April 10, 2012
Day 5: Tragedy on the train. Great loss of life.
I had to cut a couple of days out of my original trip because of some family business, so I hopped on the train in San Luis Obispo and headed south.
I was pretty wasted after the last 4 days, my body just isn't in shape yet, but it wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't have to catch a 6:50am train, which meant a 5:00am wake-up. And even THAT wouldn't have been so bad, if the damn train had been on time, but you know Amtrak...
So we waited about 45 minutes with no word, initially, of why I had to drag my ass out of bed in the dark and gulp down my morning caffeine in a rush to make it on time, and then stand and wait with other groggy passengers. But finally, as the train was pulling into the station, word came down that there had been some smoke in the engine so they decided to switched that engine for a new one, as a precaution. Good call if you ask me.
Once ON the train it was nice, a beautiful sunny day, the stretch between SLO and Santa Barbara, along the pristine coast where there is no development, was especially nice.
In Santa Barbara more people got on the train.
"Geez," I heard one of the passengers say as she sat down. "The train is almost an hour late."
"There was a fire on the engine at the start," someone in the next seat over said. "They had to switch engines."
A "fire"? Hmmm? Not what I heard but I wasn't there. And they say that where there's smoke, there's fire, so who knows?
This happened again, two stops down.
"There was a fire on the train," said the woman who was sitting two seats behind me. "I heard they had to call in the fire department."
Hmmm? I turned and looked at her out of curiosity, she was a normal passenger. I wondered how she got her information?
The train from SLO to San Diego is direct in that, normally, you just stay on the train and keep going in Los Angeles. But 15 minutes from LA, an announcement came over the speakers that because we were an hour late, we were to switch trains in L.A. Everyone grumbled, me most of all, The Trucker had a nice place on the bike rack and I had a nice seat in view of the Trucker so I could keep an eye on her. But what was there to do?
I scrambled to get my stuff together; panniers, tent, and tiny bags and crap, all while everyone was moving around trying to organize themselves. Finally the doors opened and there was a mad dash across the platform to the other train. It wasn't easy, but I found a place for the Trucker and a halfway decent seat, sort of, in sight of The Trucker.
As the train pulled away and people settled in, grumbling about it all, I overheard a man who had been on train 2 to begin with ask why they moved us all over.
"There was a fire and they had to evacuate the train," said a woman next to him.
Isn't it amazing how a story can morph and take on a life of it's own? No wonder there are so many stupid disagreements and wars, over things that may have never happened in the first place.
I had planned to get off in San Juan Capistrano and ride through the Marine base, but because of the holocaust on the train, which caused us to be late, I got off in Oceanside and did a short ride to Carlsbad instead.
Today's ride: 21 miles (34 km)
Total: 238 miles (383 km)
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