4:54 PM:

Made it!

Ran a bit late on the trip preparation stuff, arrived at the Greyhound station last night moments after the bus to Chicago pulled away. From the looks of things, even if I'd been there when it arrived, it wouldn't have mattered, as the building was closed, and I'd have had to have bought a ticket beforehand. Trying again in about an hour-- same bus route that arrived too late last year. And there's snow along the way again. Am hoping this time, the roads and buses will be better prepared, it having snowed on and off several times in the past few weeks. Otherwise, this has the potential to get interesting. Stay tuned.

7:30 PM:

More on the Madonna thing, and a tangental merchandising line that's even more appalling.

(It isn't Madonna I'm appalled by, I should perhaps clarify. The um, "Kabbalah Center," on the other hand... yeesh. Let's just say that kabbalah for the masses is a contradiction in terms.)

Okay, stalkers take note. The itinerary is as follows:

Thursday, January 9th:
Depart Ann Arbor via Greyhound in the evening, arrive in Chicago late at night.

Sunday, January 12th:
Depart Chicago via Amtrak in the afternoon.

Tuesday, January 14th:
Arrive in San Francisco in the evening. (As an aside, SF is the one place where I still have no idea where I'll be staying just yet...)

Saturday, January 18th:
Depart San Francisco via Amtrak at night, after Shabbos is over.

Sunday, January 19th:
Arrive in Seattle at night. Either stay on the train and arrive in Vancouver, BC a few hours later, or get a ride from there to Vancouver. Either way, end up in Vancouver late at night.

Tuesday, January 21st:
Depart Vancouver via Amtrak early in the afternoon.

Thursday, January 23rd:
Arrive in Chicago in the evening.

The above is pretty much set in stone. What follows is somewhat more flexible, partly 'cause I haven't figured out all the details yet, and partly because there are no reservations with the Greyhound bus pass (which will be used for the following); you just show up and hope there's room for you.

Sunday, January 26th:
Depart Chicago in the morning.

Monday, January 27th:
Arrive in Houston in the morning.
Depart Houston in the afternoon.
Arrive in Dallas in the evening.
(Will consider a side trip to Austin if given a reason to do so; will otherwise not bother.)

Wednesday, January 29th:
Depart Dallas in the evening.

Friday, January 31st:
Arrive in New York first thing in the morning, more than eight hours before Shabbos starts.

Here the itinerary is at its most nebulous. I have lotsa stuff to do in New York, but I also wanna spend a couple of days in Boston, and stop by Connecticut. In any event, it ends with:

Sunday, February 9th:
Arrive in Ann Arbor. Collapse in a heap. Resolve never to do this again.

Okay, I tentatively have a plan again. I'm not gonna exhale until at least the Amtrak portion of it is all booked, and it's rather more expensive than Plan A, but not unreasonably so, and I think it'll work. Basically, I skip the North American Rail Pass; buy Amtrak tickets from here to San Francisco (possibly first taking Greyhound to Chicago, spending the weekend, and going from there to SF-- it'd save me eighty-nine cents), from San Francisco to Vancouver, and from Vancouver to Chicago. I then get a 15-day Greyhound pass, which I use to get to Houston, Dallas, New York, Connecticut, Boston, and back to Ann Arbor. Canadian travel requirement averted, and at least the first half of the trip will avoid the soul-sucking effects of riding the bus. Definitely a compromise, but it seems to be the best of the options. (And I have looked over just about every possible schedule permutation involving the rails, and many of those involving buses.)