I had to leave on the day…
…that a Nigerian prince tries to blow up a plane with a condom. Oh, well.
Santa Barbara is lovely, of course, and I arrived at one of my old haunts just as Simple Minds started playing Don’t You Forget About Me, as if they were expecting my entrance. I love serendipity! I think that it was playing the last time I was here, but it was new then and maybe not ironic.
The train ride down was pleasant, if uneventful; the conductor kept bringing by splits of champagne, and not to be rude, I kept taking them. You often forget how big California is, but then you do something like this, and you become aware. Again. Once you leave behind the big cities of the SF Bay Area, the scenery out the window becomes rural and bucolic. Green pastures, crops, strawberries for days, and cows frolicking here and there. They do frolic, too. Don’t let anyone tell you that the cows in California are not happy, they are. The ads do not lie.
The train tracks south of San Louis Obispo run along the Pacific Ocean, literally next to the beach; we pulled alongside the Pacific just as the sun was setting, and it was magnificent. On one side of the train is the ocean, and on the other is Vandenberg Air Force Base, where the conductor tells us are ICBMs. Ahead is the Reagan Ranch, and you are aware, once again, that great beauty and great evil can and do co-exist, even here on the lefty coast.
I recalled going to Vandenberg to see the space shuttle land once, so I have happy memories of that place without knowing about ICBMs. I’m hoping that the conductor was wrong, or that in my dotage that I will forget about it. My dotage is scheduled to begin right about now.
More later.
Regards,
Tengrain
Wow, I was going to suggest you take the train! We took the Coast Starlight up from LA to Emeryville last August, it’s a beautiful trip.
I believe there are test shots of ICBM’s from Vandenberg, but none “stationed” there. Vandenberg is also far enough north to be a better polar orbit launch site than Kennedy.
Anyway have a wonderful time, enjoy yourself, you are envied!
the conductor kept bringing by splits of champagne
I am delighted you have enough good sense to travel first class!
Dotage Alert: You must have seen the shuttle land at Edwards AFB, not Vandenburg.
You think the state would be better off split into Northern, Southern & Central/Inland Cali? Like you said, it sure is big.
I love that the cows in California frolic & are happy…at least while they can.
I hope that’s not the same Nigerian who needed my bank account number. I’m still waiting for the checks to start rolling in.
Dotage eh? You just want us all to dote on you.
M Bouffant -
Jonah Goldberg, AKA Doughy Pantload, says that he thinks California should be divided up into three parts (but he is not specific); me, as a fourth generation Californiastan, I like Cali just as big, ungainly, and rambunctious as it is. But I come from a dysfunctional family, so it feels like home to me.
Regards,
Tengrain
Since us unionists are terrorists, could you pick up an ICBM for me? I really don’t feel like setting my nuts on fire.
The pacific coast there is simply magnificent and poetry cannot adequately describe it. It’s my favorite place in the country, between SLO and Carmel, near Big Sur. I want the ashes of my miserably dead self scattered to the winds near Nepenthe.
I envy you your trip. Wish I could have gone.