Signs & Wonders Blog

During the last couple of years, I’ve mostly traveled the United States by train due to Southwest Airlines adding baggage fees, and airports requiring a REAL ID (unless one is willing to pay an extra $45). One advantage to using Amtrak is you can have up to five pieces of luggage for free when going in between stations that check bags. At the time of this writing, I’m using another USA Rail Pass .  One downside of Amtrak is that their trains are frequently late. This past Monday, I was supposed to leave Saint Paul, Minnesota before 9 a.m. My train arrived over four hours later. As a result, I missed a connecting train going from Chicago to New Orleans (an Amtrak route I hadn’t taken before). That meant having to readjust my schedule.  Another inconvenience was the malfunctioning air conditioning on my train, which made me sweat in my seat for most of the journey. To add to my woes, my cell phone carrier went out of service for several hours. This was due to a nationwide ne...

For the third time in the past four years, I’ve utilized an Amtrak USA Rail Pass . This pass grants a passenger the privilege of embarking on ten train journeys within a 30-day timeframe at an affordable price. Typically, the pass costs $499. However, during the past four Januarys, the pass was on sale. This year, it was briefly reduced to half-price at $250, likely in celebration of the United States Semiquincentennial. I promptly purchased one and meticulously booked segments weeks in advance to minimize the risk of being stranded. A limited number of seats are available for rail pass users. My latest train pass was activated on February 7th in Tampa. From there, I embarked on a journey along the Floridian route to Richmond, Virginia. The conductor initially assigned me an aisle seat. Fortunately, the man occupying the window seat next to mine offered to switch seats. That made it easier for me to catch some sleep during the lengthy train ride. However, the train arrived in Richmond...