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4:22p – Saturday 

We’re into hour three of our multi-stage train ride. So far, it feels like a dream compared to plane travel – especially compared to our chaotic plane trip to New Orleans. It’s 4:22 PM, and we should arrive in Chicago around 9:15AM tomorrow morning – a long journey for sure. We’ll have a brief layover in Chicago, and then board another overnight train to Dallas where we’ll be picked up and brought home by my dear husband. 

I had done some research before the train ride as to what to expect – a long journey, of course, roomy seats, frequent delays, and relaxed security. We arrived to the train station in New Orleans early – a large, mostly empty room with plenty of chairs. The Amtrak website recommends arriving half an hour before the train departure, but the station employees had us lining up to board the train well before that. I would arrive about an hour beforehand at least based on this experience with a manned station at the beginning of the route. It may be different in other circumstances. We’re sitting in coach and so we boarded last on the upper level, but this only delayed our boarding by minutes. We got on board and got to pick our own seats – and airline would easily squeeze two rows in what the train allows for one. Currently, I have an over stuffed backpack and a bag at my feet with plenty of leftover room. I could put my bags in the large overhead storage as well. We have a footrest, a tray table, and a seat with a large recline – plus outlets! The large picture window also makes it easy to zone out staring at the scenery passing by. 

For the first part of the ride, that’s exactly what I did – zone out and stare at the passing scenery in Louisiana. Unfortunately, we have a disruptive neighbor in a nearby row who was watching reels or TikTok’s very loudly without headphones so I eventually switched to watching a movie with my headphones on. It was a good movie that I hadn’t yet taken the time yet to watch, so time well spent! 

The neighbors in some of the nearby rows have been more disruptive than I had hoped for, but I hope to have plenty of chill time on our remaining train ride. 

Annnnnd, the neighbor just started watching the reels/shorts/tiktoks again… I’ll see you soon for another check in on the American train ride. 

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8:11PM – 6 hours ish into the train journey (Saturday)

I have a love/hate relationship with travel. I hate the process, I love the destinations. I don’t like airports or planes, even when they go well. Car rides over a few hours are a drag. I was surprised to count up the hours that we’ve been on the train to realize that it’s been over six hours – really? That long already? My biggest discomfit was when we were standing in line for ten minutes at the train station. My big complaints are my occasionally noisy neighbors and the limited drinking water, 

The train is ambling along the tracks – mostly gently and lolling, but occasionally wobbly. I’ve read, watched another movie, and stared out the window. It’s dark now, but the lights in the train are good. We ate from the cafe – they only had ham or Turkey sandwiches (plus snacks), but the turkey sandwich was pretty good and that’s coming from someone who isn’t a big sandwich fan. 

Some people are coming into the train with ice chests and I have mad respect for them. It seems pretty smart actually – load up an ice chest with water, your favorite cold meals and snacks and live it up on the train. Some people are living it up with adult beverages – the smell will hit your nose every so often when walking around – definitely drinking responsibly although I don’t know how much I would want to risk drinking on a train. 

So far, I think what I would do different would be to bring a cooler with drinks and foods, a nice fuzzy blanket, and maybe spring for the roomette or private room to avoid the noisy neighbors. 

Train life though? No rush, no urgency. It’s been such a relaxing way to travel so far. We’ll see how trying to sleep goes, but I have decent hopes at the moment. The lights directly above us turn off, the seat reclines pretty far, there’s a foot rest, and I did at least bring an eye mask and neck pillow. We’ll be stopping in Memphis soon-ish, and I’m eager to see what the lights of the city look like from the train, but then I’ll probably close my window curtain. 

Every so often, I take notice of the train horn – I think it’s going pretty constantly, but I grew up near the railroad tracks so I’m already adjusted to tuning that noise out without thinking about it. 

Am I train girlie now? 

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4:55PM – on the second train to Dallas 3 hours in (Sunday)

I ended up sleeping kind of poorly last night because I was very cold on the first train. Like I had mentioned, I didn’t bring a blanket and it seemed like the train car got even colder during the night. So, I was coming in and out of wakefulness as I got cold, needed to adjust my position, and then I had to carefully shift my shawl and coat serving as a makeshift blanket. 

We made it a priority to purchase blankets while on layover in Chicago. We had actually looked for one in New Orleans, but the stores we went into didn’t have any. We found a Target in Chicago though and got blankets there. Another blanket for the home collection! 

I’m hoping that I’ll sleep better tonight with the new blanket so that I can give train travel a full good review. I’ve rather enjoyed it besides the fitful sleep. 

After a few hours in Chicago, we boarded the Texas Eagle to Dallas which should arrive in the morning. The Chicago Union Station is quite beautiful and there was a place for us to pay to store our luggage while we walked around the city. We got a bit lost on our way back in as we tried to find where we had checked in our luggage, but eventually we found it and all was well. 

This train seems a little more worn than the first, but functionally the same. Same large seats with recline functions and foot rests. There’s a full service cafe in this train so we had more meal options to purchase – we both went with the hotdog. The Texas Eagle has felt a lot busier than the City of New Orleans train, but I’m not sure if that’s because we’re closer to the dining car than in the first train or if it is actually significantly busier from the outset. The railway has also felt bumpier. The first train ride felt very smooth for the most part, but so far this section of the rails has felt rather bumpy in comparison. 

Anyway, I was so out of it this morning from the poor sleep that I couldn’t think of a proper way to write up the night. The cold was my main issue which is hopefully solvable. They did dim the lights around 10:30 after the last big stop in Memphis and asked everyone to cease conversations. I had a sleep mask to block out the rest of the light and the train was pretty quiet over the night. I would occasionally get sore and need to adjust in the seat, but I’m a mover in my sleep regardless and the seats would work better for sticking in one position. They’re comfortable when you sit in them as intended essentially. 

The scenery outside of the windows is interesting to look at. I enjoy the glimpses into small town America, and into towns like Bloomington that aren’t small but that I’ve never had a reason to go to. Train stations seem to be fairly centrally located in most towns – which makes sense as most towns would have been built up around the train station as a center of commerce before automobiles and planes became common. My hometown has the train station downtown, so did Chicago and New Orleans. Many of the towns that we’re stopping seem to have lots of commercial spaces and downtown-looking buildings around the train stations. There’s a lot of interesting architecture visible from the train cars that Rachel and I are having fun admiring. We just went through Springfield, and they had some sort of gorgeous capital building visible from the train. 

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7:38PM – 6 hours into trip between Chicago and Dallas (Sunday)

We actually lost most of our car’s crowd in Springfield and the adjoining towns to the point where we only had a handful of people in the car with us. I was curious if we would gain more in St. Louis, but it seems like they loaded most of those people in the same car that the St Louis arrivals were originally in. We did gain a wild family, but listening to the conversation with the attendant, it seems like they’re being moved to a different car where the other LA destined people are. 

We had a long stop in St Louis for a ‘smoke’ break, and where it seems that the Amtrak employees refreshed the cars and such. 

Our train stopped as it was pulling away for some reason – to move the family? I would think that they could move between the doors, but the attendant took them downstairs and the train powered down around the same time. Curious. 

As much as the train does take longer to get places, there’s something appealing about watching movies, reading, and sleeping and ending up in a new place without the hustle and cramped conditions of an airplane. I always feel like cattle being herded and like I’m some how an inconvenience to the airline employees for using their service during air travel. The Amtrak employees are mostly in the background, but generally friendly and personable when you do interact with them. I’ve had good impressions so far (except for the cafe attendants who seemed put out that we came to the cafe). There’s a few moments of cattle herding – both New Orleans and Chicago had us line up and wait to be led out to the train. We’re grouped by destination, so you have to tell a few employees along the way that you’re headed to *wherever*. 

The concept of people with multiple designations traveling along the same route is honestly fascinating to me – I knew it was the situation, but it’s kind of fun to be along for the ride with people headed to such divergent places as Springfield, Dallas, San Antonio, and Los Angeles. 

Honestly, this train is making me long for high speed rails like Europe has – why did the US mostly abandon the rail system? Air travel is extremely fast in comparison, but there are economic and environmental advantages to a well rounded rail system. This has been so pleasurable, I wish there were more convenient ways to take advantage of rail travel in the US. 

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7:47AM – 17 hours into the train ride to Dallas? (Monday)

There’s an interesting phenomenon when the train stops for an extended period. Like, right now, we arrived pretty early to a stop, so we have to wait until the appropriate departure time. Now, everyone has decided that now is the time to move around, get breakfast, chat, use the restroom – myself included. Something about the stops makes us restless while the forward motion of the train makes us sleepy and content to stay in our seats. 

I did sleep better last night with a blanket, but still not super well – the chairs aren’t the comfiest for side sleepers like me. I’m also not a particularly tall person, but the way I was trying to slouch in my sleep in the chair meant I kept running out of legroom. Perhaps for someone use to sleeping in a recliner the setup would work better. But, I do feel more wake and rested today than I did yesterday, so some good was achieved with my new blanket. 

I’ve been on long flights and definitely felt the confines of the plane after hour six or seven, but counting up the hours I’ve been on the train felt like I was reaching too high of a number – it doesn’t feel like 17 hours have gone by. Maybe 3 or 4? Of course, I slept for several of them even if somewhat uneasily, but still – where have the hours gone? 

Now, I’ll keep this one short since the train has started moving again and I had acquired coffee and a muffin from the cafe that I’m eager to dig into. Tah. 

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8:23 AM – 17.5 hours (Monday)

So far, my experience has been that the trains arrive too early as opposed to late which is what I had heard secondhand. Our first train arrived about 30-40 minute early to Chicago. This train, the Texas Eagle, has been arriving early to stops – especially this morning. We were over 30 minutes early to our last stop which meant we had to wait a long time to depart. Now, we’re 10-12 minutes early to the next stop – the train was zooming for a while there and I had wondered if they were trying to make up time or something. 

Only two stops and about three hours until our exit. We gained several people in our car at this stop. One of which brought four bags up the stairs with him and didn’t put any in the over head compartment? There’s large luggage storage on the first level of the train with the restrooms and ample overhead storage that is infrequently used from what I’ve seen. I’m not sure I understand the logical of hauling all four bags up the stairs to the second level and then using them to barricade yourself in the window seat. I get discouraging strangers from sitting next to you, but a backpack will usually take care of that. 

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Later that evening: Post train ride (Monday)

How do I feel about the train now that the journey is over? We started in New Orleans at 1:45PM on Saturday, went to Chicago and arrived early at 8:30AM(ish), spend about few hours in the city, left Chicago at 1:52PM on Sunday (exactly on time), and arrived in Dallas the next day at 11:15AM (ish). One thing I have to question and wish for a difference is why there wasn’t a more direct route to Dallas? Dallas is a large city in the South, but there wasn’t a closer hub than Chicago to get on a train to head that direction. Now, the train take a little less than twice as long to drive – Chicago to Dallas is a 13.5hr drive and a 21.5hr train ride. Although, I’d argue that most people aren’t going to make that drive in one go and with a stop at a hotel then you might end up with the same number of hours dedicated to travel. Our particular journey was exceptionally longer because there wasn’t a direct route – we had to go further away and then come back home. A drive from home to New Orleans directly would have been about 9 hours. 

Despite the difficulties we both had with sleeping on the train, my friend and I both appreciated the time to slow down. To read, to watch, to zone. I’m not a person that finds it easy to be slow – I managed to get the two of us to take 12,000 steps on a day where we only had four hours off of a train. My husband, as someone very skilled in taking things slow and literally smelling the roses, finds it ridiculous how go-go-go my natural tendency is. I had planned to work and write on the train, but I found myself lulled into the gentle rocking and the pull to set aside goals and drive to just take in the scenery passing us by. 

I didn’t have any profound thoughts on humanity or the nature of the divine, but I felt in a state of rest. Not quite rested and recovered from our go-go-go days of adventuring, but in a state of embracing peace. 

My final thoughts on train rides? 8/10 would try again, but might splurge on a sleeper car to aim for a better nights rest. I hope to see better routes available in America as well.