@carlosnunez2350

3 months ago

Hi, Safiya and Tyler! My wife showed me this video. Thank you for making it. I think you and Tyler did it justice. I did this kind of trip twice. My first cross-country Amtrak trip was in 2008. I flew to Chicago and took the California Zephyr from Chicago Union Station to Emeryville. I don't know if this is still the case, but back then, they had a shuttle that took you from Emeryville to San Francisco. I remember this because I was using an early iPhone and a passenger asked me rudely, but firmly, to turn off the keyboard sounds! I did layovers in Omaha, Denver, SLC and SF. It was really cool to see these cities before they blew up. Downtown Denver looked SO different back then! I rode straight through on my way back and took the Lakeshore Limited to New York Penn, then walked (with my 70L Gregory backpack!) to Oh Taisho! in St. Mark's Place then to Clark Street Station over the Brooklyn Bridge. I did it again in 2010. This time, I rode along the coasts. I took the Carolinean from NYP to Charlotte, then the Sunset Limited to New Orleans (stayed the night at a way fancier hotel than I should have!), Houston (where we eventually moved to 13 years later!), and Los Angeles. Booking a cab in Charlotte back then was awful if you stayed out past 10pm. Uber wasn't around back then, so you had to dial a number (which you could find with Google Maps, thankfully!) and hope that the dispatcher picked up. I think it took me 30+ minutes to get a ride. I don't think I was in a super remote part of Charlotte either. I ate at Dinah's in LA and did some other stuff I don't remember. From there I took the Surfliner/Cascades up to Seattle (had to transfer to a bus at SF because the tracks were under construction; sucked, but it was still pretty!), then the Empire Builder to Chicago and the Lakeshore Limited back to NYP. I enjoyed Voodoo Doughnuts and Stumptown Coffee in Portland, OR, at their original locations, before they expanded like crazy. Both were just as amazing back then, maybe even more so. IIRC, both were within walking distance from Portland's train station. I booked USA Rail passes for both trips and sat in Coach. You could upgrade to a sleeper car back then, but Amtrak seems to have discontinued this. I was too broke back then to do it anyway! The sleeper cars seemed like a pretty bad deal relative to what you paid. It seemed way more economical to just book a nice hotel nearby and enjoy the city instead. You can sleep pretty decent in Coach if no-one's sitting next to you (likely). You can also "shower" in their (much bigger) bathrooms, though it won't be as "fresh" as the communal showers in the sleepers. The food is really good! I had Bison burger for the first time on an Amtrak train! Those desserts are, indeed, insane. Thanks again for making this. Rail travel is an incredible way to see the US in a way that's impossible to savor from a window seat (or an aisle seat when the person sitting there keeps the window seat open, which they usually don't!). I hope this experience convinces more people to try out Amtrak. They've been bleeding for a long time and could definitely use the ridership!

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