Pre-pre planning is underway (meaning we have discussed it once or twice and looked up some information) for a father-daughter trip 2 years from now. I'm writing about it here because the more I think about it, the more I really want to actually do this. The trip is straightforward - take a train around the country, spend a little time in the "corner" cities on the trip. Here is the tentative route we are throwing around:
Leg 1) Chicago - Seattle on the Empire Builder (46 hours)
Leg 2) Seattle - Los Angeles on the Coast Starlight (35 hours)
Leg 3) Los Angeles - New Orleans on the Sunset Limited (48 hours)
Leg 4) New Orleans - Chicago on the City of New Orleans (19 hours) OR New Orleans - New York on the Crescent (30 hours)
On Leg 4, we are undecided about what is best to do - The City of New Orleans would make a nice loop for the trip, but isn't the most exciting of train rides. The Crescent goes through Atlanta and DC and obviously includes some of the east coast elements. There is always the option of taking a train from New Orleans to Orlando and then north the NY, too, but we've both seen a lot of that scenery before so something new might be nice.
New states for me on this journey: North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama (on the Crescent only)
