Steve: I was surfing through your Amtrak Site and found your information fascinating. I 've been an Amtrak traveler for six years and have taken all of the cross-country routes. The only two I haven't travelled yet are the Pioneer and the Cardinal. This past February I took a two week trip virtually around the country. I started in New York, went to Boston, on to Chicago, then the Empire Builder to Portland, the Coast Starlight to Los Angeles, on to San Diego, back to L A and then all thr way to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on the Sunset Limited and back to New York. I travelled close to 10,000 miles, hit weather extremes from 40 below in North Dakota to 91 in Anaheim, California. I work at this radio station, WHLM in Bloomsburg, Pa. and one of the fun aspects of the journey for me was listening and taping radio stations around the country. I brought a boom box with me, numbered cassettes from 1 to 100 and just began taping every waking moment on the train whenver I hit a stereo indicator. I taped about 10 to 15 minutes of each station, interspered with my comments on the passing scenery, train announcements and conversations I got into. There were also many specific stations I recorded. It's quite a lot of fun hearing back what I recorded. I'm also dubbing the stuff I want to keep(good songs, unusual commercials, station ID's, etc) onto permanent cassettes to keep as a nice audio record of my trip.
I've never taken a sleeper. I'd love to, but I can never justify the price, so I ended paying $278 for the entire trip in coach. Luckilly, except for the last leg of my trip I sat by myself. Like you, I don't enjoy being forced in conversation, so I became social when I wanted to, usually in the sightseer lounge car, one of ther great assets of the Superliners. Anyhow, just thought I'd let you know my circumference of the U.S. by rail, and if you think anyone would be interested feel free to use my comments, or any other recollections feel free to use this on your Website. Thanks
Bob Gale
