NELSON'S NOTES #80, SAN BENITO, TEXAS, Aug. 30, 2009

Note: For AOL and Yahoo users and some others, some embedded videos may not play on your browsers. Try opening Internet Explorer and pasting the following url in the address bar: www.otr.studio221.net

 

TO LOS ANGELES BY TRAIN

Our roomette

 

 

Bruce and I haven't hung up our RV keys yet but we've been using our motor home less, especially this year. It's the first time since 1994 that we haven't vacationed or lived in our motor home.

Our new adventure started at 4:00 a.m. on July 30 when we rolled our suitcases behind us and walked the deserted streets from our hotel to San Antonio's Union Station. The station is only open between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. We checked our bags and climbed aboard Amtrak's Sunset Limited.

It didn't take long to get into the rhythm of train riding. With Bruce facing backwards, we sat in convertible seats (chairs in the daytime, bunk beds at night) in our 6' x 3 ½' roomette while reading books and watching desert mountains and scrubby ranchland roll by. After at least nine hours of riding through Texas, gradually the landscape changed to lush groves of pecan trees and later in California to wind farms with their lazily revolving blades.

In the dining car, the steward seated passengers with people they'd never met before, a policy that makes train riding a friendly way to travel. We sat with people we won't soon forget. At breakfast on day 1, a retired firefighter and rescue worker got me interested in taking some of the train trips he's enjoyed the most. At lunch a retired technical writer from Hughes Aircraft, mentioned she's editing a book a former H.A. president is writing called Hughes After Howard. We were especially interested because the son we were on our way to visit worked for Hughes Aircraft.

At dinner, the steward seated us with a man about 30 years old who had a tattoo on his neck. He and his 10-year-old son were going to California for the week. We got the impression that the young man and the boy's mother lived apart and that the boy and his father hardly knew each other. At breakfast on day 2, one of our tablemates was on her way to meet the birth mother for whom she'd been searching the last 30 years. The other, a Vietnam War veteran, was trying to sort out his war experiences and write about them.

Shortly after breakfast, we arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles 1 ½ hours early (28 ½ hrs. total time). We were a little tired but for that I blame the 2-hour time change.

Even though the scenery wasn't new to us, traveling by train was a new adventure. We'd like to do it again.

Want to join us? Click the blue and white triangle and hop aboard.

traintrip from studio221 on Vimeo.

Note!!

AOL, Yahoo and some other email browsers often will not play flash videos . If you are having problems viewing this video, open up Internet Explorer and copy the following URL in the address bar and paste it in the address bar. dadtv.studio221.net/video.html

 

 

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

I had the same impression of southern California that I've had since 1980 when we first visited. Many of its facilities are unique to the area and give both tourists and locals lots of things to see and do. And then, there's the wonderful temperate weather. Even in mid summer, the ocean breeze kept us from getting too hot in the ever-present sun. Of course, these advantages attract many people who create lots of traffic.

Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. We allowed an hour to drive 20 miles to the Studios. We needed the extra time because--as is often the case--there was a traffic tie-up.

Sony Studios rents out space for making movies and TV shows. Formerly the home of MGM, it is now the headquarters of Columbia Pictures.

Most of the buildings on this street are facades. Open a door and you're likely to find a plywood wall, or just an ordinary business office. There were sets on other streets but the few we saw were either being built or torn down; no actual filming was being done. We had hoped to see at least one set in some stage of shooting or production.

 

 

San Diego. The first highlight of our 2-day trip to San Diego was touring the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier museum, where two former fighter pilots from the Viet Nam War gave exciting accounts of the perils of launching and landing planes on an aircraft carrier.

Another high point in San Diego was Balboa Park, a 1200-acre recreation and cultural center. Parking, as well as general admission into the park and tram rides around the park, were free. I would like to go again as we went on Monday when most of the museums were closed (the museums charge admission).

 

Bruce, Lydia, and Brian outside the Botanical Gardens building, one of the few that was open and free.


In all the pictures we took, Brian smiled big. We were joking about it because for years I've been asking him to show his teeth when he smiles and he finally did.

Walking through the Botanical Gardens

 

Warning sign in the carnivorous plant section

Farmers Market in Torrance

 

The stands were full of people looking for usual and unusual varieties of fruits and vegetables.

 

 

 

Palos Verdes

Hilly, green Palos Verdes Peninsula is on the South Bay near Torrance. In one of its affluent communities, wild peacocks like this one roam the streets and roost in the trees.

.

.

Brian, all worn out

 

Blueberry and Scooby-doo

Lydia keeps her parakeets at the pre-school where she teaches, but this week she brought them home while she was on vacation.

Annie is a Husky and German Shepard mix that Brian and Lydia adopted from the pound last December. She is sweet natured and seldom barks.

 

 

 

 

SURPRISE ANNIVERSARY CARD

On August 18, Bruce put this photo taken 53 years ago on my desktop. There it was--a big surprise--when I turned on my computer. My parents and the best man are in the background.

 

 

 

NEW LICENSE PLATE FOR TEXANS

This summer drivers with new vehicles and those whose license plates expired began receiving the state's first new license plate in 7 years. Last year, four designs were featured online where 1.1 million Texans voted for their favorite. It is the state's first digitally produced, full-color, general-issue plate. Seven numbers and letters replace six because the state is running out of six-character combinations.

In the online license plate election, 455,878 people voted for this design, and it was declared the winner. The mountains at the bottom are the Davis Mountains. Denver is called the mile-high city but the elevation of the town of Fort Davis in the Davis Mountains is as high as "mile-high" Denver (5,050 feet).

 

 

LIFE ON THE BORDER

We live 10 miles from the Rio Grande River, which in Texas is the border with Mexico. Contrary to what many might believe, it is not a dangerous or scary place. Those of us who are here have fun just like we would if we lived near any recreational body of water. We take boat and birding trips on the Rio Grande, picnic at parks along the river, eat and dance at restaurants overlooking the river, and swim in the water as we watch people on the other side do the same.

A story about kayaking on the river, which was featured on National Public Radio's Morning Edition on Aug. 4, also dispels the myth of a dangerous life.

 

 Play or read the story at  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106993934.

Marianna Nelson