I really like trains. I know that sounds weird but the engineering behind the rail system and the trains themselves is something that has always fascinated me. I do my best thinking when riding in a moving vehicle so bus rides are fun and that seems like something that would transfer to a train only a train goes faster and farther. I don’t care very much where the tour goes just so long as it passes through nature between places. I’ve also never been to the grand canyon so I searched for a rail tour that at least went close enough to see it and found one that included a tour of it!
Looking into how someone else went about a rail trip, I found a blog entry called Amtrak 15-Day Rail Pass Live Blog – Week One with details about their trip. They utilized the lockers in the train station in Chicago so they could tour Chicago before boarding their train. They also mentioned that they brought their own snacks which cut down daily spending.
Whether a sleeper car would be worth the extra money or not was answered by a forum user asking “Cross country train USA — sleeper or no?” and the post solidified my desire for an isolated and enclosed sleeping space, so a sleeper car it has to be. I value my sleep.
Saving for this dream is not feasible right now since I only have a surplus of $126.00 and that is usually spent on emergencies and car maintenance that are not routine monthly expenses. I expect to delay this until after graduation, since my electrical engineering degree should do well in the job market. For now. the best route to this dream trip is to do well in school so I can afford to save for it.
To get an amount of money that my dream trip would cost I first looked up a tour going places I and my boyfriend, because this is going to be much more fun with him, are interested in. I found the Route 66 by Rail trip. The first scenario is going without bringing our own food and going with a lot of spending cash. The second scenario is us bringing our own food and a lot of spending cash. To calculate the cost of food we would bring by calculating the cost to make enough red beans and rice for 2 people for 2 weeks. The third scenario is homemade meals and much less spending cash just to have something in case of an emergency.
