If you haven’t noticed me mention it yet, I am planning a 31 day Amtrak trip from Houston, mostly to the west.  Two key points on the schedule are Padre’s Grand Opening over Memorial Weekend in Marfa, and Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco.

So, here’s the rough timeline.  Some of the pre-WWDC San Francisco and Reno parts aren’t exactly timed out yet.  I have purchased the 30-day pass, and booked most of the legs of the trip.

Houston: The train only comes through Houston three times a week, so I’m leaving Wednesday night;

Alpine: Thursday afternoon David will be picking me up at the station that is about a half hour from Marfa;

Marfa: it’s expected to be quite busy for the Grand Opening weekend, one of the shows is already sold out, I’m going to work as a floater for whatever needs to get done;

El Paso: I’m going to visit Bret for a few days, I was out there in September for a Texas football game, midweek should be less crazy, but we’ll likely make it over to Juarez at least once;

Los Angeles: I’ll get into town in the afternoon and likely tour around a bit checking things out, that evening I’ll head down to Santa Ana, where an Manuel (a high school friend) will pick me up and I’ll stay with him and his wife in Costa Mesa: for at least a few days;

i’m currently tempted to check out Catalina Island: the Zane Grey Pueblo Hotel sounds amazing, but I’d bet on it not happening;

San Jose/Mountain View: i’m trying to arrange a way to stop over and visit with a friend at Google and get the tour,

Emoryville: the trains don’t exactly meet up, so I might have to spend an evening in the Bay Area before catching a train to Reno;

Reno: not sure when exactly i’ll make it, my step-brother and his wife, and step-sister live there;

San Francisco: I’m sharing a hotel room with an old friend and co-worker from Calgary and DC (Bill D), who now lives in Breckenridge.  He and the other two guys I work with in FlipSide5 (Mike S & Mike S) were all part of Inline Software in the late 90s;

Chicago: the 2-day from from San Francisco will be the longest, i wish I had time to stop in Salt Lake City (never been there) and Denver (have relatives there), staying with friends from Houston/Plano (John/Marsha) who live near Wrigley, we’re going to a Cubs/Sox day game at Wrigley;

New Orleans: still trying to hook up a place to stay over night before heading home the next day.

I would say that I would collapse for several days after returning on a Friday night at 9pm, but the following day I’ll have a full day of Houston Roller Derby work to do.  Then I’ll collapse.

The other question is “will the iPhone 3.0 announcements that are inevitable at WWDC convince me to buy a cell phone finally?”  The current bets are with: No.  But it may push me closer.