amtrak

For the first time since I was a child, I took an Amtrak train rather than drive or fly to another city. I'm currently in Chicago, and the Amtrak ride was a rather uneventful five hours, with many laughing and talking individuals sitting around me… luckily, I had my iPhone and headphones, so I could drown out a lot of that noise!

The train ride was pretty nice, I would say—there were few stops, the ride was extremely quiet (besides some track noise, and the occasional train horn), and besides some side-to-side jolting (which doesn't feel as frightening as rough turbulence, the ride was very pleasant. The price was nice, too: $23 one-way to Chicago (for the 4:30 a.m. Lincoln Express).

The train cars themselves are about equivalent to a charter bus, with a little more legroom, and one amenity that was extremely awesome: every seat had two 120V electrical outlets! I could keep my work-provided power-hungry 15" MacBook Pro quite happy the whole way to Chicago :-)