Got another lift into Sacramento with Tim. Still feeling the pain from the snowboarding. I just had a wander around this nice little city with all the typical characteristics of an American city; gridded streets, plenty of homeless, plenty of jobless, domed state capitol building. Yardee yar. I say characteristics, but that's probably the wrong word as that suggests that Sacramento has character. Pleasant though it is, it lacks character. The lack of character is a characteristic of most American cities. It does have oranges growing on trees in the memorial gardens which would make for cheap lunches, if it wasn't for the hundreds of pesky squirrels.
Found a great website to use with my new toy. Www.freewifispot.com lets you know where all the free wifi hotspots are in town. I went to a nice little coffee shop (not a starbucks) and entrenched myself for the afternoon.
Tim kindly came and met me at the end of the light rail to have dinner and help break up my day. We found an indian (yes indian) and had a curry, followed by a few beers and a final chat. My thanks must go to Tim and his family. As ever I'm blown away by their hospitality and I hope they can make it over to England soon (but not before I get there).
Tim dropped me at the Amtrak station where I had my now usual moments contemplation and adjustment to being on my own again. It's no problem, but it always happens.
Sacramento (a city) train station is about the same size as Aldershot (a small town) train station. It has a terrible lack of signs and is devoid of information. From what I could work out it only sees about 10 trains a day. I was anxious not to miss the only train of the day so I left the terminal building at about 23.55 to get to the platform to wait for my midnight train. Having waited a chilly 30 minutes I say a guy in a uniform strolling down the platform.
Bloo - "Excuse me, Do you know where the Seattle train is?"
Bod - "Yeah, it's running over an hour late.'
Bloo - "Don't you think that's the sort of information you should share with your customers."
No wonder no one takes the train.
When the train did arrive, it was magnificent (as trains go) and huge. It's a double decker and there was copious amounts of leg room and chairs that recline to almost lying down. I quickly went off to snoozeville.
