Well, it begins! After a frantic dash to the station, ably assisted by L. of Technology House, I managed to get on to the first travel segment of my journey aboard the services of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (d.b.a. Amtrak). I'm riding from Providence to Washington, and visiting A.S. in the District. I'm looking forward to visiting D.C. again, having last visited while I was in middle school.
I spent most of the day in Providence, having actually started my journey by train earlier in the day with a ride from Boston on the Commuter Rail of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. I visited with D.D. and drove around Roger Williams Park, and overall had a lovely time walking and driving around a mist-set Providence. Later that evening, I was an actor in, as it was called, "an interactive theater experience" put on by Technology House - sadly, we only got one run-through of the event due to rain and sabotage by ne'er-do-wells.
I will arrive in Washington at 6:30 in the morning. Currently, my tickets are booked through Thursday. I will be staying in D.C. for the weekend, then leaving Monday afternoon on the Capitol Limited, arriving in Pittsburgh around midnight. I will spend the Tuesday in Pittsburgh, visiting T.W. and G.M., and then travelling on on Tuesday evening - again near midnight - continuing on the Capitol Limited to Chicago. Arriving on Wednesday morning, I will have a layover of a few hours, then board the Texas Eagle bound for Austin. After that, I intend to go onwards to California and the West Coast - but my tickets for those segments are not yet secured.
I'm making this trip using a 30-day, 12-segment Amtrak railpass. One interesting quirk of the program is that it takes you back in time a little bit - all the tickets you get are revenue tickets, which means if you lose them, you lose them. No e-tickets here! All transactions for railpass tickets have to be executed either over the phone or at a ticket counter, and it certainly gives it a different feel. Anyways. Onwards to Washington!