The Tickets Have Been Bought

So we finally bought the tickets! Our final route is:

DC- Chicago (Capitol Limited)

Chicago- Portland (Empire Builder)

Portland- Emeryville (Coast Starlight)

Emeryville- Chicago (California Zephyr)

Chicago- New Orleans (City of New Orleans)

New Orleans- DC (Crescent)

The trip takes us through 29 states and the District of Columbia, over 8,000 miles!

Tentative Routes

So we're now thinking one of two routes:

Washington-Chicago (Capitol Limited)
Chicago- Portland (Empire Builder)
Portland-Los Angeles (Coast Starlight)
Los Angeles- Chicago (Southwest Chief)
Chicago-New Orleans (City of New Orleans)
New Orleans-Washington (Crescent)

or

Washington-Chicago (Capitol Limited)
Chicago- Portland (Empire Builder)
Portland-San Francisco (Coast Starlight)
San Francisco- Chicago (California Zephyr)
Chicago-New Orleans (City of New Orleans)
New Orleans-Washington (Crescent)

Thoughts?

Both would include overnights in New Orleans, and an overnight in whichever California city we settle on.

Three Options

As Alex pointed out, we're currently working on our route. So far we have three possible routes, which I've taken the time to map out of Google Maps. The routes travel in different directions, so I've used the same color scheme to indicate the order of routes. It goes: Blue, Red, Orange, Green, Purple, Yellow, Black. That should help show which direction the trains are going in...plus they're labeled.

Original Plan (24 States):

View Train trip 1 in a larger map
Stops in Chicago, New Orleans, LA, Seattle, Chicago, New York City, and back to Washington, DC (In that order). Overnights in New Orleans, LA, and Seattle.

Revised Plan (30 States):

View Train Trip 2 in a larger map
Stops in New Orleans, Chicago, Portland, Emeryville (Across the bay from San Francisco), Chicago, New York City, and back to Washington, DC (In that order). Overnights in New Orleans and Portland. Note that parts of this route travel in the opposite direction than the original plan.

My New Idea (33? States):

View Train Trip 3 in a larger map
Stops in New Orleans, Chicago, LA, Seattle, Chicago, New York City, and back to Washington, DC (In that order). Overnights in New Orleans and Seattle. Note that this route travels in a pattern resembling a mix between the previous two.

Train lines that are the same throughout: City of New Orleans, Coast Starlight, Empire Builder, Lake Shore Limited, Northeast Regional.

So, what do you think?

An Introduction

So this blog is around because Nick and I have a plan. A plan to cross the United States, from coast to coast, in 10 days. By train.

If our budgets allow, we want to get across the country using a USA rail pass during our spring break, 2010. We're still working out the details of our route, so if you'd like to help us out with timing and such, be our guest.

Conditions:

We have to leave from Washington DC no earlier than a Thursday evening

We'd like to ride on the City of New Orleans at some point

We want to take the Lake Shore Limited at some point

We have a total of eight rides.

Join us as we prepare to undertake this grand adventure!