AMTRAK SAN JOSE TO LOS ANGELES
I took the Thruway bus from Santa Cruz through the forested hills to San José, a beautiful ride. Then the guy at the Amtrak counter said the train would be an hour late and said he would watch my bags and sent me off to Whole Foods for breakfast but instead I bought a burrito for supper to avoid train food.
The first part of the train ride to Los Angeles was through the Salinas valley along the Salinas river with large strawberry and cabbage fields on both sides with brown hills beyond and then just after San Luis Obispo the train veered over to the coast where we for three hours we ran along bluffs above the Pacific, some times able to look straight down at the beaches and white surf below. It was a marvelous ride with brown mountains on the other side. The windows of the train were spattered with dirt but I tried to photograph the Pacific edge.
I got to LA half an hour late, was helped by a woman to get a TAP card to get me on the Metro to Monrovia, where she was also going. When we got to Monrovia, I helped her off by carrying one of her four bags, but before we could get to the train door, the train started up again. After I realized that Elaine Smith, who was picking me up, didn‘t have a cell phone and there was no way of contacting her, I knew I was lost somewhere in LA. But she and her son, Cal, were at the station and saw me unable to get out and trailed me and my new found friend, also discombobulated, to the next station, as did her ride. So I was home free in Monrovia.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 
Looks like you are enjoying the west coast.
The trip would be fun and interesting, but I would not be able to “ruff it” as well as u have. Ron and I enjoyed our trip to SF but we were guided by Ron’s sister. You will soon be as old as I am!!!!
Pat
Sorry, Bill, we didn’t have time for photos of Monrovia or our beautiful San Gabriel Mountains.Great coastal selections. (Who was the red head with the pink suitcase?!) -E.S.