As long as I can remember, I’ve always had a terrible time sleeping before a big adventure. Today was an exception. After an evening of packing up my things from my parents’ house, I slept like a dead rock and woke up in the morning refreshed. After a morning of final preparations and finishing touches, I was off.
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| Now Boarding |
What a send off I got. There’s something so depressing about saying goodbye at an airport. You’re stuck dumping your loved one off at a curb and hogging them goodbye before they start their long and unpredictable adventure… through security. This is much better. My parents and I walked around The Funk Zone, Santa Barbara’s hippest place to be. Like so many cities with fleeting industry, warehouses have become vintage shops and breweries. Just our luck that all these things are planted right by the train station.
We made it back just in time to hear the whistle blow and my train pull in. As much as Amtrak can resemble a rolling fossil at times, there’s still something so undeniably spectacular about watching a dozen double decker stainless wagons trundle into view. The locomotive shaking the earth and belching diesel. Who doesn’t love a little drama?
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A goodbye for as long as you can run
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I said goodbye for the last time and waved as they followed the car. Taking my first step for a few months of wandering the earth. Once I got on the first order of business was snacking. What better way to start an old fashioned trip than with an old fashioned lunch? My mom packed me a sack lunch for the road, nothing makes you feel cared for quite like that.
I started snacking as we wound our way through The Gaviota Coast. From this perch I watched the scenery and people in the lounge car. For those of you who have not had the fortune to ride long distance Amtrak west of the Mississippi River, let me describe the lounge. Every long distance train out west is a double decker. Part of this is to pack more people in less space but a hearty bonus is the spectacular views that come with being an extra 12 feet above the rails. The lounge is an indulgence that takes full advantage of this. The second story has large open windows that even expose some of the ceiling. The seats are open to all, regardless of what class you booked for yourself everyone is entitled to spend time in the lounge. Half the car is tables for groups of four to work, eat, or play games. The other is rows of seats angled to face out the window. There is no better way to take in the beauty of the American West than from an Amtrak Lounge. As if that wasn’t enough, the bottom floor of the lounge houses the cafe, home to reasonably priced hot food and alcohol it is the purveyor of sustenance for these long trips. All these ingredients make the lounge an endless source of entertainment.
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| Surf and Stella |
I got social and took stock of the people there. An elderly couple who were just finishing their RailPass vacation. $500 for 10 segments in 30 days, how could anyone say no if they’re not in a hurry? They had enjoyed their trip immensely, a good omen for me since I’m doing the same. There was a young couple taking their first Amtrak trip, from LA to Salinas with a final destination of Monterrey. One of them had entered a film in a festival up there and won an award! I talked with a mother and daughter who were both immigrants from China, also making their first Amtrak trips and finding the whole thing to be a little cozy and silly compared to the bullet trains that they were accustomed to. The funniest thing to watch was the conductor holding court at a four top with a couple who were being held hostage by his conversation. He was kind and meant well but I think that they were tired of his extensive knowledge of the route which he was maybe a little too eager to share. Everyone wants to know where to look for dolphins (yes you can usually see dolphins from the Coast Starlight). Nobody wants to know the history of the tunnels and alignments on the Coast Subdivision.
Speaking of rail minutia, where even am I? Today I’m on the Coast Starlight. A long distance Amtrak route that runs once a day from Los Angeles to Seattle. In Southern California the Starlight (and its sibling The Pacific Surfliner who goes from San Diego to LA and sometimes to SLO) are known for their relaxed pace and unbeatable views of the ocean. Today we’ve had spectacular weather and it is delivering. Back in the day when I was employed it was my preferred way to get from SoCal to The San Francisco Bay Area. Board at LA Union at 9ish. Arrive in San Jose in time for a late dinner or Oakland in time for drinks. Since I was working remote the pace wasn’t an issue. I was able to work from the train, relax when I needed to relax, and arrive either well rested or well inebriated depending on the cause for my visit. Can’t beat that with a $60 ticket.
I pulled into San Jose station and my friend Raphael picked me up. We’ve known each other a long time and the conversation flows like water. Our destination: Oakland. There’s a wrestling league(?) called Hoodslam. Think goofy brash East Bay flavor set to 100. In one of the bouts the town astrologer was fighting for supremacy and was winning, until she discovered Mercury was in retrograde and promptly got her ass handed to her. We watched the show with our friends Berkelly and Josh. All Bay folks but no East Bay locals among us.
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| “And your mother smelled of Elderberries” |
After the show and a requisite Taco Bell stop. Raphael dropped me off at a bar in San Francisco. I met up with my friend Maegan for a night of catching up and dancing. Both of us felt overdue to spend time on the dance floor and got our fill. Once our feet started to hurt it was time to go back to her apartment, pet her dog Yuna, and crash out for the night.
A good first day.
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