things are fairly orderly in Normal Illinois. I’ve always found people in the state of Indiana to be pretty normal in the past.
Looking forward to reading your trip postpings.

 

[user 6862]

After two years of pandemic I’m not sure what normal is. I’d guess things are fairly orderly in Normal Illinois. I’ve always found people in the state of Indiana to be pretty normal in the past.
Looking forward to reading your trip postpings.

"After two years of pandemic I’m not sure what normal is." Completely agree with that statement, I bet we all have stories to tell.

Not sure there will be a trip report this time,
Until we are tested twice (into the UK and 'Fit to Fly' we don't even know if we'll be on the plane). Then we have to ensure we don't catch Covid as we are staying with someone in the US, or not if we catch Covid then our world would change again.

Is all this worth attempting? you bet providing we protect others to the very best we can.

 

[BlackDiamond]

Interested in this discussion of Cardinal EB vs WB as we are planning a circle trip in September out of Boston via WAS and CHI using 66/67 and the LSL as well as the Cardinal with a stopover in Staunton. I was leaning towards clockwise BOS - WAS - CHI - BOS as it gets the less interesting part the NEC at night out of the way first, but then the New River is 604pm to 749pm and even in September it will be getting dark and of course the train could be late.

 

[trainman74]

Second, from the first time I saw there was a place called 'Normal' I needed to go there to meet normal people (a rarity in life).

In case you haven't looked it up: Normal, Illinois is called that because it's the home of the state normal school (which, over the decades, has expanded beyond teacher training, and is now known as Illinois State University).

 

[user 6862]

Thanks trainman74, that's interesting to know but tinged with a little disappointment as I was hoping for something more exotic, perhaps a slightly different race of people to others.

But I'll mention this to Rosie in the morning that she was trained in a normal school/college.

On the bright side, people living there are still called 'normal' people.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Thanks trainman74, that's interesting to know but tinged with a little disappointment as I was hoping for something more exotic, perhaps a slightly different race of people to others.

But I'll mention this to Rosie in the morning that she was trained in a normal school/college.

On the bright side, people living there are still called 'normal' people.

One of our members lives in Normal. We're both Betty's, so I decided she should be referred to as Normal Betty and I'd be referred to as Abnormal Betty.

 

[user 6862]

One of our members lives in Normal. We're both Betty's, so I decided she should be referred to as Normal Betty and I'd be referred to as Abnormal Betty.

No comment!

 

[Ryan]

One of our members lives in Normal. We're both Betty's, so I decided she should be referred to as Normal Betty and I'd be referred to as Abnormal Betty.

Accurate.