Coast Starlight to Home Day 1
Monday, July 8, 2024
Our train didn’t leave until 9:50, but we could board earlier, and we wanted to have time to eat some breakfast before leaving for the train station, so we got up at 7:30. After getting cleaned up and packing everything up we went down to the breakfast area. Breakfast was complimentary at the hotel, and it was pretty substantial, so we had plenty to eat.
After breakfast we had a bit of time before we needed to leave so we relaxed in our room for a bit. We had a strange thing happen (we thought so anyway) last night; around 1:30 AM I heard a booming noise and there were fireworks being set off a couple of blocks away from us. They were not way up in the sky, but just off the top of one of the lower buildings. The fireworks were pretty good and lasted for quite a few minutes, and after going back to bed, another burst was set off. We didn’t see any activity around them and when we asked about it in the hotel this morning, no one knew anything about them.
It was finally time to leave, and we made the short walk from our hotel over to the station and waited for boarding to start. The sleeper cars were boarded first, so we were in our room by 9:30. Our car attendant was very nice and carried our luggage up for us.
The train left on time, but there was a lot of freight traffic and by the time we got to our first stop, we were an hour behind. We never really made up this time and were anywhere from a half hour to two hours behind schedule the entire trip. We had a good lunch in the dining car and had another nice conversation with a couple who sat across from us.
The afternoon went by quickly as we watched the scenery, dozed a little and read a little. For dinner tonight we sat across a brother and sister from Pennsylvania and while they were nice enough, they mostly talked about themselves. We spent the last half hour of dinner listening to them talk about which one of them lived in the most rural area – we were glad to get away when we finished dinner.
Once it gets dark there is not much to see, so we had our beds made up at 9:30 and called it a night.
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| We had a long stop in Portland so I got off to stretch my legs and look around. |
Coast Starlight to Home Day 2
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
The final day on the train and the final day of our trip. We were up early and neither one of us felt like going to the dining car for breakfast, so we had breakfast bar to eat and spent the morning watching the scenery go by. At lunch we had another interesting conversation with a man who was traveling with his daughter. Unfortunately, his daughter was suffering from motion sickness and didn’t join us for lunch. After lunch we only had about an hour before we arrived where we were getting off.
To start the trip, we got on in San Luis Obispo that is about 20 miles south of us, but today we decided to get off in Paso Robles that is 15 miles north of us. We are being picked up by Val’s friend Marsha and it will be a much easier drive for her this way.
We arrived in Paso Robles about an hour late and Marsha was there to meet us. Thank you so much Marsha, we really appreciate it. She also took care of our house while we were gone, so we are much indebted to her. It was quite shocking to get off the train as it was 108 degrees. Here we had been freezing in Alaska and now we were cooking. It had been quite warm in Seattle, but nothing like this.
We were home before four and after doing a little unpacking we did nothing for the rest of the day and evening. Our trip is over, and we have a lot to do this week, so a little rest this evening feels good. This is the end of a wonderful trip, but it always feels good to get home.
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