[eLobato]

I had to travel by Amtrak (forced, I lost my passport and I couldn't board a plane) from LA to NYC via Chicago once. ($230)

Not only I got to see a lot of places, but I truly accomplished more quality work than I normally do in a similar time-frame. Nearly zero distractions other than the occasional beautiful sight and the rest breaks I took, I had the chance to visit the surroundings of the major stations the train stopped at.

Perhaps it's my ability to sleep in the weirdest places, but I found the sightseer lounge car couches very comfortable. I went to bed 1hr or so after dusk, and I woke up with the morning lights. That's about 8h of sleep or so every night.

PS: Make sure to download a metric shitton of music before you do this. The sightseer car (the only place where one can truly work comfortably in the train) is usually a noisy place.

[Nicholas_C]

Wow. I went from Austin to NYC via Chicago and it was 50 something hours on a train. LA to NYC would be an incredible amount of time on a train.

I definitely downloaded a ton of movies and music and brought a few books.

[suyash]

no need for passport for domestic flights.

[mst]

But you do need some sort of ID; I'd presume the passport was all he had.

[llamataboot]

AFAIK, Amtrak generally checks IDs these days as well