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The Mojave Desert to Los Angeles.


Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo.




The engineer leaves the train in San Luis Obispo.


The End.



Day 9
June 17th, 2007
Southern California and the Coast Route to San Luis Obispo.



I woke up in San Bernardino County, having slept all the way through Arizona. The trip didn't seem to be winding down at all. Waking up to the sunrise over the Mojave Desert just seemed like another day.

At this point we were about two hours and forty minutes behind schedule. There would be no way we could make up an hour between Barstow and Los Angeles to make my connection. I really didn't want to ride the Pacific Surfliner home. A train trip just isn't the same if you don't step off of the Coast Starlight in San Luis Obispo. At ten 'till seven we passed the community of Helendale, where my parents had lived at the turn of the century. (Now isn't that an odd phrase to use when you're talking about 1999 and 2000?)

The last guy I chatted with on the Southwest Chief was, ironically, my seatmate who'd been sitting alone since Chicago. He was on his way to to Kings Canyon, some kind of scientist who was going to be living up in the mountains for 10 days at a time through the summer killing fish to save frogs.

The train ended up pulling in to Los Angeles Union Station not ten minutes before the Coast Starlight was scheduled to depart. I literally walked off of one train and across the platform to the other. I didn't even get to step into the lobby. The Starlight left at 10:15am, right on time. Once my ticket was collected I headed up to the lounge, as usual, where I spent the rest of the trip.

After leaving the Los Angeles area (and I call everything from Ventura south Los Angeles), we came to the area where the Coast Starlight gets it's name. The train follows the coastline all the way up to Santa Barbara and beyond. Where the 101 freeway turns inland, the Coast Starlight stays at the edge of the water and the passengers get a unique view of the rocket complex at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the only public access through the base. After the air force base, the train passed through the vegetables of the Santa Maria Valley and the trailer parks of Pismo Beach as it prepared for it's next station stop of San Luis Obispo.

We ended up in San Luis Obispo just about on time, and another train oddessey was behind me.


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