Had a day planned in San Diego (90 miles south) to meet up with Dad and Peg (evil stepmother) having lunch, the opera at 3pm, then dinner and spend the night...
First off, I had to work on Monday in order to have this upcoming Saturday off (days off are Sun/Mon normally) for a 3 day weekend; then, it was pouring down rain...last thing is to hit California's major freeway, the interstate 5 and drive during a rainstorm... you see, Californians have not fully mastered the art of driving in rain since we hardly get any!!
Sooo the trusty Amtrak train came to mind... the closest station is at the Angel stadium for you baseball fans...
Hoped on train, relaxed watched the angry ocean with the stormy waves, and the horrible traffic on the freeway. Get into San Diego, get picked up, go to the very upscale Westgate Hotel for a $75 dollar lunch with wine and then on to the opera...
It was a Richard Wagner opera - 4 hours of BORING! I love the opera, but the 3 of us were so bored and Dad and I kept trying to find out how the Superbowl was doing :P
Finally, we staggered back to the Westgate for wine to fortify ourselves after the zzzzzzzzz opera then I was back to the station and hopped back on the train.. now it's 8:20pm...
After the Oceanside station, there's a huge gap before the next station so the train is just peddle to the medal and flies down the tracks. Going northbound, the train usually pushes with the engine in the rear, my car next one in front of the engine, then 2 others in front of me.
All of a sudden, the train lurched so violently that everything flew off the tables and trays.. not a pretty site watching people grab their laptops in a panic! Things fell out of the overhead compartments and couple of people fell out of their seats.
Then the smell of burning brakes permeated through the car and we practically gagged; however the train never slowed, just kept going.
A conductor came through and told us that the train had hit a boulder, literally leapfrogged over it and kept on going - so the train's tires/wheels had actually left the track and we were fortunate not to have completely derailed. If the train were pulling, the heavy engine would have pushed it out of the way and we probably would not have felt anything - but it was quite the E ticket ride home!
Each time the train slowed and stopped at a station, the horrible burning smell filled the cars.. one of the guys said I'll be right back and came back with the small bottles of wine for a few of us sitting around him...heh
yeeee haw!
