18 Days to California on a train.

In the episode Bobby's Hero, Bobby of course has the Jessie James nightmare. In the beginning of the dream Greg asks Mike, "How long does it take to get the before we get there"(They are going to California). Mike then answer "Not long son, with these new trains it only takes 18 days to get to California. First of all it wasn't specified where they were traveling from. But let's assume New York. Now of course if you took a car nowadays it probably takes 5 days, but you have to take into consideration, you stop, for gas, food and hotels. Now obviously it was the late 1980's so there was no cars back then. And yes the trains probably ran much slower back then. But even if the trains only rain 20-25 miles an hour, wouldn't it really take them 18 days from New York to California? Maybe 10-11-12, but 18? I also didn't get Carol's next remark "And that's all the way from Arizona". Arizona is right next to California even if they went on horseback, it probably wouldn't take more then a day or two.