From fast to SLO

Sunday was a melange of new experiences for us. We attended a Unitarian service with Tom and Neal - well, mainly with Tom, as Neal was outside helping people dye dozens of Peace T-shirts she'd screen printed. It was midday before we headed for the freeway, northwards from San Diego and past San Bernadino, at the back of Los Angeles. WOW! There were ten lanes of traffic - 5 each way - and sometimes more - all doing 80 miles an hour ... that's 130 kilometres an hour ... and every lane full of traffic all the time ... thousands and thousands of cars and trucks. We were almost glad that we had a largish SUV (4WD) as we drove like bats out of hell for two hours straight before we escaped near the San Gabriel mountains - a ski area just east of Los Angeles. There we stopped at the Mountain View Inn, beside one of the largest sand hills we've ever seen, and shared a plate of ... liver and onions! It seemed so un-American! Heading westwards, we drove beside the Edwards air force base, to Palmdale, where we supermarket shopped and booked in at a local Days Inn, totally wrung-out from our experiences in the fast lane.

Monday was totally different, as we drove along narrow country roads along the edge of the Sierra Madre, heading towards the coast. Our first impression was of the smog that continued to blanket the hills, even 150 kilometres (nearly 100 miles) from central Los Angeles. Our second impression was that we'd seen it all before, even though this was our first visit - we kept seeing scenes from every cowboy movie we ever saw. I'm quite sure I saw Victore Mature peering over a ridge, and Audie Murphy down in a gulch below (don't worry dears, if you're under 100 years old and can't remember these stars of the Wild West!).

It was delightful to arrive in the San Luis Obispo (SLO) area and meet up with our friends Anni and Bill. We'd visited them last year, but one visit is never enough - it's wonderful to feel that you're almost continuing the conversation left off at the end of the last visit. Like Neal and Tom, Bill and Anni are wonderful hosts, though we're all lacking sleep because we talk so far into the night - as well as being keen international tourists, they travelled the US for seven years, visiting every mainland state, including Alaska, and Canada, before settling down at Avila Beach. Yesterday we lunched at inland Templeton, at a wonderful restaurant in an old saloon - again it was just like a movie set - before visiting the SLO botanical garden.

Our bags are packed, we're ready to go ... this showbiz air is having an effect on us ... and today we set off on the first of six train-days. Today we return our SUV and travel by train to Emeryville, just inland from San Francisco, where we'll stay in a hotel overnight. Tomorrow we head for Chicago, via Salt Lake City, Colorado and Nebraska, our 43rd state. We're due to arrive on Saturday afternoon, and will then change trains and travel through Ohio, West Virginia (state #44) and Washington DC to Philadelphia, the next time we'll sleep in a bed, on Sunday night. On Monday we'll catch another train, this time heading west through Pennsylvania, to Johnstown, where Janet and Ken promise to be waiting for us among the autumn (fall!) leaves of the Alleghenny Mountains. Don't expect another blog for a week - but in the meantime, we hope that you're enjoying life as much as we are.