This year
AMTRAK turned 40! So when I realized that I would be able to attend
Blog World Expo 2011 in downtown Los Angeles, I decided to travel by train from Tucson, AZ to
Los Angeles Union Station. Round trip ticket (1000 miles) for a reserved coach class seat (which totally reclines like a La-z-Boy), sans meals, was $70.
Leaving Tucson
Have you ever traveled a long distance by AMTRAK? I have. Every trip is slightly different. This trip I was traveling solo, so I didn't have children to wrangle or a mother-in-law to assist or a husband to convince that he should not opt to disembark from the train three states early! It was just me and a few hundred other travelers who were taking the
Sunset Limited /
Texas Eagle from Tucson to Los Angeles. The train was to leave Tucson at 10:30PM, but on November 3, 2011, it really was the
midnight train to Los Angeles!
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| Palm Springs Wind Farm |
The funny thing is it really didn't matter to me that we left Tucson late. I knew we would be traveling through the night and if sleep escaped me there was a Club Car complete with a snack bar and an observation car to visit. As it turned out, I slept comfortably and awoke around 6:50AM as we approached Palm Springs. The view from my window (captured with my RAZR phone) was the "wind farm". Pretty eerie, don't you think?
For the next two hours I experienced a trip down memory lane. You see I lived a good many years in California's San Gabriel Valley - Pasadena, South Pasadena, Alhambra, West Covina...my oldest son was born in San Dimas, I finished college at Cal State Los Angeles (East LA), externed at LA County Hospital and Los Angeles Juvenile Hall and worked in downtown Los Angeles from 1974- 1981. I felt comfortable both on AMTRAK and in Los Angeles.
Arriving Los Angeles Union Station
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| Los Angeles Union Station |
As I said earlier, I was in Los Angeles to attend Blog World Expo 2011 (you can see a link to my review below). Downtown Los Angeles still looks good. It was my first time in the Los Angeles Convention Center on the same campus as the Staples Center.
