At the crack of way to early in the morning Jo, Mike, and I broke out of the Balboa Peninsula bound for Santa Ana Station again.  The plan itinerary at this point in the day goes like this.

• 8:17am Metrolink departing to Los Angeles Union Station.
• Red Line to Hollywood for break fast and photo mayhem.
• 2:30pm Board Sunset Limited to Maricopa, Arizona.

At this point anything could change, except that hard 2:30pm departure of the Sunset Limited.

At 8:17am, the arrival and departure of the Metrolink Train was quick.  Jo and I boarded and put our luggage near the lower seating deck of the car.  Again, very nice that trains have this type of capacity, and another reason we rode in a car to the train instead of taking the bus.  The train has plenty of space for luggage and the bus sorely misses any remotely viable place for cargo.  Urban buses do not a make a friendly travelers aid.

Jo and I piddled around the station for a few minutes figuring out where to go grab some breakfast.  Simply, it seemed the only thing we might be able to find would be Mexican food.  That actually didn’t sound like a bad idea, as we love some Mexican Food, but really wanted some eggs, biscuits, or some such traditional style American Breakfast.  Jo and I poked away at the iPhone trying to figure out where to go.  We found this one place, that looked like it might fit the bill.  We headed off in that direction, down Main and then over to Spring.

We both made it to the exact address of where this place was supposed to be, however it wasn’t there.  Nowhere to be found, except down the block we saw something that looked like it would be acceptable.  A place called Phillepe’s stood before us and we walked our hungry selves down the street and into the front door.  What we saw was the jackpot for breakfast.  With long tables and counter ordering, we stepped into the fray to order.  We weren’t exactly sure how or what way their ordering process was supposed to work.  Diving in head first we ended up with Jo getting French toast, sausage patty, scrambled eggs, and orange juice for $6.55.  I plunked down a solid $9.50 for a pair of pork chops, two scrambled eggs, biscuits, and some hash browns.  The hash browns were made of fresh potatoes, something I honestly don’t think I’ve ever had.  We gobbled all our food and were again ready to take on some exploration.

We walked back across the street to Union Station.  Jo went into the open courtyard area and took and break while I walked around the station taking photos.  I must say, the security & staff people didn’t raise a look of distrust.  I was impressed.  LA, scores VASTLY HIGHER on the – “leave me alone I’m just taking pictures” – scale of coolness.  SF was a tomb of harassment, and LA so far has given me no lip.  Rightfully so, I’m not going to blow anything up, especially with a camera!

Subway, The Metro Red Line

After the 10-15 minute session of station pictures and Jo taking a break, we decided it would be off to the Red Line to check out Hollywood.  We headed down to the subway and jumped on the next train after buying our two $5.00 all day fares.  Once aboard we got two seats side by side and enjoyed the ride.  It was a short 25 minute or so ride and we were up on Hollywood Boulevard walking upon the stars’ stars.  It was an interesting walk, even though I must say I’ve never been much to be start struck by stardom.  I’m the dork that find impressive things impressive, actors and actresses don’t usually measure on that list of impressive stuff.  So I stood by and enjoyed others enjoyment of being star struck, not by the people who are the stars, but merely being in the place that these stars once or sometimes are.  I was entertained by the entertained.

Jo and I plied our way around and eventually dove back into the underground to board the Red Line back to Union Station.  Upon arriving we headed back to the waiting area.  But before I could bring myself to end the wandering yet, I told Jo I was going to go see what the Gold Line looked like.  I knew it was light rail, but I wanted to see the light rail vehicles myself.  Jo headed back toward the grand waiting room and I cut off toward the Gold Line.

Gold Line to East LA

With the giant Canon EOS 40D slung around my neck like a giant “steal me” I decided I would do more than just glance upon the Gold Line LRVs.  I was going to use a bit of my last hour before boarding the Sunset Limited to ride the Gold Line.  At least I would go a little ways down the line.

On the thought of, a few stops, I boarded after snapping a few photos.  I barely made it to the first stop and saw an approaching light rail vehicle and couldn’t help but think, “rats, I’ll probably have to wait 15-20 minutes before I can get another one back to the station, I may just miss my train!”  So I stood firm on the LRV I had boarded with my slight worry of missing the Sunset Limited, and possibly worrying Jo, or worse, making her angry.  We snaked through the remainder of the downtown core and immediately paralleled a field of corn & other plants.  The LRV line then increased height and crossed over the huge LA River Canal.  There one could see the railroad tracks coursing both sides of the canal, we crossed over all of these and immediately rolled into east LA.

The first stop, even amid the slight ghetto look that was encroaching the area, was a spot on perfect example of transit oriented development (TOD).  I wasn’t sure which was there first, the transit or the development, but it was a good example regardless.  We rolled to the next station which was sort of in the middle of nothing, just some warehouse yards and parked cars in the station lot.  Here I got off the light rail to wait for, what I hoped, would be another Gold Line Train along soon.  Without more than 2 minutes, a train arrived, which I snapped a number of pictures of.  I boarded, grabbed a seat on a train set that had approximately 25% of seated occupancy.  Again, I couldn’t help but wonder what the ridership was like on this line.  I also neglected to notice if 3 car trains could run on this line, but I believe they could.  The train I boarded however only had two cars.

I arrived back at the station with about 30 minutes to spare.  My adventure had not been the risk I had thought it might be.  I suppose though, I could have rode further but chickened out.  The Sunset Limited only leaves every other day or so, once can’t exactly miss the train and reschedule for the next one!

Aboard the Sunset

After our short wait, Jo and I were more than ready to board the Sunset Limited.  This however was going to be a challenge of retarded proportions.  When I say retarded, I mean it.

First off, when Amtrak does seating, they already have it all screwed up.  There is more touch points to seat a single person on a train than was necessary in 1920 let alone today.  Amtrak has seriously pushed the ticketing and seat assignment process back to the late 1890s as far as I’m concerned.  First off, they always get everyone to stand in a line to get a seat assignment after buying tickets.  Who in the world does that anymore?  FREAKING NOBODY!  The airlines don’t do it, and I can’t recall a single other entity besides Amtrak that makes their own cu
stomers wait in lines to manually receive seating assignments.  Just let the customers pick a seat assignment at time of purchase.  There is zero reason for this inefficient nonsense.

Then there is the next step.  The step of actually getting to the seat one has been assigned to.  Since the process is so manual, and often confusing for both the Amtrak Employees and the customers, people end up in each others seats all the time.  Rarely do airlines ever screw their part of this process, Amtrak however is a different story.

So with that in mind, Jo and I start walking toward the train through the underground concourse.  Mind you, the Amtrak seating assignment staff were telling everyone to go to track #11.  Here’s the problem though, there isn’t just a track #11, there is an 11A and an 11B.  The Sunset Limited is also not just the Sunset Limited, it is also the Texas Eagle.  Well all of these people go hurdling down the main concourse toward track #11, for their respective train.  These people don’t understand that the train splits, that it is currently connected as one train, and thus once the hurdling people get to track #11 and realize there is an A and B chaos ensues.  Jo and I realized this along the way and concluded through simple reason that coach cars where down #11B and the rest of the train was down #11A.

We bypass the herd of confused passengers and head down #11B.  However another complication awaited us.  Waddling up the concourse was an obscenely obese woman, pushing a cart.  There wasn’t anything exceptional about her at first glance except she was huge.  Jo walked by the woman with no issue and I began to pass her by too.  Now this lady, being huge, wasn’t moving very fast.  However as I was about to pass her by she swung her cart of luggage directly toward me, I leapt forward to avoid having my ankle smashed by the cart.  I looked back at her with a wicked glare and almost lapsed into obscenities.  I’m really truly not keen on getting my ankles busted, and don’t care what is wrong with someone when I am threatened by such risk. I decided nothing said was a better idea.

Jo and I made it almost to the top of the concourse and onto the platform, but even though the confused herd was in the main concourse hallway behind us, many had made it to the Amtrak Employee standing on the platform directing before us.  Now I’m not really sure what the plan was from Amtrak, but there was a guy at the end of the concourse walkway onto the platform attempting to direct the herd of passengers.  He was looking at tickets and pointing to which car to head to.  This seemed intelligent enough, yet another point of possible error.  Yes, another point of error.  In short order this staffer directing people had sent people going to the further cars directly behind us going to the nearest cars.  The problem with this was, that the concourse entrance left little space near the nearest cars to board, but had an area they could have walked to not have been impeded.

With this cluster of people gathered, there was little people could do but stand in line.  However there was a rude couple that just started babbling about getting by, so myself and a few others squeezed over since they couldn’t wait.  From their cries and whining to get past it appeared they thought the Sunset Limited was going to leave and their idea was we were in the way boarding the Texas Eagle.  The couple got by but a scourge of others poured through our line, now disabling me from being able to give the car attendant my seating assignment so he could direct us to the correct part of the car.  Then, of all twisted evils, the obscenely fat woman poured herself through the cavalcade of people and ran her cart directly into Jo & my things.  She blurted out in stupidity, “I’m sorry, I can’t drive real well.” to which I replied, “I know”.  After my curt response she stammered another statement of, “I’m big and have a hard time steering.”  To which Jo and I managed to tell her to hold on a second while we moved the things she had ran into out of the way.  We finally moved our stuff out of her way, with enough clearance for her to move forward.  She uses this opportunity to plunge into another person, yet this time she falls forward also.  All of her excess largess she pushes the cart into this person.  Fortunately the other person moved out of the way a bit and didn’t take the full force.  The large woman straightens herself out and manages to finally get by.

I finally am able to step forward and hand the seating assignments over to the car attendant.  He directs us up the steps and to the left for our seating assignment.  Finally, the process of seating assignment was complete.  AARRGHBRAAA JEEEEEEEEZZZUUUUM!!  Ok, now that I’ve finished that outburst…  I’ll continue.

Phoenix & Hotel #1, Hampton Inn

We arrived in Maricopa on time and Jo’s friends swooped in to rescue us from the train full of stupids.  My brain immediately shutdown as the only thing either of us could see from the car our friend where driving us in was empty black darkness.  The road went on into nothing, and one couldn’t even see the prospects of the city.

On that note, I’ll continue in the next entry.

On Day 3, Jo and I pretty much stayed put.  We didn’t head into town or even leave the Balboa Peninsula for that matter.  Half the reason was because it is awesome and relaxing just hanging out there, nothing more needed.  We checked out the beach, went out on the pier to Ruby’s.  Ruby’s is an old style diner, burgers, shakes, and such.  Except instead of the traditional location on the side of the road, this one was on the end of the pier.

After that the most transport we did anywhere was rent some bikes and ply the entire Balboa Peninsula.  That was pretty cool, checking the out the area.  Later on she’ll have some awesome photos of our exploration posted and I’ll post links to them here.

Overall, that was the summary of Day 3.  Complete, utter, beach bumness.  It was awesome.  🙂

Into the Breach, Day 4

Day 4 started at 7:00am.  Our escape route from the Peninsula was to give our buddy Mike a ride into work, then drive the last few miles into Santa Ana Station and ride the train into LA.  So far being this far from LA, has posed serious complexity to actually getting into the city.  Any route, includes multiple transfers and approximately 2 hours and 46 minutes at minimum.  There is one bus on the Peninsula, which I must admit is fairly impressive considering.  It has almost zero ridership this far south on its route and the people that do ride it are almost all maids or some other service sector employees that come to the Peninsula and then leave the minute they’re done working.  I get the notion this is a running theme in LA.  Half the population seems to serve the other half, directly.

The bus that serves the peninsula is the #71 Orange County Transit Authority Bus Route.  The primary route goes up and down highway 55 off of the Peninsula and into the mainland area.

We managed to head out the door around 8:05am.  This was almost miraculous considering Jo usually won’t budge before 9am.  We dropped our comrade Mike off at the office and headed toward Santa Ana Station.  We pulled out and headed for the sprawling monstrosity of a highway.  We rolled onto 55 north bound and that turned into the lovely 8 lanes of chaos, frustration, road rage, and anger.  It was beautiful in its own sickening way.  We made good time and in about 25 minutes arrived at the station.  We took a minute trying to figure out where to park, eventually found a good place in the parking garage on deck 3.

We walked into the station with plenty of time for our 9:58am departure.  The Santa Ana Station was a masterpiece among stations.  Simple, mission style architecture.  The station stood about 3 stories tall and now serves multiple purposes for the city of Santa Ana.  Downstairs was a pleasant waiting room.  In one corner was a souvenir shop.  Opposite of that was a little cafe.  On the far end of the station stood Jo and I at the entrance, and in the other corner parallel to us was the ticket counter.  We strolled up, and inquired about our reservation.  The ticket clerk courteously printed the tickets, and handed them over to us.  Irony, out of the two tracks that stood outside, he said track #2 and we ended up waiting and boarding the correct train on track #1.

Amtrak Pacific Surfliner

The Pacific Surfliner pulled in at exactly 9:57am.  Like a crack team of operatives, we rolled out of the station at 9:58am.  The trip was pleasant, and definitely beat trying to drive the Interstates or highways into downtown!  After about 10 minutes both Jo and I passed out.  We both needed that extra few minutes of sleep, being up late every night so far.  We awoke about 10 minutes out of the station.  As we passed gateway point into Union Station I realized Los Angeles, compared to about 15 years ago when I visited before, has drastically improved rail operations – or simply put, has rail operations again.  We say Metroliner Trains, other Amtrak Trains coming in, and off on other alignments one could see the subway cars.  Overall impressive.  Los Angeles finally wins some points for drastic improvements from the past!

We got off there and aimed ourselves for the front entrance of the station and our new mission, which was made en route via txting, was to find the Dash B.  The Dash B, under this new plan to go check out MOCA, would take us directly there.  We almost made it out the door without knowing what the Dash B was, or where to find it, but gleaned the information from an information attendant at the information booth.  With a few quarters in our pockets we made our way out of the station, across the street, and onto an arriving Dash B bus.

Dash B

The Dash B route was cool.  The little short buses, running a small route downtown, with a 7-8 minute frequency.  All this frequency and such, for a measly quarter!  I’ll have to check information on these little routes later, they seem interesting.  In no less than 10 minutes we arrived at MOCA and made our way under the outside display.  David met us there and we toured the MOCA, while MOCA was closed.  It is truly awesome knowing people that can hook a person up with tours like that.

After that Jo, David, Sarah, and myself snagged some great sandwiches around the corner.  We discussed the other ideas for the days’ activities and David suggest we ride with Sarah down to Long Beach to save a few minutes and have more time to check stuff out.  We deemed that a grand and awesome idea and after lunch said our farewells and headed off with Sarah.

Sarah got us into downtown Long Beach where we immediately found the Blue Line Light Rail and jumped another bus to tour around Long Beach.  We got to see some cruise ships, checked out a slight bit of the loading cranes from a distance, and generally just kind of viewed the city from the little tour bus we were riding.

Once back into the core of Long Beach a Blue Line approached just a few minutes after we arrived.  We boarded while it sat there at its layover stop.  After a few more minutes, with our 3 long LRV train, we headed onward toward downtown LA.  The run started from Long Beach with about 15 people on the entire train.  By the time we left Long Beach there were at least, and yes I was counting like an OCD case study, approximately 140 people on board.  By the mid-point of the trip there was approximately 210-220 people on the train set.  With the people getting on and off at each station, there is little doubt that the train saw at least 600-700 trip
s for that single run.  LA has done a very good job with their system.  I’m now going to have to dig up the ridership numbers for the respective light rail lines.

We arrived back downtown at the transfer point to the Red Line.  About 240 people got off of the Blue Line and the majority headed up to the level above to board the Red Line.  Within 5 minutes the Red Line blazed into the station as a subway train does, with heavy breaking the train came to a stop.  Everyone boarded quickly and off zoomed the subway train en route to Union Station.  It is always impressive the speed and mobility enabled by a subway system.

The Red Line, as only a subway train could provide, eclipsed the ridership of the light rail train by a couple hundred.  I wasn’t counting but my estimates where at minimum 4-5x as many as was on the Blue Line.  Again, I need to look up the statistics on this line too.

Back to the Surfliner

Jo and I finally arrived back at Union Station with 12 minutes to spare.  We figured out which track our train was preparing to depart from and headed up.  We boarded the train with 4 minutes to spare, and at 4:10pm sharp, we rolled out of Los Angeles Union Station.

We arrived back in Santa Ana on time and jumped in the ole’ hooptie for our last stretch back to Balboa Peninsula.

LA’s Summary

I couldn’t help but think, “LA actually has better transit than Portland does, what gives?!  Why do I still find it the last place I’d suggest to live?” and immediately came up with a few thoughts on that.

• Portland has contained itself in a reasonable boundary to serve.  LA is and continues to be a total zoning catastrophe.
• The roads and blocks in Portland remain human size versus auto-oriented size, which LA fails miserably at.
• LA has an attitude still and barely a soul knows there is anything besides their car.  Portland absolutely knows there are many options besides the car.
• Downtown LA could be beautiful and alive, instead there is a lot of work to do still.  Even though there are thousands and thousands more living in downtown LA than in downtown Portland, the later has much more life after 5pm than the former, massively larger city.

LA has vast potential to recover from the last half dozen decades of bad zoning and lack of sustainable infrastructure construction.  LA is a city with a short history, but a solid one with a world spotlight fixed directly at its heart.  LA has the stars, it has the port (ok, so that is Long Beach, but it is the metropolitan area), it has a fair environment, and overall sits in an area that people find attractive.  The only problem is overcoming the damning zoning and livability issues it has.  I have no doubt LA will overcome these issues, but there are definitely some very serious speed bumps on the way.

I’m going to catch 40 winks before jumping back aboard the flanged wheel for our next stretch of the journey.

With that here’s a few shots from day 1 and day 2 of the trip.

I’ve had the debate a few zillion times.  I’ll repeat the debate.  Show me a photo that shows a mode of transport that actively moves while you can be this

comfortable!  My lovely Jo is chilling in the Parlor Car.  I’ve never been as comfortable in a plane, bus, or any other mode ever.  Maybe a cruise ship might give a train a run for its money.

I challenge anyone to present a mode that is as remotely comfortable and human as rail travel.

The day started out pretty normal for a Saturday, slow and chill.  I suspect it was about 74, give or take a few degrees, and the sun was out.  Jo and I decided after finalizing our packed luggage to head for some biscuits at Pine State Biscuits.  With that we where out the door and headed for the east bound #4 Bus.

We arrived in short order.  The bus stop at 20th & Division is pretty cool.  It happens to have no shelter, but is near a New Seasons.  So nearby there are chairs and tables just off the paved sidewalk, near the side entranceway.  There are windows all along this part of New Seasons, which give it an open feeling of welcome to any bus riders waiting or coming.  Near the corner of the store there is a art piece that also acts as runoff from the roof.  The piece is kind of a metal scare crow man, holding a wheel of some sort where the water runs in and down.  From there the water runs into a bioswale (spelling?) where it is cleansed and sent into the river runoff.

We stood patiently and waited about 5 minutes for the arrival.  We were a little carried away with getting biscuits so had arrived excessively early.  The bus arrived on time and off we headed toward 39th, where we would transfer to the #75 north bound.  After arriving and transferring we were off again.  Finally we arrived at Belmont, got off the bus, and walked the remainder of the few blocks.

Pine State Biscuits

In standard Pine State Biscuits fashion there was a 30+ minute line for biscuits.  Thanks to some TV shows who showcased their awesome biscuits, we now had a line every Saturday and Sunday of out of towners and suburbanites.  I couldn’t really blame either group of people, the biscuits are awesome, and you just can’t get food like this in the burbs or most other towns for that matter.  But seriously, I’m sickened by the burbites most of the time.  As the statistics point out, urbanites are generally in better shape, healthier, and all around much nicer to look at.  Burbites tend to make the stomach spin and the skin crawl.  The IQ points tend to drop too, just like the general statistics of the bell curve.  One doesn’t have to assume, it is on display by their very actions.

But I do digress.

We got our biscuits, sat down and enjoyed them as one properly should.  Afterwards we left and walked back, a mere few blocks to the bus stop, and boarded the #75 for our return trip.  After the return trip transfer and the short walk from Ladd & Division (the west bound stop parallel to 20th & Division), we got our luggage together and prepared for the grand mileage of this vacation.  The real journey, our multiple hundreds of miles to traverse upon the Coast Starlight to LA.

Back aboard our trusty #9 bus to downtown and Union Station.  As we walked out the door and up to the bus stop the $9 pulled up for our transport.  We boarded with the largest set of packed luggage we’ve ever traveled with and took up almost the whole back seat of the bus (that’s 5 seats for those bus newbs).  Fortunately we didn’t feel too bad about it being that we actually managed to get on a bus that only had about 15 people on it.  This was very strange for today, and for the #9 route.  Often we don’t see buses with only 15 people on this route until about 10pm or so.

We got to the station at 2:35pm.  We had checked earlier and our #11 Coast Starlight was an hour and a half late leaving Seattle.  We figured we would be plenty ahead of her then if we arrived 10 minutes after the original scheduled departure time.  Of course, we were right and took a relaxing break in the Metropolitan Lounge in Union Station.  It is always nice to travel first class like this and have access to the lounges.

The Coast Starlight arrived and we all boarded.  We departed from the station at 3:24pm, exactly 59 minutes late.  A time that could theoretically be made up easily.

#11 headed out across the Willamette, plying the rail bridge as thousands of trains have before us, heading across and turning south for our journey.  We made really good time all the way through until the mountains just before Chemault before we had any additional delays.  This delay was merely a few minutes at that, which left us with a good potential to make up the tardiness.

Train People, British, and Conversations

When we boarded, my mother and father had boarded in Vancouver, Washington to ride with us to Eugene.  We decided after pulling out of Portland to head to the Lounge Car and hang out with them for a bit.  We started walking through our sleeping car, enjoying the slight rocking of the train.  Jo mentioned how she had missed this, as I did myself.  We made our way through the next sleeping car and into the Parlor Car.  We got halfway through the car and there on the lounge couch chairs sat mother and father.  We plunked down and immediately dove into conversation.

Jo & my mother began knitting away in turbo mode while father and I discussed various aspects of the voyage as we travelled along.  We passed through Milwaukee and into Oregon City.  In Oregon City we moved through with a slow order for the work crews doing maintenance on the tracks.  As we crept out of Oregon City we viewed the Willamette, and the water crashing over the dam for the industrial facilities along the river.

Father saw a lady sitting across from us with a book titled “USA by Rail” and inquired where she had boarded.  She answered, “I boarded in Chicago and took the Empire Builder across to Portland.”  He immediately, as did we all, picked up that she had a good and true British accent.  He, and I, discussed aspects of her trip so far.  She was happy to discuss and asked a few questions about various things along the way.  We pointed out a few tidbits for her to keep an eye out for.

We kept a steady banter up almost all the way to Eugene.  In preparation for detraining mother and father decided to head back to their coach seats about 25 minutes before their Eugene arrival.  Jo and I headed off to the Sleeper to enjoy the view and relax while we waited for our 6:30pm dinner reservations.  The view, as always, was magnificent.

6:30pm Dinner Reservations, More Friendliness & Tasty Foods

The announcement was made over the intercom that 6:30pm dinner reservations were ready.  Jo and I immediately shoved our ready feet back into our shoes and off we marched for dinner.  As with all meals in the dining car, all seats at all tables are filled, so often couples sit with other couples, loners sit with others, and the arrangements go on and on.  Needless to say, at any meal in the diner on a train one gets to meet new people.

Jo & I got to meet a couple from Connecticut for dinner.  The couple had just visited Portland for the first time.  The husband of the couple had flown in earlier in the week for business.  His wife, who hates flying, flew out later in the week.  They both had decided that they’d then take the train south just for fun.

We discussed with this couple, as we often do with anyone when they visit Portland, how absolutely amazing the city is.  The conversation ranged from the amazing transit that even tourists feel fine using, the easy access to all parts of town, the beautiful parks, and more.  Basically, I don’t recall ever meeting a single person who isn’t amazed at what Portland is.  They brought up their nearest comparison, Hartford Connecticut and described how horrible it is compared to Portland.  Stating simply, “their mayor of Hartford needed to come spend some really time in Portland to get their city of Hartford straiten
ed out.”

It is moments like these I realize how awesome Portland really is, amid the random bitching and griping that often goes on among a select few of us that push hard for things to be even better.  Portland truly is, one of the best cities in America, hands down no contest.

We finished our dinner, Jo with her Mahi Mahi & I with my crab cakes.  Dessert was a must have of apple tart.  After a tasty dinner topped off with some great Pinot Grigio Wine we headed back again to our roomette.

We carried on about the rest of the night, eventually heading back to the Parlor Car for a late night chocolate and a cappuccino.  Of course, all this being part of the new Parlor Car Service of the Coast Starlight.  Eventually midnight struck, and we both managed to pass out after a great first day of vacation and a grand day around Portland and aboard the Coast Starlight.

Day 2 – Coast Starlight Arriving in Los Angeles

We awoke north of Martinez, California.  The train was back on schedule and making good time.  We were easily running at 79mph, the legal speed limit.  We made it across the water and along the shore, into Martinez.  In short order we were out of Martinez and on our way again.

We pulled into Emeryville and then on to Oakland’s Jack London Station.  There we, for whatever reason, got a third engine attached to our train.  So even though we were back on time, this addition put us back about 5-10 minutes.

As we rolled out of Emeryville we ran parallel to the BART tracks, and along came a 6 car train parallel to us.  At first it easily passed us up, being we had just pulled out of the station.  We gained speed quickly, probably thanks to our additional engine, and kept pace with the BART train.  We gained a little bit on the BART, and then as it came to a station we finally overtook the train and rolled past.  We rode along for another 5-6 minutes and finally caught another BART train, the tracks still running nearly parallel to us, about a block away.  We easily overtook this 4 car BART train and kept rolling fast.

Catching Up From Day 1 PM

The last night somewhere rising in the mountains Wad (a writer from the Metrorider LA blog) had managed to get a call through to me.  Even though my connection was horrible I picked up and we talked for about 10 seconds before the phone lost connection again.  I tired calling back, but unfortunately we’d moved just far enough to eliminate any signal whatsoever.  The iPhone read, “No Signal”, and so I gave up trying for the night.

This morning when we awoke I realized, still here in California just west of Sacramento heading into Martinez that I had really cruddy signal.  Since it was 7am I figured it wouldn’t be prudent to call about at this time anyway.  I stashed the phone away and watched as the scenery flew by.

South of Oakland

After the little BART races, we kept a well intentioned 79 mph through southern Oakland and points further south.  Jo was livid over not being able to photograph the graffiti (mind you, not the tags, but the large pieces of graffiti).  While eating breakfast we determined we would have to make a trip sooner than later back to the area and make a real endeavor to capture some of the graffiti.

It might seem odd, but it is almost like anthropological study of peoples.  The graffiti tells a story, showcases the lives and emotes an expression of various individuals in an area.  Sure it is frustrating and often times, defacement of property, which I am adamantly against.  But once it is there, a sense of history can be derived by capturing it in pictures.  If I used this explanation to state a fascination, at least of my own, with graffiti I may bore any of those graffiti artists into picking up a new art form.

The train, just like so many along this route, travel directly through a lot of industrial areas.  These areas have thousands of pieces of graffiti (and unfortunately tagging) on the buildings.  The train also passes through hundreds of neighborhoods that have popped up over the years along the rail line.  Some sprawl, some urban zoned, some just sporadic catastrophes in the making.

San Jose and Beyond

We pulled into San Jose Diridon Station along the side of a CalTrain Commuter Train (that really sounds redundant).  The station was really fairly nice from the outside.  If I had known that we’d be sitting at the station for 10 minutes (like we seem to do at Sacramento and every station south of that.  Whatever the reason, if we do this heading north, I’m going to go picture taking crazy.

So far, Jo and I haven’t been too motivated to photograph much of anything.  Much of what can be viewed from the train around Emeryville, Oakland, and San Jose make California seem more like a third world nation than part of the the 1st world United States.  I know there are beautiful parts of this area, but the train skips much of it around the urban areas.

We headed out of San Jose for the remaining 10 or so hours of our journey.

As the Conductor Says, “Let’s talk about walking the train.”

Departing San Jose Diridon Station the conductor came over the IC to welcome everyone aboard.  In this new era of train travel there really does seem to be a new exuberance among the employees.  When I say new era, I’m referring to the “Obama Era of Train Travel”.  The conductor explained to people, that at 79 mph along this stretch of rail the walking gets a little bit difficult.  With a short explanation of feet at shoulders width, and walk with purses slung, make sure to have a hand ready so you don’t fall.  I could help but think, “newbs!”  🙂

The Popular Choice, Light Rail

Leaving San Jose station we passed over the Interstate and what did we have in the right of way, but none other than the transit mode du jour, light rail.  A single unit LRV was making its way parallel to the Interstate, to which we where running parallel to on the other side.  It seemed to go on for quite a few miles.  This however is one light rail system I literally know nothing about.  Don’t know where it goes, don’t know the ridership, and in all honesty, didn’t even realize it was here.  I will absolutely have to check it out and see what the specs are on that route.

Anyway, we arrived at 8:35pm, 35 minutes ahead of schedule.  I have to say, fairly impressive for the ole’ Star Late.  Our friend actually came an picked us up, as we could figure out reasonable transit to get to Balboa Peninsula.  The rest of this evening I’ll conclude in the next entry, for now, off to the metropolitan area of Los Angeles.

Next big trip, includes a few thousand rail miles.  I am sure Jo and I will land on a few buses during this trip.  If any auto usage is incurred, it will be through absolute necessity and with slight disdain.

1. September 26th departing Portland Union Station @ 2:25pm on Amtrak Train #11.
2. September 27th arriving Los Angeles Union Station @ 9:00pm on Amtrak Train #11.
3. Chilling the OC life & roaming the LA mega sprawl via Metro.
4. September 30th departing Los Angeles @ 2:30pm on Train #2 and Arriving Maricopa @ 10:07pm on Train #2.
5. October 1st-4th will be staying at the Hampton in Gilbert (Mesa)
6. and then
7. Hotel San Carlos on the 4th-7th
8. October 7th departing Maricopa @ 1:02am on Train #1 and arriving Los Angeles @ 9:40am on Train #1.
9. Chilling in LA again, and shredding the OC.
10. October 9th departing Los Angeles @ 10:15am on Train #14.
11. October 10th arriving Portland @ 3:40pm on Train #14.

I just wanted to throw together a montage of videos from the Green Line opening.

The Green Line green people invade Portland. This is, to note, NOT TriMet but a community group organizing. This is why I say private enterprise HAS to get involved to really make things lively and successful. Without, nobody cares.

bobrpdx put together this video, which shows the First Ride Event. The following is Part 1.