Why Would Anyone Do This?

Let’s get this question out of the way quickly.  If you have ever looked at an Amtrak schedule, you will quickly realize that taking the train across the continent takes much longer than flying.  And Mapquest claims that it would only take 41 hours to drive from Washington, DC to Seattle (though it forgets that one can’t actually drive for 41 consecutive hours, so this number should be revised slightly).  However, for someone who finds train travel to be exciting, air travel to be stressful, and isn’t willing to drive 41 hours non stop, why not give Amtrak a shot?

I had standing invitations to visit my cousins in Seattle and a friend of mine in Vancouver.  I’ve also longed for the chance to take a train across the country, or at least overnight, having done neither to date.  At some point, I realized that I had the time to make the trip by train, and thus, the inspiration for this trip was born.  There is a catch though.  If one wants to do other things on such a trip (see below), it becomes difficult to take the train round trip unless one has many weeks in which to travel.  This trip will be on Amtrak going westbound, but the eastbound travel segments will be by air.

I’ll satisfy some other interests while on my cross country adventure. I’ll get to ride several subway and other public transportation systems, some that I’ve already been on, others that I haven’t.  I’ll also visit some baseball stadiums, so that by the end of the summer, I will have been to 10 of the 30 stadiums that are currently in use.  My itinerary is great for someone who likes trains and baseball.  If those aren’t your favorite things in the world, you may be better off trying to drive across the country without ever sleeping.

Please Standby for Pre-Boarding

Welcome, and thank you for taking some time to read this travelogue.  The trip hasn’t started just yet, but this is the place to read all about my cross country adventure (and while likely to be far less exciting, I’ll even let you know that I’ve made it back home safely).  Over the next few days, I’ll try to write a little about what exactly I’m doing, and the experience of trying to plan such a trip. 

For the meantime though, I’ll throw out some random facts about this trip (all projections, I make no guarantees):

• Scheduled duration (approximate): 12 days, 15 hours, 32 minutes
• Approximate distance traveled (as the bird flies): 5825 miles
• Countries: 2
• States being traveled through (including DC): 15
• Canadian provinces being traveled through: 1
• States actually being visited: (not including home state or DC): 4
• Canadian provinces actually being visited: 1
• Overnights on board Amtrak: 3
• Local transit systems used: 8
• Baseball stadiums visited: 4
• Home run records being broken witnessed in person: 0-1, depending upon how well Barry Bonds’s steroids are working and how many he is taking

I’ll wrap this up by saying two things.  First off, for those of you wondering how this will be updated while I’m in transit, the answer is that it will not be.  I can only update where I have Internet access, and will try to do so at those times.  I do have the ability to edit the timestamps on the posts, and I will try to do so for “delayed” posts that I author when I don’t have Internet access. 

Secondly, this travelogue will attempt to cater to the interests of the train/transit enthusiasts, the baseball fans, and other family and friends who may be reading it.  What that means is you should expect to see some posts with some pretty detailed descriptions of a transit segment, or my feelings about a particular baseball stadium, but I’ll also include posts about what I see in the various places I visit and what I think of those cities as well.  There is a feature on here that allows you to comment on individual entries, please feel free to use it or send me an email.

Enjoy the read!