Traveling By Train Across The USA With J Thorn

Traveling by train is fantastic because you can watch the world go by from the carriage, sometimes for days on end, and you have somewhere to sleep and wash and eat while you travel. You can catch glimpses of places you might never visit as the train passes through and you arrive in the heart of the biggest cities relaxed and ready to explore. In this interview, J.Thorn gives some tips about the best routes to travel with Amtrak in the USA and what you can expect from the service, as well as some thoughts on why train travel is so romantic and some book recommendations, plus we talk about our experience co-writing Sacrifice en-route from Chicago to New Orleans. J.Thorn is a dark fantasy, post-apocalyptic thriller, and horror writer as well as a musician, podcaster, editor, and coach at TheAuthorLife.com. * Why J loves train travel and how it helps him write and see more of his own country * The Amtrak train network, where it goes and some of the best routes * The different classes of travel, amenities and what to expect, especially if you are used to train travel in Europe or other places where it’s more commercial as opposed to government-run * J’s best memories of traveling by train, particularly on the California Zephyr which runs west and south from Chicago * How we included aspects of our trip to New Orleans in our co-written supernatural thriller, American Demon Hunters: Sacrifice — it was a lot of fun! * The mindset you need to adopt if you’re going to enjoy train travel — relax! Enjoy the slower pace. * Recommended books about USA life and travel You can find J Thorn at TheAuthorLife.com and on Twitter @jthorn_ Transcript of interview with J Thorn Joanna: J. Thorn is a dark fantasy, post-apocalyptic thriller, and horror writer as well as a musician, podcaster, editor, and coach at TheAuthorLife.com. We co-wrote American Demon Hunters: Sacrifice with two other authors based on our journey by train from Chicago to New Orleans. And today we’re talking about aspects of traveling by train in the USA. So welcome J. J. Thorn: Thanks, Joanna. It’s so great to be on the podcast. Joanna: It’s really good to have you on the show. So first up, tell us a bit more about your geographic history. Where are you right now in the world and where do you call home? J. Thorn: Currently I reside in Cleveland, Ohio, which is technically the midwest of the United States but I am not from here. I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and I left there at age 23 and haven’t lived there since. And since that time, I’ve lived in five different states and I’m guessing 14 or 15 different addresses and that included New Jersey, the New York area, Tennessee and now Ohio. I’ve been here in Cleveland for the past 15 years because my wife and I now have two teenage kids and we wanted to stay put for a little while, while they were going school to give them some stability. Joanna: You’ve lived in all these different places in the US and you and I knew each other before we got on the train but you do get the train a lot. What is it about train travel that you love? J. Thorn: There’s this very romantic sense of adventure, there’s no question about it. I think it’s the romantic notion we all have in our heads before we step on the train for the first time. But for me, it’s been reinforced. And just so there’s some context here, I was doing a little work in a spreadsheet and I do t...