Leg 17—Vancouver to Fullerton: May 18, 19 & 20, 2006

The itinerary for this leg was supposed to be as follows: Bus 8911, a Thruway Bus, was to take me to Seattle where I was to catch Amtrak’s Train 11 to Los Angeles, California and then transfer to Amtrak’s Train 596, the Pacific Surfliner to Fullerton. Due to Union Pacific repairing a tunnel somewhere between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, this route will have service delay until December 2006. Below is how my journey actually goes:

I awake at 3:45 a.m. to catch Bus 8911, the Thruway Bus, which departs Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Thursday, May 18 at the scheduled time 5:30 a.m. and arrives at Seattle at 9:15 a.m. I grab a banana for sustenance at the B&B until I get something to eat. I call a yellow cab and arrive at the train station at 4:40 a.m. and discover the train station is locked. About ten passengers are outside waiting to get into the station. We wait until 4:50 a.m. when a security officer opens the door. All concessions inside the station are closed and there are no vending machines to buy food.

At 5:15 a.m., our bus arrives to take us to Seattle. No stops on the way to buy food.

When the bus arrives at the Seattle Union at 9:40 a.m., the Station Master announces that Train 11, Coast Starlight, arrived so late in Portland the night before that the route was terminated in Portland and all passengers will be bussed to Portland to catch the train. The coach passengers are unhappy about not riding a train, but so are the passengers who paid for a sleeper.

I can’t imagine paying for a sleeper and having to ride a bus. I am sure that Amtrak, in some way, will compensate the passengers who purchased sleepers. I had thought about purchasing a roomette, but I’m glad I didn’t. Unfortunately, delays and inconveniences are a few things that are expected on a train ride, even from way-back-when the trains were a major mode of transportation. In those days, passengers occasionally were involved with train robberies.

I purchase V8 juice from the vending machine to give me some energy.

As we leave Seattle, we pass Qwest Field, the Seattle Mariner's baseball stadium.

Bus to Portland: We stop at Centralia, Washington to pick up additional train passengers. At Kelso-Longview, the bus stops for a longer period. Passengers get out of the train to smoke. When we pull away from the train station, one lady notifies the bus driver that we have left a young girl’s grandmother behind. We have gone about a block before the discovery. Her grandchild was asleep in the seat. The bus driver returns to the station and finds the grandmother.

The State of Washington is green and the sun is shining brightly today. There is plenty of water between Seattle and Portland—including rivers, ocean and bays. We pass farmland, grazing sheep and lumber mills.

Train to Santa Barbara: In Portland, Train 11, Coast Starlight, which was one of my favorite train routes on our trip last year, is waiting for us and departs Portland about one hour late. It is considered to be one of the most beautiful of all train routes. Going between Seattle and Los Angeles, the train passes through Portland, Eugene, Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Barbara.

The scenery along this route is some of the best: snow-capped mountains, rolling hills, dense forests, fertile valleys and long stretches of the Pacific Ocean shoreline. You can smell roses in Portland’s famous rose gardens, ride trolley cars in San Francisco, visit wineries in Paso Robles or visit Hearst Castle near San Luis Obispo. Since we departed late, much of the route is traveled at night.

But on this trip, my patience is tested and I fail. It is about 3:00 p.m. and I haven’t eaten a meal all day and am hungry and cranky. The car attendant announces that the café car will open soon. When he takes my ticket, I ask him, “How soon will it open? I haven’t eaten a meal all day.”

He suggests I go to the café and wait. Thank goodness, it is open when I get there. I spill my heart to the café attendant. While I am eating, I feel bad about my attitude. It’s not his fault about the inconvenience. I sit with the grandmother and granddaughter. They are hungry too. We strike a friendship, which lasts throughout our ride to Santa Barbara.

We pass several little communities in California. The country along the coastline is filled with farmland and industrial sites.

After eating, I returned to the attendant and apologize, saying now that I have eaten, my attitude will change. We were friendly the remainder of the trip, and when we parted, he comments that he hopes circumstances will be better the next time we meet.

When we arrive in Santa Barbara at 9:30 p.m., five buses are waiting to transport passengers to various cities in Southern California.

Bus from Santa Barbara to Fullerton: I previously made arrangements with my son to pick me up at the Fullerton train station, but because it is so late, I call him from my cell phone when we reach Santa Barbara. I tell him that I will call him when we reach East Los Angeles, about twenty minutes away from Fullerton.

I fall asleep and wake up about ten minutes away from Fullerton. I call Ken; he hurries to the Amtrak station and we meet there about 1:30 a.m. We hit the hay as soon as we reach his house which is less than one mile from the Amtrak station.

I am able to stay with my family only one day because many of them had previous plans. My daughter, Jennifer, is on a cruise, but her husband, Dave, is home with my grandson, Evan. We will be meeting them for dinner before I leave for home. Ken is attending Biola University, a Christian University, to earn a graduate degree and must study for finals. My granddaughter, Jennifer, has to work and I won’t be able to see her at all.

My train is due to depart Fullerton at 7:20 in the evening. I visit with my daughter-in-law, Kim, and watch television while Ken is studying. In the afternoon, Dave brings Evan to Ken’s house for a visit before dinner. A short time before dinner, Rob, a 26-year old grandson, and his girlfriend come for a short visit.

We eat at the Fullerton Spaghetti Factory, an old depot converted to a restaurant. Dave’s birthday is just around the corner, so I buy dinner to celebrate everyone’s birthday. At the dinner are Ken and Kim, Dave and Evan, and Rob and Melissa plus me.

The stay is short, but I will see most of them again at the family reunion in the middle of June.