I might be taking the train cross country

What is the food situation.

Also I assume I'm going to go 3 days without showering? Which is not the end of the world.

I'm afraid to ride trains anymore, really. But I'm sure it's only me that's jinxed, not anyone else.

And the ride doesn't have to be miserable. Bring your tunes, find some decent people to chat with, read a book, look out the window. Write.

Economy size snack packs would be great. Dried fruit, trail mixes, that kind of stuff would be great. I'd done the Coastal Starlight from Seattle to L.A. before... and even I broke down, and did the meal thing in the dining cart. You get a shitty meal (basically the one vegetarian option) and it still costs around $12 per meal or so. Never again. If i have to do a multi-day train on coach, I'm bringing mega-bags of food for it.

Definitely bring some cash though in case you do want to buy snacks. Having no cash on a train really really sucks, as there are no ATM facilities.. except maybe for small layovers at certain train stations.

and yes, bring some of your own food, preserved, if you can.

I expect I will get a lot of reading and listening done but who knows. Maybe there will be a cute guy with room in his berth to share.

I assume coach seats don't have access to outlets, right?

You can roam the entire train if you want, outside the conductor's coach. This is how I found out that, no longer how long a train ride was, I would never in hell pay for a sleeper car, given how horribly tight and pod-like they are.. because I went through the sleeper car sections in order to sneak into the VIP cart to get some free boutique cheese and crackers.

Oh hell fuck it, my student advantage discount # is 6088514110699404. The rest of y'all can use it too, til it expires in October.

i brought energy bars and fruit to munch on. i didn't want to pay for the dining car food and the one snack bar item i tried to eat was vile. i had a real meal during the layover in chicago.

bathing? well, there's a sink, and soap, and a door that locks.

i gotta admit that sleeping is difficult if you have someone sitting next to you whose shoulder you would feel uncomfortable using as a pillow. but you can put your seat back. pretty good leg room too.

Ally, thanks, I'll let you know if that works!

But someone showed me this and if I wasn't excited before...

Or is this an adventure thing?

I will be on the train for 6 days, actually. I have a lot of reading to catch up with. If I could temp and earn the $400 it would cost to fly, I would spend that money on other things, like paying off debt. I would probably have to work all six of those days to make the $400.

I probably would have bought a plane ticket a while back, except I didn't know my grandmother was going to be this sick, and I thought I could get a free flight. (And if I couldn't get a free flight, I wasn't that upset about missing the wedding -- it's great that I can go there though!)

I also don't really like flying, and am curious how the train compares.

i hope people call this "shithole bay."