I Moved Crosscountry via Amtrak... During a Pandemic?

To say 2020 is a year of dynamic change would be… an understatement. I guess I knew when I came back from my trip to Malaysia and Vietnam in December 2019 (which I still have yet to publish my full experience… it’s in my drafts, but it was truly an emotional trip for me that I’ve slowly been coming to terms with) that I would want to leave Boston in 2020. Let’s rewind a bit, and talk about how I got to this point of moving out of Boston, now - in 2020, taking a train crosscountry.

In the Viewliner Roomette on the Lakeshore Limited, playing my Nintendo Switch

You see, I have always wanted to move out of Boston. I grew up north of Boston, I commuted into the city to get my bachelors… and it was so difficult to get an entry level role for my degree, which was a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences. With no job for my degree, working at the pharmacy as a Lead Tech paying me $10/hour at CVS, and still living with my parents, did it make sense to leave the Greater Boston area when I knew Boston would be my best opportunity to build a foundation for my career in biopharma?

A year after I graduated, 2014, I finally got an entry level role at a biotech company in Kendall Square, Cambridge, the heart of the biopharma industry, after a temp position for a month. Immediately after I was offered a permanent role to begin September 2014, I began apartment hunting and moved to Brighton October 2014. This began my life of living paycheck by paycheck for several years to come. Making $35,000/year and living in the city was not ideal in terms of putting money back in my pocket. If I look back at my younger self, I wish I didn’t accumulate the credit card debt that I did.

When I couldn’t move out of the entry-level role I started in, and was being overlooked for promotions at the biotech company I worked at for two and a half years, I started Wandering Boston Eater. It’s funny how manifestation happens, because I remember telling myself that if I couldn’t find a new role that wasn’t another entry level role (I had been applying to roles, but only being offered entry level roles again), 3.5 years out of college, then I’d quit the biopharma industry and just try freelancing and blogging full-time. After all, I was barely living paycheck by paycheck - what did I have to lose? Within a month of me telling myself this, I landed a position at a big pharmaceutical company in 2017 thanks to a recruiter on LinkedIn.

I had every intention of staying at this company for at least two years, I told myself. “Stay for two years at least, then look for a role to move out of Boston.” This was the shining goal, after all - have a stable enough foundation in the industry to be a good candidate in areas that weren’t the Boston biopharma scene, use this as an opportunity to move elsewhere. In 2017, thanks to this role at this pharmaceutical company, I not only had the opportunity to build a stronger foundation for my career in Clinical Supply Chain, but I also had the opportunity to begin to build a better credit score, and a savings account.

I was working as a specialist in Import/Export and Trade Compliance for the Global Clinical Supply Chain group, but ten months into this role, I was recruited on LinkedIn for what would be a role I would come to learn so much from, as well as work with an amazing team of people, sidetracking my plan of trying to move in 2019. I transitioned into a role managing Supply Chain for clinical trials and products in development. From 2018-2020, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with an incredibly supportive team, supportive of both my personal and professional ventures. My colleagues knew that at some point, I’d like to move out of Boston, and so the beginning of 2020, I began to explore new roles.

In the back of my head, I wasn’t sure how committed I was to leaving my company, but it was an idea that continued to live in my head rent-free. I continued with the interview process, well-knowing I would be leaving behind not only the amazing and supportive team who supported my career, but also my friends and family. My safety net. If traveling solo the last few years has taught me anything though, it is that building a new safety net is not impossible, and these genuine connections will stay with me, regardless of my physical location.

I was offered a few positions in April - one in Chicago, one in San Diego, and one in San Francisco, and I had a choice to make. I narrowed it to the role in San Francisco. Here we are, in the beginning of COVID lockdown, with so much unknown about the virus, the timeline of when moving would occur was COVID-dependent, but aim for October, be on-site by November - do I accept the offer? When I gave my notice to my manager, I cried. Alone in my apartment in Charlestown, having not seen my colleagues for over a month, with a manager who was so supportive in my professional growth at this company, and I was crying to him. I should have been happy that I was chasing this life milestone of moving away from home for the first time in my life, but I was crying because I was overwhelmed. I was leaving behind everything that comforted me to experience something new, somewhere new.

My beautiful apartment at 275 Medford in Charlestown - the lease was up in October, so initially, I wasn’t planning on leaving Boston any sooner than that. I had been reaching out to some apartments on Facebook housing groups, Craigslist, and Apartment List, but for the most part, they were scams, or not in ideal locations. One night, the beginning of July right before my birthday, a listing showed up on my Facebook feed from one of the housing groups for an apartment that seemed almost too good to be true. The next day, I had a Facetime tour planned, and right after the call, I submitted the application to live there and got accepted the next day.

Suddenly, the beginning of July, I was breaking my lease, and moving out of Boston, all because I found an apartment that… just made sense. I sold all of my furniture either through Instagram or on Facebook Marketplace, donated most of my belongings - clothing, books and DVDs donated to More Than Words non-profit located right by Ink Block. I was determined to only ship a few boxes (I ended up shipping 8 via FedEx ground for $821.30), and have only a backpack and suitcase with me for however I’d get to San Francisco from Boston.

What were my options? Plane? Train? Automobile? Taking a plane did not seem ideal, not during this time of COVID because I was seeing videos surface on social media of… no distancing taking place on planes. I did not want to risk that during a 7 hour flight. I’ve always wanted to do a crosscountry road trip, but… that would mean I’d need to make multiple rest stops. To me, that means way too many points of exposure.

And then there was train. My friend had told me I should consider taking a train, and suddenly, the idea echoed, louder and louder. I should take a train? I should take a train! I saw that Amtrak had private rooms available. I tried to use their trip planning map to understand what would be the best train or trainstop for me to take… but it wasn’t the most intuitive. I booked two trains:

TRAIN ONE: BOSTON TO CHICAGO on LAKESHORE LIMITED, VIEWLINER ROOMETTE ($421.10)

This was a private room leaving Boston’s South Station at 12:50 PM on Saturday, August 8th. The viewliner roomette comes with two chairs that convert into a bed, a sink, and a toilet. There is a shared shower available for others utilizing the viewliner roomette as well. This went to Chicago, and arrived on Sunday, August 9th, at roughly 9 AM. Meals are included with the ticket - I’ll get to food in a bit.

This room, it is meant to fit up to two people, and does have a top bunk that pulls down for a second person to sleep. For just me, it was perfectly cozy.

TRAIN TWO: CHICAGO TO SACRAMENTO on CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR (because I messed up on my booking… whomp), SUPERLINER BEDROOM ($1034.93)

This was a private bedroom, leaving Chicago at 2 PM on Saturday August 9th. It would be an estimated three-day train, getting me to the west coast on Tuesday, August 11th. The room included a couch/futon-like seating that converted into a bed, a top bunk, a chair, a sink, a toilet, and my own private shower. Similarly, meals were included with this ticket.

The California Zephyr, as I researched, is known for being the most scenic train route in the country, and I was fortunate to be on this train to my destination. When I used the trip planning map earlier, I had typed in “San Francisco” as my destination, and the Amtrak site had nothing show up… turns out, the train goes to Emeryville - but as someone who is not native to the Bay, I had no idea that would mean it would be close to San Francisco? So I took it to Sacramento because that was close-ish to San Francisco in my mind. Remember - this was booked in the midst of the chaos of me uprooting my life from Boston in less than a month trying to sell everything, so before you tell me “Brenda, there was a train closer to San Francisco,” I am openly admitting that I messed up. But that’s the thing - traveling in any capacity is never perfect, and I learn to pivot with every action and reaction.

I took the train because it seemed to have very limited points of contact during this COVID pandemic, I’d be able to have my own private space (to reduce my exposure with people because I went from South Station to private room to dining cart to Union Station to private room to dining cart), and I’d be able to do so while getting to the west coast from the east coast safely.

On Monday, August 10th, I woke up at Union Station in Denver, CO, and at 6:30 AM, there was an announcement stating that the train would not be leaving again until 8 AM. This was the one time I had an opportunity to step off the train for longer than a 15 minute rest period, and I saw that Snooze AM was serving breakfast, so I picked up a delicious meal of not-train food.

Don’t get me wrong, the train food, it wasn’t terrible. It also wasn’t great. Because of COVID, the kitchen crew who would cook fresh meals were no longer there, and the meals served were pre-prepared meals. By the end of the trip, I was itching for some fresh produce, like fruit, or kale.

After leaving Denver, this brought us into a full day of riding the train. We went through the Rocky Mountains, and down the Colorado River, and the views were glorious. I spent a lot of my days staring out the window. There was wifi offered on the train, but honestly, I didn’t use it so I didn’t see how the service was, and what I loved was that there was no signal for most of the day in Colorado - Monday, August 10th. It was a great time to get work done, decompress, reflect as I mentally prepared myself for this next chapter of my life.

At one point, during lunch, we realized as we were coming up to Glenwood, CO, that we were parallel to a wildfire that had just started. This was a surreal moment, truly reminding me that I am not in Boston anymore.

The following day, the last day on the train, Tuesday, August 12th, we were told we’d be three hours behind - there was a freight train stuck on the tracks overnight. I arrived into Sacramento roughly 5:30 PM, and took a shareride to San Francisco, arriving to my new apartment at roughly 7 PM.

As I sat in the car en route to San Francisco, I was honestly a bit sad to be off of the train. I chatted with the train crew when I could, with masks, in the dining cart. I had an amazing cart conductor (Robert) who prepared my bed for me in the evenings (don’t forget to tip your cart conductors)! I watched the team sanitize the space frequently, but for the most part - I stayed in my room to myself. I spent my time reading, playing on my Nintendo Switch, doing some work, staring out the window, creating content for social media, or watching an occasional k-drama on my iPad. It was great that I had enough to keep myself occupied during this journey.

Morning views from the California Zephyr on Tuesday, August 12th

Pre-COVID, I would have never considered taking a train. My days and time-off were valuable, working in corporate America with only so many vacation days. I have been documenting my experience for the last few years maximizing my short time of travel and budgeting appropriately. This time around, this was a journey to my destination worth investing in myself. I had the chance to slow down, take in the moments one day at a time, and appreciate all that I saw along the way.

That’s the thing about living life right now - there is no rush, there is only experiencing each passing moment for what it is, and appreciating all that I have to offer. I am nervous to be on my journey of starting a new foundation in a new city, I am nervous to be alone. Despite my fears, I am stronger from these experiences, and grateful for all of the support I have to encourage me to move forward.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments, I’ll try to answer them when I can.