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Anyone doing an east coast to midwest road trip in the near future?

I recently bought a horn from a local pickup only sale in Maryland which was recently picked up by a friend of mine in DC. Since it's a tuba with both upright and recording bells, I'd prefer to avoid shipping, but before I plan a trip myself, I wanted to check if anyone here on the board already had travel plans and wouldn't mind picking it up (in exchange for gas money, beer, a nice lunch, etc.)

I plan to travel to DC, but not until the 1st week of February.

Im planning that around the end of year

Take the train.

tclements wrote: Sun Sep 06, 2026 11:20 am Take the train.

I took the Amtrak, admittedly only from Chicago to Milwaukee, with a Miraphone 1281 in the OEM plastic case, two duffle bags and I think two backpacks. It was tolerable but really not ideal. We later went on to Fairbanks (luggage and instruments on a truck) and I flew home from Alaska to Chicago with the same load, I think I rode the CTA with all of that. Hell, I think I also took the Milwaukee bus to get to my location.

Looks like you can do coach from DC to Chicago for 150-300ish. You would of course have to also account for flying there, getting to your buddy from the airport, buddy to the train and get someone to pick you up in Chicago. Shortest, cheapest trip looks like 18 hours for $143, depending on the day. The other options I saw are 24 and 31 hours. 18 hours is kinda bleh but worth considering for the price, 31 not so much especially considering you have to change trains.

(I got there early enough that they rushed me onto the train before mine while simultaneously griping that I didn't get there early enough to check my stuff )