This likely fits under this topic on a technicality, as this is a project of mine but it's not about a computer, a calculator or programming.

Anyways, this project is about mapping out and planning a vacation across the USA using our rail road infrastructure, more or less inspired by other folks who have done the same. Derek, who's blog I linked, did it for around $400 but I'll be spending considerably more. As I intend on stopping at a few locations for more than a day and would this need a hotel.

I plan on buying a MultiPass - - which come in either an 8, 12 or 18 segment variation. The ways these work is that each ride is one segment. So whether I ride the train for 24 hours or 2, whenever I use the pass to get back on the train is one segment. So my planning will consist of which route to take, what there is to see along that route and, how long I want to stay at each of my stops. Maybe I take the train South and East towards Orlando and spend two days at Disney World before continuing North towards Boston.

That alone is (at least) four uses of the MultiPass. Getting on at my start, switching trains in Los Angeles then getting off in Orlando. Then, getting back on in Orlando is the third use and switching trains in NYC would be the fourth. Maybe I'll want to stop along the way; the train goes through El Paso Texas - where my mother is from - so I could get off there and see the city then continue towards New Orleans. That adds two additional uses, now at 6. Since I need to switch trains in NYC maybe I'll give NYC another chance and vacation there for a day or two without adding an additional use to my pass. Which leaves me with 2 uses left, which could be used if there is a train I need to switch to and didn't realize while planning. Of course, this is just one route of many that I could take. I tried to do this all on the computer but I really wanted a tangible thing I could look at and touch. Something that said "Hey, this is real." So, I have a giant map that resembles that linked map just before this next to my computer with pins and yarn.



Each color yarn denotes a different train, or in other words where I'd start a new segment. I also didn't include every train, I just lined out the major turns and stops to get a general idea of the routes I can take. There's also a route between Lafayette, Louisiana and Chicago, Illinois that I didn't visualize because (1) it's basically a straight line, (2) my pin for Chicago is about to pop out and I don't want to add more string beneath it and (3), I ran out of colors and I already have 5 colors I have going to Chicago



Next I'm going to be putting in pins where I want to stop. If there's something farther out than a taxi ride and I really want to see it, maybe I'll stay in a hotel for the night and rent a car. There's a lot to think about. I'm thinking I'm going to get the 12 segment pass and will plan on taking 14 days to do this trip. Which seems to be a fairly great number, as I'd rather not spend more than a day on a train if possible and I want to stop a few places - maybe 2? - for more than a day. If I go through Chicago I'll certainly stay there for a bit and of course a few days at my destination, which will either be Niagara Falls, New York (again) or Boston, Massachusetts.

Once I finalize my route, I'll outline that with a thicker yarn and start booking hotels and other things! I do not have a date for this trip yet. Maybe summer, I might even try and shoot for a Spring 2017 vacation. Just depends on factors, and as a photographer the season is a big one. If I go through the "flyover states" and there are miles of fields in bloom maybe I'll wait until Spring. Or if I go through states with lots of trees maybe I'll go around Fall to capture those colors in the leaves. But for now I'm focusing on where I want to go then I'll focus on the dates.

I'd also like to involve you guys. If there's any where you think I should go and see please look at the interactive map and suggest it if the destination is close to a station! If you want to meet up, we can entertain the idea but I won't make promises. I do have other objectives to consider from a prospective sponsor* but this trip is happening with our without their support.

*They approached me about this trip and emphasized that they are considering it but that I would be their person of choice. Since this is something I've wanted to do for a while I accepted and told them I'd plan it and get back to them. If they decide to financially back it, awesome, otherwise no bad blood cause I'll do it anyway (but without their product).

Just for an update:

• I've bought a new map which measures 36x48 inches and a cork board to match.
  
• The map is laminated and thus, dry erasable. Which will allow me to make notes and create routes before committing it to yarn.
  
• The map also had a sticky back so I was able to "sticker it" to the cork board.
  
• I bought new pins so I can wrap the thread around the top of the pin rather than around the needle, which is causing some problems on my 48x60 inch map.
  
• I'm being more careful with where I put pins. On the larger map I put pins at major turns and between two distant points. Which caused some frustration when I went back to see that there's a rail between to adjacent rails that I didn't pin the stops for. For instance, St. Louis and Kansas City aren't pinned on the larger map but on the smaller map I pinned those locations so the two main trains that run through cities do, as well as the train that connects those two cities can be added in later. On the larger map I had added Topeka and Poplar Bluff. (img)
  
• I've started looking at other maps such as a "Dark Sky Finder" to try and find one remote location I want to spend a night in to take night photos. Montana is looking like a big plus.
  
• I've already found a few places I would like to visit while adding the pins and yarn to this new map.
  
• I'll be buying new pins (maybe flag pins?) to denote areas of interest. Once I get a couple dozen areas of interest I'll research those and hopefully decide on a route.

The cool thing about using a physical map is that I can keep this as a souvenir. After I figure out the rails I will travel on I'll line that with a thicker yarn. When I get back I can maybe find a service to print small stickers or pins with photographs I took and place those photos on the map at their correlating locations, much akin to bread crumbs. I can use this map to plan another rail trip which I think will be incredibly likely at this point. I mean, there's so much to see altogether along the railways that I can't possibly imagine not doing this again.

Perhaps after taking a trip by rail I'll look back and decide I want to take a more concentrated vacation to an area we went through. I'm really excited about the possibilities for this vacation and the tangents I can take in others. I'd love to take a vacation that ends with Maker Faire or T^3.

Every time I work on this I'm really excited and stoked I'm finally actively working on something I've wanted to accomplish for a while.

This is really exciting. I've wanted to take a cross-country train trip since I was small, and although your goal is as much the destinations in between as the train and scenery (the latter of which would be my primary interest), I'm excited about the prospects for your trip. It sounds like you've put a lot of effort into thinking about how to get the most out of it already, and additional kudos that there's a prospect for getting financial assistance for the trip.
For the people following along at home, this is the Rail Pass, and it's $460 for 8 segments within 15 days, $690 for 12 segments within 30 days, and $900 for 18 segments within 45 days.

That would be great! I know that I'd be happy to see you again. By the way, depending on the time of year, you should consider taking the Vermonter up from Washington DC or New York City as far as Essex Junction (Burlington), Vermont; it's a beautiful 9 to 12-hour journey, and I think Burlington is more your speed than some larger cities.

No promises. I may go through Chicago and would thus miss the NYC stop on my way to Boston - if Boston ends up being my final stop - the only way I'd go through NYC is if I came up from Florida/Louisiana. There's still planning to be done! I'll be pinning POI's over the next few days and hopefully have a route by December/January. Present said route (and maybe timeline) to sponsor.

It looks like he'll be passing through Springfield, so he can come visit me in Boston/Providence, AND go to Burlington

I got a really good suggestion to see Black Dragon Canyon in Utah, and the trail head appears to be about 15 miles away from the Train Station in Green River. It's also relatively secluded on the Dark Sky map. If I can figure out transportation I'd really like to go; it's also off the train that departs directly from my home city (where as I'd have to go down to L.A. or Seattle before departing South). I'm not ruling anything out, this is also the first suggestion of many that I've followed up on.

I still need to collect more POIs and follow up on them. I'll add meeting you to the list of things in Boston as well as Burlington, VT.

It's a bit out of your way, but why not try Concord, Mass. or Lexington, Mass.? Maybe see the place where the Revolutionary War started?

It's not too far out of my way; if Boston will be my last stop it'll also be somewhere I'll spend the night before flying home and could thus rent a car and view those cities. Google Maps pegs those at about 30 minutes away. Is there anything I should be looking to do in or around those cities?

Through a few short weeks of no progress I finally found motivation on IRC. I was chatting in a room of people and one of them brought up my map and said he'd like to meet if I happen to go that way. The user said that he'd be willing to meet me in Washington D.C., the capitol of the USA. Which prompted me to think of a route I'd love to take - Sacramento, CA (the capitol of California) to Washington D.C..

A few other users chimed in and said they'd love to meet up as well so I started pinning my Points of Interest, or POIs, today. It may be a bit hard to see but there are blue and red pins. Each color represents a different POI type. Blue is used for friends/people and red is used for attractions such as a state park or a restaurant I'd want to visit.



You may have noticed that I pinned the Bahamas. I don't plan to go there on this trip but remember my post above, I'll be using this map for more than just this trip! I don't have a lot of folks on the west side of the states but there are a few blue pins over there; just no where along a path that'd make the blue pins on the East coast make sense unless I went South from Chicago then East then North along the coast.

I'm also rethinking the number of stops. I was originally thinking I'd stop every day so I didn't spend such long durations on a train car but then I realized that the trip may be more enjoyable if I stop at a few destinations for a few days. Such as 2 days in Chicago and 2 days in Washington D.C and 2 days somewhere else. If I get the pass I want to, the 14 day pass, I can certainly spend more than two days or afford to stop at more locations for longer. Also, this will let me shower and clean up more regularly as not every stop would have been with facilities; I was planning on stopping somewhere in the morning, take a taxi to a state park and hike, return to train station and continue my journey. And frankly that would not have been pleasant. This way I can spend a full day or two on a train - takes ~2 days to get from Sacramento to Chicago - and enjoy a few solid days of exploration then another travel stint to my next destination.

I also plan to add 2 more train lines, there's a train that goes from Chicago to Washington D.C. that I should add and from Chicago to Layfayette, LA that I have yet to add.

I've had some thought on the project over the last 30 or so days. I'm still thinking State Capitol to Country Capitol but having a hard time deciding on a route.

1. I can easily take two trains going from California to Washington D.C with a few day stop in Chicago.
   
2. I can bump it up to three trains by going North to Washington where I have family, spend a few nights there before continue through Montana and the Northern states on my way to Chicago.
   
3. I can still take 3 trains and go from California to Chicago to New York then to Washington DC.

I haven't seen my family in Washington in quite a few years and one of my cousins just became a realtor so I can probably get a good idea on the housing market while I'm out there; as moving in 4-5 years time is on my agenda and moving somewhere with familiar faces is a big plus. Secondly, a decent concentration of my out-of-state friends are in the New York area albeit spread out around the state so deciding where to stop is still undetermined.

My main concern now is stops. If I buy a rail pass and I only plan to stop at 2-3 places - Washington, Chicago, New York - before my final destination it may be cheaper to buy regular tickets. So, if I want to still make use of the rail pass I can go on a wild - and real? - cross country trip. By going through the Northern states, continuing through Chicago to Texas (or Louisiana) towards Florida then finally traveling North again to D.C. I could have as many as 4-5 overnight or multi-night stops.

I've also decided to introduce a challenge in the name of packing light. Since I'll be on a train for the entire duration having multiple bags is not exactly an easy feat. Two bags is doable but when I plan to be on the rail for 2 weeks, I'll need to pack efficiently or I can shop at Thrift Stores for my clothes while only packing the necessities like socks. I would then donate the clothes to homeless, shelters or just throw it away at the next stop, unless I really like your grand dads clothes.

Another update regarding my sponsor. I did attend CES with them last week and after using their product to get around, I'm not exactly thrilled. They make a pretty neat all electric last-mile scooter. It goes 20MPH for about 20 miles and it's incredibly fun. The downside is that it weighs about 35 pounds so it's not exactly a pleasure to carry around and I'm pretty sure I'd rather not deal with a photo backpack, a small luggage bag and, this scooter. Even though they came to me about sponsorship, I may approach Panono (who I discovered at CES and covered in the linked topic) and ask for a decent discount if I promote their product. I don't expect to hear back or for me to follow through but I'd much rather take an emerging photography product along than an electric scooter.

Spent some time deciding on a few routes I'd want to take by looking at where I want to stop. I also needed to visualize the time between stops so I could factor that in to what multi-pass I need to purchase. So far, all routes can get by on the 15 day pass. I know Route #1 says "Pass #2" even though it's 14.57 days. I am going to assume the 30 day pass because these are just rough estimates based on Google telling me the duration of the travel between the stops. It's probably not going to be much higher than that but until I know for sure, I'm going to assume I'll need the next pass up.

There's really nothing in the Mid-West that I'm stopping for and I am bummed about that. Since it's just me on this trip and I don't know anyone around the Sacramento-Chicago line or the Seattle-Chicago line I didn't list any stops. For the most part planning on 2 days per stop but the routes with less stops I increased the time spent at each location; one route with two stops has 5 days each which I think is excessive. Though if I do get a second person on board, we can then decide to stop in a mid-west city but there's no draw for me to go somewhere with no connections.

Once I choose a route I'll spend more time deciding what to do and the proper duration for each stop. I figure it is easier to average it out first.



There's a line from Chicago to San Antonio, TX but I'm electing not to take it because if I go South from Chicago my next train is in Louisiana about 10.5 hours away. I honestly know no one in Louisiana but stopping in Texas to change trains in Louisiana seems like a waste of a segment but I do have plenty of those to spare no matter which route I choose. It's plausible I suppose, stopping in TX for a few days and just using LA to switch trains without staying over night.

I realize Buffalo, NY is 10.5 Hours from Chicago but I know people in the area and would love to revisit Niagara Falls as well so it's a short segment I don't mind taking. While NYC to my final stop in D.C. is only 4 hours, it's also where I'd have to use a segment of the multi-pass because the line to D.C. starts/stops in NYC so I'd have to change trains there anyways when coming through New York. Whether or not I stop for a few nights is another decision and routes do have that stop.

There's also routes I can take that aren't listed. Like most of those go through Seattle then through New York. I can remove Seattle and still go through New York but I figured listing those routes would be more of a contributor to confusion than selecting a route then refining the stops. On that same logic I could remove a few routes as well. But meh.