All Aboard!
Did you know we have seven grown adult children and nine grandchildren (so far) spread out over five different states?
Yes. I did, in fact, birth all of them.
No, there are no twins.
And yes, Jeff and I had them together.
And yes, that is a lot these days.
We couldn’t be more proud and love them any more deeply than we do now. But we certainly try.
You can imagine what it takes to plan to see each of them in a year. And our ultimate goal is to see them twice a year.
Since moving overseas three years ago, we started planning our USA travels months in advance. It’s the only way to find the best schedules for both ourselves and all of their families. It’s quite a task and well worth it.
I’m proud to say I planned every detail of our 2025 trip back to the States and had only one hiccup on our journey. Not only did we make it smoothly from Thessaloniki, Greece, to the U.S., but we also managed to affordably travel across 10 different states and spend time with every single one of our children and grandchildren.
How did we manage to do that?
We discovered the USA Rail Pass offered by Amtrak.
🚂 American Rail Travel
The USA Rail Pass is valid for 120 days after purchase. It costs $499 per person and is valid for 30 days from your first segment traveled. Our first segment went from Osceola, Iowa, to our first stop in Chicago, Illinois. We had 30 days from then to complete the next nine, which was perfect for us.
The next day, we got back on the train and headed south to Texas. This was our first overnight train ride. It was an adventure as we rode through Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and finally into Texas.
One thing to know is that you are riding in the Upper Coach seats, not sleeper cars. It’s perfectly comfortable, as you have a cushioned reclining seat with a footrest and plenty of legroom; much more than on an airplane.
You will definitely want to pack a small blanket and a travel pillow for extra comfort. Noise-cancelling headphones and eye covers are essential to help with light and noise. Maybe the train sounds won’t bother you, but your snoring neighbor might be trying to suck the train ceiling in while they sleep, and keep you wide awake. True story we experienced first-hand. Grateful for our AirPods.
From Austin, Texas, we then boarded the train to Los Angeles. Yep, that’s right; 1379.9 miles, and two nights all on the Amtrak! And just so you can keep a count of segments, this was only one, for a total of three when we arrived in L.A.
Once again, we got to see so much of the country we’ve never seen before:
Southwestern Texas,
New Mexico,
Arizona, and
Southern California.
In fact, at one point, we got so close to the border of Mexico that both our phones popped up with the notification:
“Welcome to Mexico! You will now need to turn on roaming for your stay.”
It was pretty funny.
Geographical Landscapes
The landscape is so diverse across those states. One area might have forested mountains, and the next looks like the surface of Mars with its flat, multi-colored sands. Then there’s the desert with crevasses dug deeply into the ground from either wind storms or monsoonal rains that cause flash flooding, only to have the high heat suck up the moisture like a vacuum cleaner. Often, the words “I didn’t have a clue it was like this here” came out of my mouth.
Freedom to Move
Another bonus to train travel is that you can get up and move around anytime you want. After all, you aren’t driving! And there is a cool lounge car that’s all windows, you can sit in to read, watch the scenery, play games, work, or whatever. It really does add to the experience. There’s just so much to see!
You catch the best photos from the lounge/observation car, too.
Food
Food is available for purchase in two places; the dining car, and the snack bar. Depending on how much you want to spend will determine where you eat.
The dining car requires reservations. It is also the most expensive option. Breakfast was $25 per person, Lunch was $40 and Dinner was $45. However, you do get a full meal, including dessert and a beverage.
The snack bar offers food such as burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, chips, veggie boxes, salads, bakery items, and beverages including alcohol. That’s not an exhausted list of items, but just an idea of what they have available. It’s not completely unaffordable. But more than we wanted to spend overall. A can of soda was $3.50. And I believe a burger was $9. All of the food was prepackaged and the attendent would heat it up in the microwave for you. So, again, not the best, but not the worst either.
Here’s what we chose to do instead.
I bought a Titan backpack cooler at Costco for $34. It came with 2 high grade ice packs that slide into two side zipper pockets. I went shopping before leaving each place we stopped to visit our kids. I bought yogurts, cheese, pepperoni sticks, individual avocado as well as cream cheese packets, snack sized bags of veggies and berries, you know, whatever to make it through 2 days.
I also brought a reusable grocery bag to carry dried foods like nuts and other snack foods, including a couple of sodas for Jeff that didn’t need refrigeration. You can get a cup of ice from the snack bar for free.
Because we always carry our LifeStraw water filtration bottles with us, we can refill those for free as well.
There’s so much more to share; practical, in-depth tips to make your rail excursion more comfortable. Plus, we have stories to tell!
Stay tuned for a DEEPER post this Thursday!!!
This is inspiring! I have taken the train many times in Europe and Asia but have yet to ride Amtrak, lol! It would be fun to do a ride like this.
I have traveled smaller segments (in-state) on the train to escape winter driving over the passes, but never a long distance. But, I have always wanted to! Thanks for the tips for when we finally get around to it.