Hello All. I've been enjoying this forum for a couple of years now but have not posted. I'm not a very good writer and even worse at typing, but I have a dream trip coming up and I think I will bust if I don't talk about it a bit.
About me/us: I'm 52, a project manager/designer/estimator married to a young 51 year old retired deaf education counselor. My first train trip was in 1971. Our Cub Scout troop did fund raising for three months in order to take a train trip from Dyersburg, TN to Fulton KY and back. I do not recall the name of the train but our trip was within a week of their last run before Amtrak took over and the passenger line was discontinued, hence the timing of our trip.
Next train trip 1992: The now wife and I eloped to New Orleans to get married along with about 15 family members (we were not very good at keeping secrets). On board the City of New Orleans we struck up a conversation with the conductor and when he learned that we were on our way to get married he upgraded us from coach to a bedroom .... free! From that moment on we were hooked. We go to New Orleans every other year via the City of New Orleans, only because the wife and daughter think they have to go to a beach every other year. Little did that conductor know what deal he was making for Amtrak. I wonder if a conductor could/would do that type of a thing today? Last year I took the CONO to Chicago and a train over to South Bend for a business trip. Limited vacation time typically prevents us from longer trips.
We have one daughter who will graduate this year - top of her class (just a little bragging there, sorry). Apparently intelligence in our family skips every other generation. We live in a rural town with a population of about 90 if you count a few pets. This requires a fifteen minute trip to get a gallon of milk, just to paint a picture. We are socially liberal (border line libertarian) and fiscally (common sense - not nut case) conservative. We support Amtrak at every opportunity, being in Tennessee that mostly involves informing people that Amtrak exists, and an occasional letter/email/post to an elected official.
Our Dream Trip - This summer after graduation the wife, daughter and I are booked for a trip using AGR points as follows:
NBN to CHI via CONO
5 hours in Chicago - Pan Pizza/Sears Tower/Navy Yard
CHI to SEA via EB
48 hours in Seattle - Site Seeing TBD
SEA to LAX via CS
23 hours in Los Angeles - Site Seeing TBD
LAX to FLG via SWC
15 hours at Grand Canyon
FLG to LAX via SWC
1 hour layover in LAX(US)
Lax to SFW via CS
55 hours in San Francisco - Site Seeing TBD
SFW to CHI via CZ
5 hours in Chicago - Site Seeing TBD
CHI to NBN via CONO
Arrive home 4:00am and at work at 7:00 am .... ok maybe 8:00am
We have two roomettes for each leg of the trip, as we can no longer book a bedroom for three. There went 140,000 points that took for ever to save up. The daughter will probably never want to even see a train again! The poor wife has no choice.
Thanks for all of your informative posts and for the opportunity to share the pleasure of train travel.
