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August 6, 2004
Riding Around America: Coast Starlight
This was written while on the train and was posted on August 7th, I just pre-dated it to avoid confusion with today's entry.
Approaching California/Oregon border... 9:30am
I have a window seat so I woke up almost immediately when the sun rose over the mountains at 6:30 this morning. I didn't have my glasses on but I knew the view was beautiful. Red and orange cloud streaks seemed to be coming out of the mountains and I could see green pines trees jutting out of volcanic rock and poking up against the horizon. This was quite a change from when I went to sleep last night.
The scenery of yesterday was made up of gradual, soft mountains and rolling foothills. As always, it was the colors of California that struck me. Brilliant blue sky unblemished by clouds, marked by the light brown grasses of the hills, and then the deep green of crops in the valley: strawberries or lettuce or some other type of leafy plants. It's that well defined color palette that I will remember about California.
After the brieft stretch of pine trees and volcanic rocks and snow capped Mout Shasta earlier this morning, we now slowly ride through a valley, surrounded on all sides by hills, about to pass through the last town in California, then through a tunnel into Oregon.
Approaching Albany, OR... 5:30pm
We're running even later now and I'm just chillin'. I wish my iPod hadn't been stolen.
Posted on August 6, 2004 at 11:50 PM