Fri. Aug. 5     Back in California; return to Tehachapi

I woke up this morning on the train and immediately peeked out thewindow to see where we were.  Aha! I knew we were in the low hills just before the Sacramento Valley, which meant the train was running late.  So I got dresed and tiptoed up tothe parlor car for coffee and goodies.  the attendant told me that the dining car would open soon,and we had plenty of time for breakfast thre, with the train 1 and a half hours late. 

So bill and I “put the beds away” and enjoyed meeting 2 new people at breakfast. One was a lady who owns her own pharmacy, and she had some tales to tell~!  The bottom line was: get all your prescriptions at the SAME pharmacy, so if there’s a problem, they can spot it instantly! Thencame an announcement:”If you were scheduled to detrain at Sacramento and take an Amtrak bus to meet Train 712, DON’T do it!  Stay on this train, get off in Martinez, and get on Train 714.”  Oh boy, that applied to us, and it meant we’d arrive in Bakersfield much later thanwe’d hoped and would have no chance to pick up our resupply box in Tehachapi today.

So we stayed with the train as it followed the pretty route along the Carquinez Strait, past the World War 2 “mothball fleet” and on across and over to Martinez.  This is where we normally get on and off the train when we are travelling from HOME.  Martinez was cool and windy–very refreshing after the heat in Washington. And it was busy too, thre were lots of trains coming and going.  After a 45 minute wait, we were aboard #714 and of to Bakersfield, rolling along first through the oil refineries, then the Sacramento River Delta, thenthe farmlands of the San Joaquin Valley.  We peered toward the east, trying hard to make out the High Sierras, but all we could see were clouds piled high.  Hmmm…that means thunderstorms up there!   Oh boy!

At every stop, a lot of people got on and of the tain–seems tht a lot of Valleyfolks tavel Amtrak.  By 4:30 pm, we were in Bakersfield an it was 104 degrees in the shade–but there were masses of dark gray clouds that looked like rain up in the direction of Tehachapi.  We had less than an hour to wait for the Regional Transit bus that would take us back into the mountains; a 30-plus mile ride for only $2 each!  Wow, the people here don’t know how good they have it!   Back home, a Golden Gate transit bus that makes the run from Petaluma to San Francisco costs us over $8 each!  As the bus climbed higher and higher, the clouds ahead got bigger and darker.  By the time we got off the bus in Tehachapi, it was starting to rain a bit.

We headed for the Santa Fe motel, which is a lot less expensive than where we stayed before, and very hiker-friendly–they even gave us a “PCT hiker guide to Tehachapi.” But a phone call home revealed badnews–our resuply box had been returned (apparently something about it was “not correct”) so it would not be waiting for us at the post office in the morning.  Oh no!  That meant it would be 3 or 4 days of waiting for it to arrive again, because the post office was closed on Sunday.  And it was a BIG box, with a lot of food and supplies in it.  That meant our planned schedule was totally “blown away.”  to add to the fun, in the box was supposed to be a refill of a prescription that I use, and our daughter said that when she went to get the refill to put in the box, they refused to give it to her.  Apparently the prescription had run out.  So somehow, here in Tehachapi, I had to find a way to get the prescription I needed.

All we could do was to say, “OK, Lord, obviously You are up to something here.  Don’t know what it is, so PLEASE help us be patient!”  The only thing we could conclude was that because Bill and I were still very tired,  and Bill’s foot was still hurting a lot, and I needed to organize my prescription, maybe God decided we need to rest more before the challenge of final high desert plus High Sierra. 

(Note: Since I am the kind of person who likes to know “what happens in the end”, let me say this: our delay in Tehachapi (which turned out to be several days) may have saved our lives.  Had we started when we’d PLANNED to start, we would have landed up in the middle of a horrendous storm, right in the place where several people were killed by lightning.   When we got to that point later on, saw the destruction caused by the storm and realized, “This is where we WOULD have been, had we not been delayed in Tehachapi”, we had some VERY fervent, grateful prayers to God for taking care of us!) 

Thurs. Aug. 4     Travelling back to California

After just a few hours of sleep in the Green Tortoise dorm, we were up at around 6:00 am to shower and make ourselves breakfast.  Down in the Common Room, Bill headed for the Internet and I headed for the kitchen.   A staff lady was ladling out premeasured amounts of waffle batter into paper cups.  She’d already made a couple of “test’ waffles and asked if I wanted them.  You bet!  I slathered them with butter (max calories!) and syrup, and sliced bananas on top.  Bill got coffee (great coffee of course–it’s Seattle!)  and we ate by the open window overlooking 2nd Avenue.  People from all over the world were eating breakfast with us–a Chinese couple eating an egg dish HE had been making  in the kitchen, a German with a plateful of bread and fruit, some Brits, and several others.  We ate very well, then it was off to the train station! 

What a different place 2nd Avenue is, early on a weekday MORNING.  No bums, no drunk people.  We got to Union Station in plenty of time, and when the train came in, we started toward the FRONT of the train instead of the back.  (Normally we travel “coach” on Amtrak; those cars are towards the back of the train!).  We were eager to see what an ‘economy sleeper” cabin looked like.  Well, all I can say is, “Don’t bring much with you–it’s a tight fit!”  We stowed our backpacks on the shelves near the car door and setled in. Cozy, VERY cozy. When the train got underway, to my amazement, it went back exactly the way we had come in last night.  Aha!  No wonder we got our directions all turned around last night!  Eventually the train did turn south, and I started writing and Bill wandered off to go exploring.  He reported back that we sleeper car folks have access to unlimited goodies in the parlor car.  So we started eating again! Muffins, pastries, juice, coffee…yum! 

While I continued writing, Bill studied his feet, and they didn’t look very good. He was particularly worried about a couple of toes on his right foot.  The toenails are coming off, and the toes don’t look very happy.  In fact, Bill’s feet look very beat up in general, and he still has trouble with them hurting.  My feet are just fine, for which I am grateful.  They have toughened up unbelievably since I began at Campo, and just keep going along without a problem except for being VERY tired toward the end of a day’s hike.   Here on the train, I am leaving off my shoes and trying to keep my feet up as much as possible to give them a good rest. 

 At lunch in the dining car, we cleared our plates (did manage to refrain from licking them, too!) then went to the parlor car for more. At 3:30 we went to the wine-tasting and enjoyed 3 wines frm our own home turf in Sonoma County, CA.  At dinnertime, we cheerfully cleared our plates again.  (By the way, the food was GREAT!)  So I guess you could say we definitely got our money’s worth in the food department!   And we needed it.  I have had to tie something around my waist to be able to cinch up my pack tight enough.  Bill and I are definitely in calorie deficit, and we needed this rest and food.

It was a hot day outside, and turning into a very warm night.  The train air conditioning was having a tough time coping, so it was a bit warm inside the train, too.  Even after the sun went down, it continued warm.  We set up our beds (upper bunk, lower bunk) and both of us were “crashed” by 7:30 pm.  Trains make a comfortable rocking, rolling motion as they run along the tracks–very soothing, and it was fun to be able to lie down instead of sitting up in coach all night as we usually do.  I got to read the Bible for a bit before turning out the light.