Amtrak's Railpass is a pretty good deal, but I think it is only available to foreign travelers,I assume ypou qualify. If you can afford it the bedrooms are the way to go. Unfortunately they are not cheap. When Amtrak started running 30 years ago or so, you could get a slumbercoach(a very, very small single roomette, as they called it)for 7 dollars over the price of your fare between NYC anbd Chicago. Now it's about a hundred dollars a night, or more. But it does include meals.

As Gamble Rogers once said to me, "Mark, the train is the most civilized method of travel man has ever devised!"

Mark Ross