Day 49 (San Diego - Vancouver train 16km)

I woke up at 4:20 am, shovelled back some yogurt and rode 16dm towards the train station in the dark as the sun was coming up.
I took the 6:10am Coast Surfliner train from San Diego to LA. There were plugs at every seat so I monitored our speed and progress on my GPS.
Once in LA I had to quickly box my bike to catch the 10:15 Coast Starlight train to Seattle. I had to deal with a particularly nasty and fat lady who was in charge of the checked baggage room and who obviously hated their life and wanted to take it out on me. I wore a smile and kept apologizing through so she was powerless over me. I got on the train and prepared for a very long journey.
Sitting next to 76 year old James from Chicago, I fell asleep quite quickly, but still saw some interesting things along the way: 2 campsite I stayed at, an ICBM launching tower, the biggest American flag "west of the Pacific" (there must be a bigger one in Hawaii?) and a space shuttle landing runway.
We encountered the first of our many long delays due to the fact that the freight companies own the tracks and have priority meaning we had to stop at nearly every sidetrack to let them pass.
I ate all my food and had to buy dinner on the train. I ended up being seated with 2 unaccompanied minors (12 years old and 14 years old girls) and a 19 year old guy. The youngest, Alyssa was a little firecracker who is headed for trouble. She says she has had 12 boyfriends. I asked her if I counted as number 13, but she didn't think it was funny. She says her mother forced her to get a bellybutton ring... Odd...
Before I went to sleep we were already a few hours behind schedule.