Boston to New Orleans to Chicago - Crescent and CONO...

After our two nights in Boston, we travel to New Orleans via New York. We catch a regional service from Boston to New York Penn Station, departing Boston at 08:15 and arriving New York at 12:16. After a late arrival into Boston on Sunday night and this early start on Tuesday, we really only have Monday to see Boston and it's also a Public Holiday. I've already emailed Fenway Park and the tour to see the 'Green Monster' should be on that day, so looking forward to doing that.

This train is the only train we take where we are not seated in our own sleeper/roomette as it is just a normal regional commuter train. There is however Business Class upgrades available and a 'Quiet Car' where mobile phones must be turned off and noise kept to a minimum. We will resist the temptation to upgrade. I refuse to fly cattle class, but a short hop on the train should be okay...lol

We travel through 4 states on this leg. Leaving from Massachusetts, we enter Rhode Island before going thru Connecticut and finally New York State.

Time: 4hrs 1min
States: 4
Kilometres: 372

Total time: 69hrs 41mins
Total states: 15
Total Kilometres: 5625

After a 2hr train change at New York we board the Crescent, a Viewliner train where we have a sleeper/roomette for the 30hr trek to New Orleans. On this leg we have roomette #1...

Within the first 20 mins we leave New York State and enter New Jersey and little more than an hour later we enter Pennsylvania and the major city of Philadelphia. From Philly we head towards Washington DC but before reaching Washington just after sunset, we travel thru Wilmington, Delaware and Baltimore, Maryland.

By the time we reach Washington a little over 4 hours after leaving New York, we will have been in 6 different states!!!!

From Washington we continue our journey into the night heading toward the deep south. Overnight we travel thru the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina before entering Georgia just before sunrise, arriving in Atlanta at 08:13, right on breakfast time.

After a 20 minute stop in Atlanta, we head southwest towards New Orleans. During the day we travel thru the states of Alabama and Mississippi before crossing the border into the state of Louisiana, arriving in New Orleans at 19:38 on the evening of the 23rd February.

Time: 30hrs 23min
States: 12
Kilometres: 2203

Total time: 100hrs 4mins
Total states: 26
Total Kilometres: 7828

At New Orleans we will spend another 2 nights, staying at the Sheraton New Orleans, perfectly situated on Canal Street on the edge of Downtown and the French Quarter. A short stroll up 2 blocks brings us to the vibrant Bourbon Street.

At 13:45 on the 25th, we board the City of New Orleans for our overnight trip to Chicago. The 'CONO' as it is affectionately known is a Superliner train and we have roomette #3...

The route is pretty easy to follow, due north, all the way.

We leave Louisiana and enter Mississippi, where we travel thru the afternoon and into the night. We enter Tennessee and arrive at Memphis at 22:00. We stop at the home of Elvis for 40mins, probably not enough time to do a tour unfortunately....lol.

Leaving Tennessee we travel thru Kentucky before entering southern Illinois in the early hours of the morning. We travel the length of Illinois before arriving in Chicago after breakfast at 09:00 on the 26th.

Time: 19hrs 15min
States: 5
Kilometres: 1494

Total time: 119hrs 19mins
Total states: 28
Total Kilometres: 9322

We have almost a full day in Chicago this day, staying just one night at W Chicago City Center. We will attempt to checkin early before heading out for a city tour, but if not we will leave our bags and come back later.

That's all for now, I'll post about the final leg (Chicago-Reno) which is a leg I'm very much looking forward to. Many rate the trip thru the Rockies from Denver to Salt Lake City as one of the great train journeys of the world....