My son and I took a train from Washington, DC to Chicago, then we rode The City of New Orleans down to New Orleans, stayed a few days, then returned on The Crescent back to Washington, DC.
We’ve also taken the auto train from Lorton, VA to Sanford, FL and back twice.
If you have the time and money for it, train travel is quite enjoyable. We’d like to do another trip at some point.
“My son and I took a train from Washington, DC to Chicago,”
that was the Cardinal, no?
I’ve rode that A LOT.
If we have the money for it? Sure we do, we're taxayers. We pay a very large portion of the capital costs of the Amtrak operation, and on the long-distance trains the "farebox" or ticket revenue covers about 50-55% of the operating expenses of each trip.
I’ve taken many train rides:
Pittsburgh to Indiana cities: Michigan City, South Bend, Valpo,
Autotrain from DC area to Florida near Orlando 3x
Russia: Moscow to St Pete and back - this was quite a trip: train was full of unsavory characters. Conductor told us to put our valuables in a certain place. I didn’t do that. A fellow traveling with us did - he put his camera and some money there. In the morning it was gone.
Trip from St Pete back to Moscva was beautiful, watched the morning sun come up over lots of birch and maple woods.
Whenever possible, I’ll take the train over flying.
Food is usually pretty good, I can get up and walk around and see the scenery. I can even stand in the area between cars and watch the world go by.
People are friendly, relaxed and willing to talk.