OK. the trip is planned finally

Alrighty!! off I go.  Please come along on my adventure as I explore America's backyard by train. Here is the map of the route I am taking.  I am departing Sacramento on Oct. 27th, at midnight. I am attempted to ride as many of the major Amtrak trains as I can.  I am starting on the Coast Starlight from Sacramento traveling past Mt Shasta, Hood river, the cascades, Puget Sound and into Seattle.  From there I am taking the Empire Builder through Northern Idaho,Glacier National Park in Montana, the plains of Montana, and North Dakota, Minneapolis, Wisconsin and into Chicago.  Then onto the Lakeshore Limited, which skirts the shore of the Great Lake Michigan, up to Buffalo New Youk (although not quite to Niagra Falls), follow the Erie Canal, down through Albany and into New York City.

There after a 6 hour wait, I am taking a commuter train to Washington DC, where I will spend the day touring before getting on my next train that evening.  I will be riding the Crescent through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Atlanta Georgia, Alabama, and into New Orleans.  After a day in New Orleans, I am heading out on the City of New Orleans (yeah it was made famous by the song of the same name),  through Mississippi, Memphis Tennessee, Kentucky and up to Chicago again??? I thought I was just there?  Yep, but it is a major connector for Amtrak nation wide.  All 4 of the west coast trains end there.  

From Chicago, lets now make a U-turn and take the Texas Eagle down to St Louis, through Arkansas,  Dallas, San Antonio, where it turns into the Sunset limited and follows the southern part of the country going to El Paso, Tuscon, Yuma and into California.  There the train passes through Palm springs and I am stopping in Ontario.  From there I will be hopping on the Southwest Chief,  going through the high desert of California, northern Arizona, Flagstaff, over to Albuquerque NM, through a corner of Colorado, into Kansas city KS, and onto Chicago again??  NO!!  I am going to get off in Galesburg a couple of hours outsife of Chicago, and catch the California Zephyr headed west.  This will take me through Iowa, Omaha Nebraska, over to Denver, through the Rocky Mountains, up to Salt Lake city, across the Nevada desert, through Reno, the high Sierras of California, and home to Roseville!

The entire trip will consist of 16 days, of which only 3 nights will be spent OFF the train at an over night layover.

So, What does one do for 2 weeks on a train?   sit of course!  and watch the world go by, at breakfast, at lunch, after lunch, at dinner, after dinner, in the evening, at night.... the world never stops going by!  I hope I don't lose track of where I am, or maybe it doesn't matter at all if I do.

I am taking my lovely GPS attached to my laptop so I can always see where we are at.  That is a very entertaining thing to do. As a side note, I have done this on a cruise ship and during a "day at sea" I discovered we went in a 10 mile circle, about 15 miles from shore... very exotic!!  now, back to our regularly scheduled show . . . 

I may or may not post again before I depart... stay tuned . . . . . . .