You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

I feel like the “or” is incredibly limiting, especially considering the scale of the contiguous 48 states. Honestly, who would select a bike to cross over a couple thousand miles?

Okay, I’m sure there are some people who would choose the bike, but not me.

I’ve crossed large spans of the country by plane, and it’s wildly different than by car, but I’ve only ever traveled across a max of four or five states by car, all in the western half. I’ve also had to travel from one side of the state to the other by bus, and while that trip was interesting to be able to see the environment around us without worrying about the road, that trip wasn’t entirely pleasant.

If I had to pick just one mode of transportation for a cross-country trip it would be by train. I’ve always wanted to take a train and watch the sprawling countryside. Sitting in a private room, reading and writing, eating in the dining car. All those kinds of things that you see in movies and TV shows that make it seem incredibly appealing.

Unfortunately it is very cost prohibitive, especially because I would want a sleeper unit.

Well, in the event I somehow pull it off or the costs come way down, I do have an idea of how I would go about it.

The first place to start would be in the northeast and traveling south along the Atlantic coast. Then I would take a westbound route, hopefully to Washington or Oregon, and then repeat the southbound travel along the Pacific.

I’ve looked up some of the numbers previously, and I would likely need a solid month to accomplish the full trip, maybe more depending on availability.

I wonder if I could work from the train so I can save PTO? That would be interesting.