What do those seemingly unrelated groups have in common?  They are all bold adventurous travelers on the Tour De Force that is the Amtrak Coast Starlight route.  A mere 30 hours to LA, and worth every second (I think.  Maybe).  Anyone who knows me knows I talk about America’s desperate need for bullet trains about twice a week.  It’s one of about five standbys or throw-ins that I bring into a conversation.

It’s pretty easy to talk about trains, and steer people in a conversational direction where train talk is unavoidable.  It’s like the Kevin Bacon game.  I bet I can turn any conversation towards trains with ease.  Everyone has an opinion about America’s transporation infrastructure, just like Susan Boyd’s singing skills and how the Obama’s are doing with their puppy rearing.  I mean these are the issues of our times.

With all my talk about trains, I’d never ridden a train in America.  So thanks to another recent spate of unemployment, a window opened so to speak, and one of America’s iconic train routes beckoned me to hug the rails.  Plus a great friend lives in LA, so the stars aligned.  Trains could be a great incubator a for swine flu as well, but I guess we’ll know in a week or so…

The views along the way are amazing.

This is a shot of Salinas Valley.  The vegetable capital of the country.  It was surreal seeing so much water artificially pumped into a very arid area, but that’s how we all eat, I guess.  I wonder where our Baconnaise fields are?  Our food system sure seems to be propped up, on a house of cards.  But a beautiful area none the less, and the scope of food production is amazing.

The best part of the trip is once the train winds up through the mountains and hits San Luid Obispo.  South of SLO there is a picturesque stretch of railine hugging the California coast.  Much of that area is on the Vandenberg Air Force Base, so it’s a remote area that is typically off-limits to cars.  Neat.

It was a fairly exhausting journey, but one I rather enjoyed nonetheless.  Unfortunately I arrived in LA to see the Blazers season come to an end.  I’ll wrap up my thoughts on a very successful (yes, very) season when I have a bit more time to think about it.  First some of the highlights from an entertaining train ride.

- When I got on in Portland the fellows behind me had a combined 30 teeth between them and from the sounds of it, half a dozen ex-wives.  Is there a correlation between poor dental hygeine and the successfulness of  marriages?  I want our top researchers on the topic to solve this elusive riddle.

- Lots of first time Amtrak riders like myself.  That’s an encouraging sight, or maybe people are just getting more afraid of airplanes and the sicknesses they carry within…

- I met at least half a dozen people who were in the same boat as me; recently unemployed.  Really nice folks too.  Hopefully everyone gets back on their feet and soon.

- A Berklely woman said she was an expert at guessing where people are from.  She thought I was from her native New York City.  I don’t know why, but that was funny to me.

- Trains are more spacious than airplanes, but don’t be deceived.  I slept like garbage.  It’s very difficult to sleep on a moving machine for me.

- At a quarter to seven am a foursome of middle-aged moms entered the lounge car and sat near me.  These ladies were just like my mom and her friends.  They were celebrating their 20th anniversary of “ladies weekend.”  They offered me blueberry pancakes and bagels and cream cheese.  They were also drunk off mimosas before seven am.  Awesome.

Off to enjoy the sights and sounds of LA.  More soon.