Trip to nowhere

On January 21, 2020, I flew back to Seattle from Burbank Airport in California.  I had been visiting my brother and his family in Oxnard, together with a night's visit with an old friend in La Habra.  It was the last time I've been outside the State of Washington.  

In fact -- aside from August's five-hour round-trip drive north to Newhalem, to take possession of two kittens, it was the last time I've been outside the Seattle city limits.

Me!  The restless traveler!  The world-roaming fool!  Such have been the horrors of the pandemic -- horrors from my parochial perspective, at least.

Next week that changes.  It changes in a way that would be very odd for anyone, anyone but me.  Because I've done the same thing before.  Other times, when the urge to go somewhere, anywhere, has overridden my sense of rationality, not to mention my sense of financial probity.

Oh, no! -- the more astute of you exclaim.  You're not doing it again?

Yup.  The train trip to nowhere.

On Saturday, April 24, I'll leave Seattle on Amtrak's Coast Starlight at 9:45 a.m.  After a transfer at Emeryville to an Amtrak-provided bus ride across the Bay, I'll arrive in San Francisco at 9:05 a.m. on Sunday.  I'll fly out of SFO on Alaska Airlines at 3:35 p.m., arriving back at Sea-Tac at 5:40 p.m.

That would give me about five hours in San Francisco before I need to reach the airport.  Assuming -- never an easy assumption -- that the train arrives on schedule.  My nephew and his wife live in San Francisco, and, together with a couple of their friends, we plan to have lunch together.  

Contingent, again, on Amtrak's not hauling in four hours late, as it's been known to do.  It's not Amtrak's fault -- it's at the mercy of the private railroads that own the rails and call the shots.

In any event, I'll be away from home (cheers!) and ensconced for 24 hours in a roomette (more cheers!), and will feel much happier upon my return.  As will my two cats, who will have been left alone overnight for the first time since they took up residence in my household.

Then I can start making plans for my next trip.  A trip not to nowhere, but to somewhere.