I Hear the Whistle Blowing

I heard a train whistle this morning and thought it might be a good time to take a train trip to see the country this spring. My daydream of hopping a freight is probably not going to pan out in the near term so I'll probably be going on a passenger train.

A 15-Day Amtrak USA Rail Pass is $389 Off-Peak (January 3rd to May 22nd). For someone with more time, a 30-Day pass is only another $80.

I like the idea of the train pass because of the flexibility of being able to get on and off the train when I want to (I'll wait until it's come to a full stop).

I had a pass on Greyhound years ago and it was an adventure; but I like the comfort factor of a train now that I'm getting a little older physically.

I'm thinking a trip around the outer perimeter of the U.S. would be about right for a 15 day trip; Everett - Boston - Jacksonville - Los Angeles - Everett.

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Postscript 3/13/08

I was planning my trip and realized the Amtrak USA Rail Pass is not available to citizens of the U.S. or Canada.

A North America Rail Pass good for 30 days of travel on Canadian and U.S. railroads is $709 off-peak and $999 peak.

I don't have 30 days to spend riding the rails right now, so I'm back to the drawing board as far as travel plans go.

Maybe Makerfaire or the least populated county in Montana.

It's interesting what you can find on Wikipedia - according to the article, Petroleum county Montana has an average population density of 0 people per square mile.

I think it may be 1/3 person per square mile, the county is 1674 square miles and 493 people live there...at least according to Wikipedia. After taking a look at Another Ordinary Day At The Beach In China I'm thinking having a 3 square mile buffer zone between you and the next guy might not be so bad.