I've flown across the country many times, but have only done it on the train once. I ended up doing a loop going from Boston to Washington DC to Chicago to Sacr

I've flown across the country many times, but have only done it on the train once. I ended up doing a loop going from Boston to Washington DC to Chicago to Sacramento to Los Angeles to San Antonio to Chicago and finally to Boston. The whole trip took 10 days, with 7 nights on the train and 3 off the train. In the roughly 8,800 miles of that trip, it was amazing to see so much of the country that I'd only flown over. Time also seemed to stand still, as I really lost all sense of place and time. It was the most relaxed I've ever been in my live. I agree that if anyone was to do just one overnight train trip in the US, they should do Chicago and/or Denver to Emeryville. In fact, that was the leg that seemed to have have the most tourists, vs. the route across Texas which was more people going from point A to B that didn't want to spend 12 hours on a bus. One bonus of the trip was having a glass of wine and some cheese with Gene Shalit on the final leg. Apparently he was a regular and knew many of the station and train staff by name.