First Cross Country Train Ride

This September I will be making my first cross country train ride, and I am super excited.

As I have mentioned before, I strongly dislike flying.  I planned a pretty neat trip to Walt Disney World and a Caribbean Disney cruise that my mom, dad, and sister will be going on with me.  The only problem:  I did not want to be stuck on a flying tube thousands of feet above the air for 7 hours, give or take an hour.  And before some kind soul tells me: I know that airplanes are safer than cars and trains and bikes and walking...basically I have been told it's one of the safest things you can do.  It's probably safer than sleeping at night, who knows!  That still doesn't mean I can't have a very strong aversion to flying.

So I thought this trip would be the perfect way to test out Amtrak cross country, from San Fransisco, CA to Orlando, FL.

This is a LENGTHY train ride, let me tell you.  And I was too cheap to splurge for a sleeper car, so you'll all be getting my first hand experiences sitting in a chair that reclines.  It should be very interesting!

I was a little shocked to realize how many states and cities I'll be traveling through.  Sure, logically I realized I'd be training across the country and so I must be cutting through a good deal of states.  But seeing it on a map and then listed out makes it much more real.

On my east bound portion of the trip I am taking two different trains than on the west bound.

East Bound	West Bound
California Zephyr	Silver Meteor
Capitol Limited	Cardinal
Silver Star	California Zephyr

I did this because each train takes a different route, and I wanted to see as much as I could see from a train.  For those trying to shorten their travel time, the north/south-bound Eastern trains tend to be very similar in length of time traveled.  Pay close attention when booking on amtrak.com and you will notice this.

What better way to illustrate this, though, than with some maps?  So below are the routes I will be taking for my east bound portion and the west bound portion of the trip.

East Bound

West Bound

Look closely and you'll notice that between Chicago and Washington D.C. one train takes a more northern route and the other slightly more south.  For the train between DC and Orlando, one heads in towards the west for a short distance while the other remains a bit closer to the east coast.

Each of the cities highlighted is either the start (San Fransisco, CA), a train change (Chicago, IL and Washington D.C.) or the train end (Orlando, FL).

But wait!  There's more!

Because I am a very curious person, and with the help of Amtrak's route atlas, I zoomed in as close as possible to see exactly where I am going.  I then compiled a list of the states and cities with Amtrak stops I could be visiting.  I don't think Amtrak stops at every location they have a train station unless they are picking up/dropping off passengers.  But I could be wrong, and if so, I will post it here after my trip!  

So below is a list (very long) of the states and what cities I will for sure be passing through.

East Bound

West Bound

California                 Emeryville                 Martinez                 Suisun                 Davis                 Sacramento                 Roseville                 Rocklin                 Auburn                 Colfax                 Truckee Nevada                 Reno                 Sparks                 Winnemucca                 Elko Utah                 Salt Lake City                 Provo                 Helper                 Green River Colorado                 Grand Junction                 Glenwood Springs                 Granby                 Fraser                 Denver                 Fort Morgan Nebraska                 McCook                 Holdrege                 Hastings                 Lincoln                 Omaha Kansas (Just barely edge into, no stops) Iowa                 Creston                 Osceola                 Ottumwa                 Mount Pleasant                 Burlington Illinois                 Galesburg                 Kewanee                 Princeton                 Mendota                 Plano                 Naperville                 La Grange                 Chicago (Union Station) Indiana                 Hammond                 Michigan City                 South Bend                 Elkhart                 Waterloo Ohio                 Bryan                 Toledo                 Sandusky                 Elyria                 Cleveland                 Alliance Pennsylvania                 Pittsburgh                 Connellsville Maryland                 Cumberland West Virginia                 Martinsburg                 Harpers Ferry Maryland                 Rockville Washington, DC – Union Station Virginia                 Alexandria                 Springfield                 Lorton                 Woodbridge                 Quantico                 Fredericksburg                 Ashland                 Richmond                 Petersburg North Carolina                 Rocky Mount                 Wilson                 Selma                 Raleigh                 Southern Pines                 Hamlet South Carolina                 Camden                 Columbia                 Denmark Georgia                 Savannah                 Jesup Florida                 Jacksonville                 Palatka                 Deland                 Sanford                 Winter Park                 Orlando

Florida                 Orlando                 Winter Park                 Sanford                 Deland                 Palatka                 Jacksonville Georgia                 Jesup                 Savannah South Carolina                 Yemassee                 North Charleston                 Kingstree                 Florence                 Dillon North Carolina                 Fayetteville                 Selma                 Wilson                 Rocky Mount Virginia                 Petersburg                 Richmond                 Ashland                 Fredericksburg                 Quantico                 Woodbridge                 Lorton                 Springfield                 Alexandria Washington D.C. (Union Station) Virginia                 Burke                 Manassas                 Culpeper                 Charlottesville                 Staunton                 Clifton Forge West Virginia                 White Sulfur                 Alderson                 Hinton                 Prince                 Thurmond                 Montgomery                 Charleston                 Huntington Kentucky                 Ashland                 South Shore                 Maysville                 Maysville Ohio                 Cincinnati Indiana                 Connersville                 Indianapolis                 Crawfordsville                 Lafayette                 Rensselaer                 Dyer Illinois                 Chicago (Union Station)                 La Grange                 Naperville                 Plano                 Mendota                 Princeton                 Kewanee                 Galesburg Iowa                 Burlington                 Mount Pleasant                 Ottumwa                 Osceola                 Creston Nebraska                 Omaha                 Lincoln                 Hastings                 Holdrege                 McCook Colorado                 Fort Morgan                 Denver                 Fraser                 Granby                 Glenwood Springs                 Grand Junction Utah                 Green River                 Helper                 Provo                 Salt Lake City Nevada                 Elko                 Winnemucca                 Sparks                 Reno California                 Truckee                 Colfax                 Auburn                 Rocklin                 Roseville                 Sacramento                 Davis                 Suisun                 Martinez                 Emeryville

For those not keeping track (or too overwhelmed to) that's 20 different states traveled through on this trip.

This was a pretty long (and hopefully informative post), so I'll end it for now.  Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back as I post more information about my upcoming cross country train travel vacation!
Feel free to ask questions in the comment section :)