My best vacations have involved trains. The California Zephyr through the Sierra Nevadas is like backpacking sitting down. You are literally in the forest and, at times, inside the mountains. The full moon over the Nevada desert. Aspens shimmering in the Rockies. Pulling into Denver in the snow in late September! We were supposed to reach Chicago before dinnertime put we were running late (freight trains have the right-of-way) so they called ahead to some tiny town in Illinois to order KFC for everyone.
One of my favorite routes is the Coast Starlight from San Jose to LA in the summer time, watching the sunset over the Pacific while rolling along inches from the beach.
And last fall, for my 50th birthday, we flew to NYC and took trains to and from Rochester, NY and to and from Washington DC. All part of my democracy tour: Seneca Falls for the 1848 Women's Rights Convention and Elizabeth Cady Stanton's home, Rochester for Susan B. Anthony's home and the Sewell-Belmont House in DC, the headquarter's of the National Women's Party where Alice Paul lived for most of her adult life. Every year from 1932, when she co-wrote it, until she died in 1977 she lobbied Congress to introduce and pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
As I like to say when you take a train your vacation starts at the station. No need to arrive hours in advance, no being crammed into a seat for hours. Plus you get to see America at ground level, the nitty, gritty of our cities and the majesty of our landscape. There I go, getting all misty-eyed and patriotic. This is what National Train Day is all about.