Rolling home

I'm writing this in the kiddie lounge of the Coast Starlight, between San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles northbound towards San Jose. We're on time and should arrive around 8:45pm, in time for me to send this in this evening. The lounge is an open (padded) room on the bottom floor of one of the 2-level coach cars. It is the only available lounge area, because Amtrak is using the observation car as an overflow coach. They had a derailment two days ago on this route, which damaged several cars... so this train consists of backup equipment and is short a coach car. The southbound is passing us on the next track, so we must be at least halfway home.

( Vacation wrap-up )