In a fit of unbridled spontaneity (it was a dark and stormy night, too, by the way), I decided to take the train to the central coast to meet my friend Michelle for a weekend of photo taking and girl talk. What I love about the train is that I'm not driving. Plus, the tracks make losing your way somewhat harder to do, unless of course you get on the wrong train.
So here are a few pics of said train ride. The other nice thing about being on a train is that I don't have to pull over to take photos, or in the alternative, shoot blindly through the car's windshield.
Here we have stopped, apparently in someone's back yard. I think it was rather thoughtless of them not have light refreshments available for us, after all, we did visit. Some people!
This is Simi Valley, which is quite beautiful and covered in large boulders. Very striking. If you haven't been, I recommend a trip out there.
Incidentally, someone just walked through the car offering apple juice boxes. How cute!
Here they appear to be cultivating something. I know, I know, too much detail, but wouldn't you rather be informed than not?
We stopped in Oxnard, elevation 61 feet. That's all I know about Oxnard.
The train swings quite close to the water in many places, must closer than the 101 or PCH so the scenery is quite lovely.
Beauty and the beast. The beast being the truck. Duh.
Some serious RV action along the coast.
At one point, all I could see out the train window was water and sky. And oil drilling platforms. Sigh. I note that shots of just plain open water are not nearly as awe-inspiring as the actual open water.
And there were also some wetlands. I missed the more visually interesting ones, they went by too fast, but here's a nice boggy-looking waterway.
Above, Lompoc train station. I kid you not.
This was the only structure for miles around. Maybe it's the Lompoc federal penitentiary, maybe it's not. I don't know.
Much of the landscape around Lompoc was covered in this reddish succulent. I'm not sure how it shows up on your screen, but I notice that when I uploaded the photo here the red washed out. It's actually quite red.
And then I just got bored (we rolled into SLO shortly after this) so no more train pics.
There. Isn't that almost like you took the train ride with me? You're welcome!
