New member

Hi. I am new to this forum, and am about to embark on my first train trip in many years. I have been thinking about train travel for a while, had to be a couple places far from Florida where I live, hate to fly anyway, and then found I couldn't use my frequent flyer miles b/c the dates I needed weren't available.

So I got a new credit card that gives me Amtrak miles and got busy booking my trips over the phone with one of several very helpful Amtrak agents I have worked with over the past few months. I will be going from Jacksonville to Ft Morgan CO via Wash DC and Chicago. Will stay there a while and the get on the Cal Zephyr to Sacramento, then Coast Starlight to Portland. After another couple of weeks, I board the Empire Builder for Minneapolis. That's the part I am concerned about; have been warned about serious delays. Am anxious to see the new station in St Paul though. The final leg of the journey will be st Paul back to FL via NYC and Wash DC again.

I have an overnight layover in NY so was glad to read a post about the safety of Penn Station and also about a hotel across the street.

I'm really excited about this trip. Maybe I will meet a few of you real train people on board. Hope so. And thank you for all your interesting and informative posts. Very helpful to a newbie.

NOTE THAT THIS WAS POSTED TO ANOTHER THREAD AND WAS MOVED HERE PER THE OP'S REQUEST!

Welcome to AU, the Best Forum on the internet and what a Great Trip, we're envious!

We look forward to your Trip Report, if you have ant questions please ask, we have lots of folks here that like to help others with tips and info, some of it is even true!