Author Topic: Amtrak - Coast to Coast by Train (Read 4513 times)

TonyHawk420 · « **on:** October 06, 2018, 01:36:53 PM »

Last year I did an Amtrak trip across the country over the span of 15 days. People always have lots of questions whenever I tell them about it so I made this post to hopefully answer their questions and also to dump the photos that have been on my hard drive for over a year. Let me know if you have any questions and any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

https://www.jacobmccurley.com/amtrak/

JB · « **Reply #1 on:** October 07, 2018, 05:59:11 PM »

Quote from: TonyHawk420 on October 06, 2018, 01:36:53 PM

Last year I did an Amtrak trip across the country over the span of 15 days. People always have lots of questions whenever I tell them about it so I made this post to hopefully answer their questions and also to dump the photos that have been on my hard drive for over a year. Let me know if you have any questions and any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

https://www.jacobmccurley.com/amtrak/

Loved reading that, dude. Thanks for sharing.

TonyHawk420 · « **Reply #2 on:** October 07, 2018, 09:20:53 PM »

Quote from: JB on October 07, 2018, 05:59:11 PM

Quote from: TonyHawk420 on October 06, 2018, 01:36:53 PM
Expand Quote
Last year I did an Amtrak trip across the country over the span of 15 days. People always have lots of questions whenever I tell them about it so I made this post to hopefully answer their questions and also to dump the photos that have been on my hard drive for over a year. Let me know if you have any questions and any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

https://www.jacobmccurley.com/amtrak/
[close]

Loved reading that, dude. Thanks for sharing.

I appreciate it! Hopefully I will have more post like that in the near future. Thanks for checking it out.

Kel Varnsen · « **Reply #3 on:** October 08, 2018, 08:20:57 AM »

This is awesome. Thanks for posting your experience. I've been wanting to do this for the longest time.

doublesteveburger · « **Reply #4 on:** October 08, 2018, 09:11:51 AM »

Fuck yes, Jake. Amazing read.

CrumblingInfrastructure · « **Reply #5 on:** October 08, 2018, 12:00:21 PM »

This is really rad dude! I did a 30 day amtrak trip this summer and it definitely seems like we had a similar experience haha. I will 100% back bringing your own booze and food on with you. I forgot to bring food heading from Chicago to New York and got food poisoning off of a 5$ shitty hotdog. The gnarliest leg of my trip was taking the empire builder route from Seattle to Chicago. It ended up being about 53 hours. My train also broke down right outside of tucson for 3 hours while heading to LA and the AC went out (it was mid July) so that was fucking crazy too. Definitely makes me wish I took more photos. I pretty much ran out of film in New Orleans and rarely use my Iphone camera. Chi/NY train stations are crazy as fuck too! Got a good polaroid shot of the great hall in Chicago that i’m hyped on.

straight · « **Reply #6 on:** October 08, 2018, 12:07:24 PM »

damn super cool man

Googan Christmas · « **Reply #7 on:** October 08, 2018, 08:43:32 PM »

Yeah that was awesome man. Your captions/ writing were especially good.

tkp · « **Reply #8 on:** October 09, 2018, 12:08:22 PM »

Rad journey / photos!

I did Raleigh, NC > Washington, DC > Chicago, IL > Fresno, CA over the course of 3 days or so in order to get to the Element Skate Camp on time to start work and I always wish I had left earlier so I could spend some time in each of the cities.

Not sure if you have started looking at more train adventures, but if you are and haven't done it, take a look at the Eurail routes. Just keep an eye on your bags while riding.

Japan Rail Pass is also great.

smellsdead · « **Reply #9 on:** October 09, 2018, 08:09:30 PM »

thanks for posting this dude!

imagine a train ride if we kept accumulating slap pals at each stop...

TonyHawk420 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 09, 2018, 10:18:22 PM »

JB - Thanks for checking it out! I hope this inspires some others to do the same. It was something completely out of my comfort zone and a birthday gift to myself. Just go for it. Let me know if you have any questions.

Kel - You definitely should, and questions you have send them my way.

Steven - I'll be home for Thanksgiving, see you soon

CrumblingInfrastructure - The food is not great at all and I wish I knew that going on! And yes, Chi Union Station was crazy. You should upload what you have. It would be cool to see the experience other people had.

Straight - Try it out, you won't be disappointed. Let me know if you have any questions!

Googan - I'm glad you like it, honestly. I spend a good amount of time making that post and I'm stoked people are enjoying it.

TKP - That's rad that you had a final destination though! Mine was seeing the Pixies and I'm glad I had an end game. I plan to move abroad and I will definitely check out those train systems. I plan on doing the Glacier Express one day...YouTube it, it looks so fun.

SmellsDead - Just as long as we put a muzzle on Tracer

stevedave · « **Reply #11 on:** October 10, 2018, 08:36:27 AM »

i've taken the train from SF> Denver and back, and I can honestly say its been the best experiences of my life. Traveling by train has a certain mystique to it. You see a lot of shit you wouldn't see on the road, and people have a completely different demeanor. You get on a train, you kinda know you're in for the long haul. People aren't tripping about being somewhere in an hour or connecting flights. So people are generally more laid back and easy to talk to.

I have SO many stories, but the best one was coming from DEN back to SF. The train had been delayed coming from Chicago by about 8 hours, so people were a bit antsy for sure. They handed out vouchers for a free meal and people were actually bitching about the free meal they got. Anyway, I see some old timer with a Martin travel guitar sitting in the observation car, playing Woody Guthrie and other traveling music. So I grab 2 beer and 2 whiskeys and sit and say "a man singin traveling music on a train deserves a beer and a whiskey". He says "sit down, son". He's playing music and some dude comes up and says he has a ukelele in his bag. He gets it, and comes back with a bottle of scotch. Some people are starting to take notice and pay attention. Another kid comes over and says, "I dont have an instrument but I got this bottle of tequila". The old time gives me a harmonica, and we're all rocking out and everyone in the observation car is super pumped. Mind you, we're on the leg from Reno up over the snow capped Sierras, and the sun is starting to set. I kinda take a look around and I realize pretty much everyone in the observation car is singing "This Land is Your Land". Eventually, one of the conductors comes up to me and asks if I was the one who started it. I said yes, but not intentionally, it kinda just happened. And the conductor was like "thanks, everyone was in such a shitty mood with the delay and in all my years of working on the train, this is by far the coolest thing I've ever seen".

Sorry for the rant, but the train RULES, and that's just one story I have.

sharkin · « **Reply #12 on:** October 10, 2018, 09:34:05 AM »

thats a great story stevedave!

i've only taken the amtrack across pennsylvania from pittsburgh to philly and back, which is about 8 hour ride each way. It was honestly incredible. There's a part of the rail that's a massive horseshoe curve, and it was snowing out, and in all my travels around the world, it remains one of my top 10 views.

TonyHawk420 · « **Reply #13 on:** October 10, 2018, 10:21:26 PM »

Stevedave - That's rad, after eight hours I would for sure be feeling pretty frustrated, especially knowing that there is an absolute extension of a ride still to be had. You're right in that people are pretty laid back because no one can really be in a rush, everyone knows that they just gotta sit their ass down for a few hours and try to enjoy themselves. Good on you for buying that guy a drink, sounds like an unforgettable experience.

Sharkin - Holy hell that's a long ass train. Looked it up on Wiki, pretty interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_Curve_(Pennsylvania)

Joust Ostrich · « **Reply #14 on:** October 11, 2018, 04:02:40 PM »

Well, this is the best thread up right now.

Thanks TH420

TonyHawk420 · « **Reply #15 on:** October 13, 2018, 07:43:06 PM »

Joust - Are you saying you'd rather talk about traveling rather than CCS selling Mountain Dew boards and people pushing mongo? Crazy

thebacker · « **Reply #16 on:** October 17, 2018, 08:50:33 AM »

How much did you end up spending total on train tickets

Nosferatu · « **Reply #17 on:** October 17, 2018, 01:05:17 PM »

Quote from: DaveFuck on October 17, 2018, 08:50:33 AM

How much did you end up spending total on train tickets

Read to the end DumbFuck.

sometimeperhaps · « **Reply #18 on:** October 20, 2018, 06:01:38 PM »

Sounds like quite the experience. Was a good read, and I always appreciate stories like this.

I'd love to take the train across the country here in Canada, but it's would likely cost me $1500 just to go one way, not including the trip back.

thebacker · « **Reply #19 on:** October 21, 2018, 08:01:13 PM »

Quote from: Nosferatu on October 17, 2018, 01:05:17 PM

Quote from: DaveFuck on October 17, 2018, 08:50:33 AM
Expand Quote
How much did you end up spending total on train tickets
[close]

Read to the end DumbFuck.

Yushin Okami · « **Reply #20 on:** November 02, 2018, 12:56:26 PM »

That was but this was my favorite part:

"my friend Aaron liked this photo so much he asked to use it for his album cover. I said no."

doublesteveburger · « **Reply #21 on:** November 03, 2018, 12:59:39 AM »

If you knew what Aaron looked like you’d giggle. Just read this over again, Jacobie. Hope your ankles healing up!

Cthulhu! · « **Reply #22 on:** November 03, 2018, 09:52:52 AM »

Those photos up in the mountains are incredible. Good thread.

TonyHawk420 · « **Reply #23 on:** February 06, 2019, 10:39:10 PM »

@Everyone! Thank you all for the feedback!

Another Amtrak trip is in the works for the upcoming months.
This trip will be a flight to SF, train to Portland, Seattle, and then fly back. May try to get into Canada at the end for a day or two.
Feel free to join or recommend places to skate/see/stay.
So far it's me and two of my close friends. DM on IG @mcjacob if you want to meet up or join at some point. Should be fun!
Edit** Flying out of and returning to Phoenix, AZ.

Buck Russell · « **Reply #24 on:** February 08, 2019, 02:02:14 PM »

this is really really cool. thank you for sharing.

TurdyBird · « **Reply #25 on:** February 09, 2019, 10:16:41 AM »

This is my favorite post ever on slap. Love the blog that was made for it. Heavily inspired to take a trip of my own from Cali to East Coast, but I don't have anyone to stay with at any of the spots I wanna visit so I gotta save more for rooms. Has anyone had any success using couchsurfing.com?

Author Topic: Amtrak - Coast to Coast by Train (Read 4513 times)

doublesteveburger

thebacker

thebacker

doublesteveburger