My wife drove me to the CMO station on Wednesday 2/5. A snowstorm was just starting. The temperature was 9F and there was a stiff north wind blowing putting the wind chill below zero. The CS arrived about 10 minutes late but I had a warm car to sit in until others started up the ramp. We were also about 10 minutes late out of KFS.
We arrived about 35 minutes early in SAC. I called my buddy and we went to breakfast at a Denny's I was not aware of north of the city.
He got me back to the station at 7AM and I waited for the bus to Stockton (7:40 roll out). Amtrak was good about notifying me about the bus bridge between Stockton and Modesto.
Our bus pulled into Stockton next to 2 empty buses. I chose the Van Hool over the MCI. We waited about 15 minutes for the 712 that came in from Martinez.
Both buses were nearly full for the trip to Modesto. We waited in the Modesto station for about 30 minutes for the train to come in from Bakersfield. Passengers got off and headed for the buses we had gotten off. We got on (no ticket scan) and backed all the way to Bakersfield about 45 minutes late by the 712 schedule.
I took the bus that dropped me off at the New Hall/Santa Clarita transit center. My daughter-in-law ended up picking me up since the taxi didn't show up in an hour after being called.
Thursday night I got to see my grandchildren in Stevenson Ranch.
Friday late afternoon my DIL tok me down to the Burbank (Bob Hope airport) stop. I was scheduled to get on the 790 Surfliner at 6:39PM. I ended up getting on an earlier Surfliner which was really running late due to someone dropping a big tree on the line on Friday afternoon.
I got into LAUS in time to stand in a long line to get a seat assignment for the coach seat to Tucson. Our train left at 8PM to meet the needs of BNSF.
We got to Maricopa 1:40 ahead of schedule after starting 2 hours early. We left Maricopa right "on time" and arrived at TUS at 8AM (30 minutes early).
I had a rather expensive taxi ride out to my rental car at the Park Place Mall (7 miles).
I chose Tucson to get the rental car even though the event I was headed to was in Yuma. We were at Yuma at 1:47AM and I didn't want to get a rental car or hotel room at that time in Yuma.
Before my late afternoon event in Yuma I continued west on I-8 into California and then south on Algodones road to a big parking lot just north of the border. I spent about 2 hours in Los Algodones and found 2 geocaches in Mexico. I spoke to no Mexican authorities. The US customs agent asked what I was bringing back from Mexico when he swiped my passport through the reader. "Nothing I just found 2 geocaches in Mexico".
Several hundred geocachers showed up for the "warm up" event in downtown Yuma. The next day (Sunday) over 1000 geocachers showed up in the West Wetlands Park for the 11th annual event. When I left the event at 2PM the temperature was 85F. I drove back to Eloy (intersection I-8 and I-10) and spent the night there.
Monday I found geocaches in Las Cruces and north of El Paso TX before stopping in Van Horn. Tuesday morning when I got up in Van Horn the temperature was 27F.
I found a couple of geocaches in Van Horn before I headed back to Tucson. I found the Amtrak station in Tucson and dropped off my luggage to hold for me until I got back from dropping off the rental car. I dropped off the rental car about 6:10 just after they closed.
I found my way across Broadway to a bus stop and got a $2 ride back to the Ronstadt Transit center which is across Toole Street from the Amtrak station.
My trip back home from Tucson was on AGR points. Stay tuned for the return trip story.
We arrived about 35 minutes early in SAC. I called my buddy and we went to breakfast at a Denny's I was not aware of north of the city.
He got me back to the station at 7AM and I waited for the bus to Stockton (7:40 roll out). Amtrak was good about notifying me about the bus bridge between Stockton and Modesto.
Our bus pulled into Stockton next to 2 empty buses. I chose the Van Hool over the MCI. We waited about 15 minutes for the 712 that came in from Martinez.
Both buses were nearly full for the trip to Modesto. We waited in the Modesto station for about 30 minutes for the train to come in from Bakersfield. Passengers got off and headed for the buses we had gotten off. We got on (no ticket scan) and backed all the way to Bakersfield about 45 minutes late by the 712 schedule.
I took the bus that dropped me off at the New Hall/Santa Clarita transit center. My daughter-in-law ended up picking me up since the taxi didn't show up in an hour after being called.
Thursday night I got to see my grandchildren in Stevenson Ranch.
Friday late afternoon my DIL tok me down to the Burbank (Bob Hope airport) stop. I was scheduled to get on the 790 Surfliner at 6:39PM. I ended up getting on an earlier Surfliner which was really running late due to someone dropping a big tree on the line on Friday afternoon.
I got into LAUS in time to stand in a long line to get a seat assignment for the coach seat to Tucson. Our train left at 8PM to meet the needs of BNSF.
We got to Maricopa 1:40 ahead of schedule after starting 2 hours early. We left Maricopa right "on time" and arrived at TUS at 8AM (30 minutes early).
I had a rather expensive taxi ride out to my rental car at the Park Place Mall (7 miles).
I chose Tucson to get the rental car even though the event I was headed to was in Yuma. We were at Yuma at 1:47AM and I didn't want to get a rental car or hotel room at that time in Yuma.
Before my late afternoon event in Yuma I continued west on I-8 into California and then south on Algodones road to a big parking lot just north of the border. I spent about 2 hours in Los Algodones and found 2 geocaches in Mexico. I spoke to no Mexican authorities. The US customs agent asked what I was bringing back from Mexico when he swiped my passport through the reader. "Nothing I just found 2 geocaches in Mexico".
Several hundred geocachers showed up for the "warm up" event in downtown Yuma. The next day (Sunday) over 1000 geocachers showed up in the West Wetlands Park for the 11th annual event. When I left the event at 2PM the temperature was 85F. I drove back to Eloy (intersection I-8 and I-10) and spent the night there.
Monday I found geocaches in Las Cruces and north of El Paso TX before stopping in Van Horn. Tuesday morning when I got up in Van Horn the temperature was 27F.
I found a couple of geocaches in Van Horn before I headed back to Tucson. I found the Amtrak station in Tucson and dropped off my luggage to hold for me until I got back from dropping off the rental car. I dropped off the rental car about 6:10 just after they closed.
I found my way across Broadway to a bus stop and got a $2 ride back to the Ronstadt Transit center which is across Toole Street from the Amtrak station.
My trip back home from Tucson was on AGR points. Stay tuned for the return trip story.