Jo Walton (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} papersky) wrote,@ 2008-06-11 15:47:00 |
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Trains. I've always liked trains.
I am going to Denver on the train.
I was dithering about this, but I discovered, poking around on Amtrak's website (now that I have a computer competent to load Amtrak's website) that both Denver and Montreal are in the East part of Amtrak's remit, and that a peak time 15 day pass on the East part is only $369. This is a lot less than flying. Granted it takes a lot more time, but I have a lot more time than I do money. Also, flying isn't very fast -- yes, it's a four hour flight, but the "cheap" flight I was looking at takes more than nine hours and has two changes. I'd rather spend two and a half days on trains and in stations than nine hours on planes and in airports. Also, I still have a US visa from the time we whizzed down to Vermont so we could officially Land in Canada, so that makes things easier.
So, I will have a 15 day ticket on which I can go anywhere in the East region. (You can see a really good map of it if you go to the link I embedded earlier, click on "buy a pass" and then on the map. I can't link directly to the good map.)
I want to arrive in Denver on the 5th and leave on the 11th.
First thought -- is anyone else planning on going on the train and would like to meet up, maybe in Chicago?
Second thought -- on the way home, if I go directly I have the old "23 hours in Schenectady" problem. (This is because Amtrak, while totally rocking in many ways -- cheap, with lovely trains with edible food, free cold water and huge comfortable seats such as are undreamed of in Europe -- runs trains and not a railway system. I have ranted about this before.) Anyway, there are other things I could do if I have a pass. I could go somewhere else between Denver and New York -- pretty much anywhere. I'd have six days to do a two and a half days journey in. Even so, it wouldn't be possible to go everywhere and see everybody I'd like to -- but I might be able to go to some places and see some people. Or I could just ride trains in a great big loop on my own and see zillions of places, from the train. There are sensible options and silly options. (And the more I look at that train map, the more I think of the really, really silly options.) But I thought I might as well ask, who's between those two points, might like to see me, and has a railway station and a spare bed?
I am going to Denver on the train.
I was dithering about this, but I discovered, poking around on Amtrak's website (now that I have a computer competent to load Amtrak's website) that both Denver and Montreal are in the East part of Amtrak's remit, and that a peak time 15 day pass on the East part is only $369. This is a lot less than flying. Granted it takes a lot more time, but I have a lot more time than I do money. Also, flying isn't very fast -- yes, it's a four hour flight, but the "cheap" flight I was looking at takes more than nine hours and has two changes. I'd rather spend two and a half days on trains and in stations than nine hours on planes and in airports. Also, I still have a US visa from the time we whizzed down to Vermont so we could officially Land in Canada, so that makes things easier.
So, I will have a 15 day ticket on which I can go anywhere in the East region. (You can see a really good map of it if you go to the link I embedded earlier, click on "buy a pass" and then on the map. I can't link directly to the good map.)
I want to arrive in Denver on the 5th and leave on the 11th.
First thought -- is anyone else planning on going on the train and would like to meet up, maybe in Chicago?
Second thought -- on the way home, if I go directly I have the old "23 hours in Schenectady" problem. (This is because Amtrak, while totally rocking in many ways -- cheap, with lovely trains with edible food, free cold water and huge comfortable seats such as are undreamed of in Europe -- runs trains and not a railway system. I have ranted about this before.) Anyway, there are other things I could do if I have a pass. I could go somewhere else between Denver and New York -- pretty much anywhere. I'd have six days to do a two and a half days journey in. Even so, it wouldn't be possible to go everywhere and see everybody I'd like to -- but I might be able to go to some places and see some people. Or I could just ride trains in a great big loop on my own and see zillions of places, from the train. There are sensible options and silly options. (And the more I look at that train map, the more I think of the really, really silly options.) But I thought I might as well ask, who's between those two points, might like to see me, and has a railway station and a spare bed?
