I have not signed up for amtrak rewards, I should but I always assume things like that are more hassle than they are worth.

Maybe it's just my imagination, or my luck but Amtrak has been doing better the past year than the first 2 that I lived in chicago (at least on the michigan routes) For daniel's wedding I was on-time-on-time, not amtrak on-time (within a half an hour or so) and most of my other michigan trips in the past year, 3 or 4 round trips we've been amtrak on-time.

On overnight trains I've also sometimes slept in the observation car. It can be annoying because people go there to hang out if they can't sleep but you get a little more space and aren't sitting next to snoring guy anymore. :) I dunno, I'm probably not making it sound more appealing to Cara. I like taking the train for a lot of reasons but one is, I find the ride soothing. In part because of the train itself and the rumble but also because the lack of "on-time-ness" I've learned to be less concerned about time, patient, one might say.