my roomette is downstairs this time and the windows were as dirty as I've ever seen them so I got out at San Jose and got paper towels/water and washed them and all of a sudden everybody else on the platform did the same so the whole line of sleepers was people washing windows. #Amtrak#CoastStarlight#Tågskryt#TransitViews
OMG what a great night. Sitting at the bar reading (yes I'm that person) when the guy to the right of me start talking to the people to the left of me and it turns out to the guy is an attorney who is also a magician affiliated with the Magic Castle. The people on the left leave and I spend ~90 min having him do card tricks for me, etc. (and gave me his card so I can go visit the Magic Castle which I haven't done in 35 years). He had ropes of beads and made me this Jeff Koons dog out of one.
There's some event outside near where I am and I can hear their music. They just played "Africa" by Toto, and I thought @darth would like this, and smiled and my friend asked me what's up and I decided against telling the story about my friend the red panda on the Internet.
back in the 20s/30s/40s my grandfather was an internal auditor for southern pacific, which means he rode any train he wanted and essentially audited their performance. There are two DC Amtrak guys on my Coast Starlight auditing the California/West Coast trains for a few days, I have never had this on Amtrak in ~40 years of riding. Anyway, they are complete assholes.
@marcprecipice me too! A couple people I know have chartered them. I need to look into it. I'd love to take some family to Chicago or Seattle where we get an overnight.