The fire watch for the area has been called off for the moment. There is still an active fire in San Leandro, but not here. I can occasionally smell smoke if the wind is coming just right from the south.
I have good friends from Australia who are coming to visit. At least I hope their train finally gets here. They flew into LA and caught a ship to cruise through the Panama Canal with the trip ending in New Orleans, From there, after a couple of days in that interesting city, they took the train to Chicago, spent a night there and boarded the California Zephyr for the trip out here.
And that is where the challenges began. I have been on that route a couple of times. It was late once, and so late the second time that they transferred a bunch of us to a bus and drove us five hours to Indiana to catch our follow on train (which ran only three days a week) since it would have long since left Chicago before we arrived.
What Jill tells me is that they were on time for a good portion of the trip – then got held up for a broken rail repair. That one I am not ever going to argue. Better a delay than a derailment or accident. Then there might have been a stuck signal, or at least one that spent a long time red.
So far, the Zephyr which left on the 18th and the one from the 19th are both on time… Jill’s train? It didn’t get in at 16:28 as scheduled. At that point we are hoping for 20:45.
Dinner is going to be a bit late…
(and I think I am finally getting past this round of the crud, so might even be interested in some supper).
