This post comes to you from Chicago’s Public Library, which turns out to have a branch much closer to Union Station (on State between Van Buren and Congress) than the one I’d been thinking of (near a college campus way the heck south, I think). I got an unexpected sightseeing day on the town when the California Zephyr arrived eight and a half hours later than scheduled. So I’ll be getting on the Lakeshore Limited this evening instead of last night.

Meanwhile, if you’re thinking of riding the rails anytime soon, and riding them in coach like the rest of us cheapskate schmucks, here’s some checklists to help you prepare for the ordeal delightful vacation experience.

Carry-on Packing List

• Basic Touristy Necessities: a camera, your cell phone, some cash. Extra shirt. Bar of soap.
• 1 Lunch Sack containing 4 Basic Food Groups. Or all levels of the Food Pyramid. Whatever we’re using these days. Anyway, prefer room temperature proteins to refrigerated ones. The snack car attendant gives ice in 8 oz. increments and won’t appreciate hourly requests without a purchase.
• 6-Plug Power Strip with 90-Degree Rotating Plug. This will make it easier to keep your camera, laptop, and phone charged. It will also make you very good friends with your cell-phone-using neighbors about 2 hours into the trip.
• All that work you’ve been meaning to get around to for the last three weeks. Cross-country train rides mean a lot of free time and not a lot of demand on it.
• Several layers of warm clothing and a scarf. If the car is by some miracle not freezing at night, you can bundle the clothes up to augment the Amtrak-issued pillow. The scarf makes a good sleep blindfold.
• Earplugs, so you can comfortably sleep through the dining car attendant’s breakfast announcement. Also your cell-phone-using neighbor’s random 2 AM phone calls.
• A sense of humor and a flexible attitude towards scheduling. Trains are late. Expect it. Enjoy the hotel Amtrak sends you to if you miss your connection and have to overnight in Chicago. It’s fairly posh.

List Of Things To Look For When Choosing A Seat

• A View. This can be hampered if your seat is positioned right between two windows instead of in the middle of one.
• Electrical Outlets. Superliners tend to have two per car: one across from the stairwell, and one on the other side about five rows forward. The outlet will be all but hidden by the armrest. This is why your power strip has a 90-degree angle plug.
• Distance From Sleep Hindrances. The doors at either end of the car are noisy suckers, and the light in the stairwell never turns off. Also, do not expect small children t be anything other than small children.
• Pleasant Neighbors. Not the ones haranguing the stewards or conducting cell phone conversations about their medications at performance-level volume.

List Of On-Board Pastimes

• Taking Pictures. Later, you can tell your friends that “That blur, right there? That’s the informational graffiti at the Utah/Colorado border going by real fast.”
• Socializing. If you knit, this will happen without your even trying. By the end of the trip you will have met and compared projects with every other knitter on board. If you use a laptop, prepare to make five new friends all of whom hope, based on the mistaken assumption that you’re somehow getting Internet, to check their e-mail. Also, see previous comment about power plugs and cell-phone-using neighbors.
• Setting Up Your Mobile Office. For ease of writing reply e-mails (to be saved and sent later), printing out rough drafts for mark-up, and neurotically checking for wi-fi at every station stop and freight delay. Have prepared several blog URLs to load up in browser tabs the instant your connect.
• Sleeping. A lot. The snack car sells liquid sleep aids that you may or may not find useful. Some of them have the phrase “single malt” on their label.
• Spider Solitaire. Reading whatever you managed to load into your browser at last station stop. Counting the rivets on passing trains. Anything, in fact, other than the work you brought with you and intended to get done on the trip.

List Of Things To Do Next Time

• Splurge on a sleeper car?
• Yes, after winning the lottery.