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Across the USA by Train for Just $213

dereklow.co

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Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#71

Post by pavel_lishin »

mindslight wrote: post #37
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #3

Talk about meeting new people on a train: "An hour later, at a small Nevada town, there was a scene of confusion as the train pulled into the station with police cars standing by. The police boarded the train and arrested my dinner companion on suspicion of possessing firearms." On the other hand, its totally legal in Nevada to open carry; a permit is required only for concealed carry. So I'm wondering what the fuss…

I'd guess preexisting charges. The time I took Amtrak cross country, my seat friend was "Ralph". He was nicely dressed, in the "import trucking" business, didn't like flying, and upgraded to a sleeper cabin with cash. The FBI got on at ABQ and started harassing people for their tickets. I was in the observation car at the time, but when I returned to my seat Ralph was still there! He had been hitting on the train att…

> perhaps the train is a great place to do an exchange with an informant.

Not if all the passengers around them are aware of it.

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#72

Post by pavel_lishin »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #8
ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amtrak presumably is under Federal, not Nevada, jurisdiction. Assuming it was a Federal violation.

Unloaded in checked baggage has been legal since 2010. So he must have made a mistake, kept a handgun in personal baggage? Not worth 6 squad cars in my opinion. Maybe a kind reminder, and move it to his checked bag?

> Not worth 6 squad cars in my opinion.

Ah, but your opinion isn't what sends squad cars out. I didn't think that exploring an abandoned mall warranted five squad cars, two fire engines and a helicopter, but the Allen police department disagreed with me.

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#73

Post by phlakaton »

logfromblammo wrote: post #54
hornd wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Federal law mandates Amtrak priority over freight, even when operating on freight railways, but my understanding is that the law is not often followed.

Only if they're running on time. And they're never running on time over the longer routes. I once took the train from Chicago to Denver and back. On the return trip, our train was delayed 24 hours total. We spent an entire extra day stuck on sidings in the middle of nowhere, as freight cars passed us by. Ofttimes in those situations, the passengers are offloaded onto coach buses, but there were no paved roads nearby.…

Countering anecdata: I've taken the CA Zephyr from Emeryville to Grand Junction twice, and arrived on-time with the first and I think 30 mins late with the second. With a mobile phone as a hotspot, and sone snacks in the bag for lunch, it was a very nice trip!

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#74

Post by gk101 »

jzwinck wrote: post #31
prezjordan wrote: post #28

I wanted to enjoy this post, but I couldn't help but wonder what was plagiarized[0] this time around. Perhaps it was a stupid mistake back then, but tough to look past it. [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/2huw34/what_its_... EDIT: Looks like a lot of it. Sigh.

Strangely the article about trains had a big ad for the article about Singapore Airlines at the bottom. I had a hard time remembering if this was the guy who originated that content or ripped it off. Thanks for the refresher...it's surprising this guy seems to be proud of the content he stole, even now.

Yup it's the same dude that ripped it off

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#76

Post by qntty »

enraged_camel wrote: post #50
ksk wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is a train better than a car in this regard? You don't have to take the freeway if you don't want to.

It's several orders of magnitude safer, for one thing.

According to this, it's only about 1 order of magnitude safer

http://election.princeton.edu/2015/05/13/train-travel-is-inc...

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#78

Post by s73v3r »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #8
ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amtrak presumably is under Federal, not Nevada, jurisdiction. Assuming it was a Federal violation.

Unloaded in checked baggage has been legal since 2010. So he must have made a mistake, kept a handgun in personal baggage? Not worth 6 squad cars in my opinion. Maybe a kind reminder, and move it to his checked bag?

But you don't know if he simply made an honest mistake, or if he had a reason for keeping a gun with him.

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#79

Post by agox »

nkrisc wrote: post #23

The photo captioned as a view from the Willis Tower is actually from the John Hancock, you can see the Willis Tower on the right side of the photo. However, very cool, and has perhaps inspired me to make the same trip one day.

I had the exact same thought when I saw that.

Re: Across the USA by Train for Just $213

#80

Post by CWuestefeld »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #66
austenallred wrote: post #17

When I lived as a poor vagabond couch-surfer in China, I did almost 100% of my traveling by train. I'm convinced there's no better way to travel. When you travel by airplane, you're pretty much rapidly moving from huge city to huge city. You miss everything in-between, from the terrain to seeing how people outside of the cities live. Even driving from one place to another, you're confined to the freeways. You see a l…

>Even driving from one place to another, you're confined to the freeways. Plane to train is also the same as train to car. The US has all sorts of non-expressway routes that are fun to drive and you see so much culture, culture you can actually stop and interact with trivially. For example, the classic Route 66, which you can still drive today. Or make your own routes with all this fancy GPS stuff we have today. Ther…

My wife and I always do this with pleasure trips. For a premium of 10%-20% time versus the Interstate, you can see and experience so much more.

One of my favorite things is to stop and photograph the crumbling remains of past glory. I've got a vague idea of collecting the works together into a show or book, trying to illustrate the fleeting nature of our dreams.

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