I had a bright idea in the middle of the night - why don't I see about taking the Amtrak train the next time I go to Oklahoma City. I thought to myself, "It might take about the same amount of time as driving, but should be cheaper than flying, and I wouldn't be doing all the driving."
This idea came to me when I was thinking about a conversation I had with Dad. We were saying that the technology must be available to have automatic express lanes on the interstate. You could tell your GPS screen computer where you are going and set the car on something like a cruise setting. Get in the express lane, and let the track take me to Oklahoma City. I probably couldn't take a nap, but could maybe eat my snacks without paying the closest of attention.
Maybe I should call President Obama and make this suggestion.
Back to the train idea, though.
I found out why Amtrak is on the brink of not existing. The price to go from Birmingham to OKC was about $354. A little higher than I thought, BUT....
It would take 78 hours and 58 minutes to get there!!!! WHAT?? That's more than 3 days! I don't know what kind of tracks they have, but this would be my route:
1. Birmingham, AL to Washington, DC. Because that is totally the way to get to Oklahoma.
2. Washington, DC to Chicago. Now we're thinking.... go back west. Northwest.
3. Chicago to Fort Worth. That's right, drive right past Oklahoma and go to Texas
4. Fort Worth to OKC.
Just for fun, I checked the route from New Orleans to OKC. You know, Daryl could drive me 10 hours to NO to catch the train. Definitely a smarter route because we don't go to Washington DC at all. Just straight to Chicago, back to Fort Worth, and then on to OKC.
YIKES!!! If you find all of this a little hard to believe, here is the actual schedule from the website. I think I totally misunderstand what train travel is all about. They must only have one way tracks. I think I will look into this and make another call to President Obama.
