SFO TO BASALT CO

THE NEXT LEG OF THE JOURNEY

Last Sunday (20th February) had me on the train from San Francisco to Glenwood Springs (Colorado). The trip takes just under 24 hours and is the historic route of the first rail way across the continent. It is truly a grand trip with lots of interesting commentary about points of interest along the way.

I had been staying with my kind and good friends, Frank and Mary. Frank took me to the Martinez Amtrak station where I discovered that Bike Friday in its case was four pounds overweight, requiring me to take and repack out my shoes to get the weight right at under 50 pounds.

The ride out to Sacramento was essentially rural, once the outlying SFO communities lay behind us, become much more interesting. From Sacramento, the train steadily climbed into the Sierras with the views becoming more and more spectacular as you can see from the photo above. The descent into Trukee was quite tricky (almost a pun!), with long curves crossing the valley until we were at the same level, at the time of construction an engineering marvel. Lots of snow along the American and then the Truckee Rivers with occasional glimpses of the skiers out on the slopes around Tahoe.

Selecting the slimmest of the available seat companions, I had the pleasure of meeting Pamela, a young person in the Art business, who manages a gallery in Sonoma, on her way back to New Orleans, her home town. Amazingly, at dinner, we shared a table with David, a Londoner on a research trip, also in the art business and who we discovered to be seated just the next seat ahead of us. The dining car meals were up to their usual very good standard (I had the trout and an excellent ‘real Italian’ pino grigio, followed by limone sorbet). A jolly time and, as you might guess, I told not one or two stories.

I had the usual long night with broken sleep as the train made its way across Nevada and into Utah. As many passengers detrained at Truckee (avid skiers, no doubt) there was plenty of room to stretch out. Gliding South after Salt Lake City, the route turns East in Colorado at Grand Junction and follows the course of the Colorado River, still laden with ice floes. The weather became sunny and the views along the river very beautiful. Arriving at Glenwood Springs, instead of the snowy weather I was anticipating back in SFO, the day was bright and sunny. Here I had only the local bus ride up the Roaring Forks Valley to Basalt. I left Bike Friday at the Station to be collected the next day.

I love to ride Amtrak as there are always interesting people to meet, lots of room, and the dining car meals always acceptable. Besides, no vexing security hoops or hurdles to endure.

At the writing of this Post, I have not yet been off to ski. Today (Wednesday) I have organized all my gear, got my car registration properly posted, and finished attending to mail. I expect see the snow tomorrow, two more days of fine weather before the snow returns. My first time on skis with my tin knees so I will be taking care. It is wonderful to be with my elder daughter and eldest grandchild (Bronwyn and Stephanie).

In his latest comment, Glenn touched on my progress through the eye of the needle. This is turning out to be a longer, more tortuous passage than I had thought. However, to turn a phrase, now and then I glimpse what seems to be light at the end of this wormhole and I am well content with how things are going. Ahead of me lie some weeks of traveling that will take me up as far as British Columbia and I expect to see lots of North West friends and receive lots of counsel and supporrt.

I will keep you posted.

SFO, HERE I COME

LAST SEEN IN ADELAIDE!!!

At left, Roberto's feet. After several months of Aussie Summer and wearing sandals most days, my feet and other parts of me have become tanned here and there.

I am writing this at the end of my first complete day in San Francisco (SFO). From go to whoa, 28 hours of travel and airports. Up at 4 AM on Tuesday, car to Adelaide Airport, flight to Melbourne where I waited four hours to board the United Airlines flight to Sydney (very nice upgrade to Business Class) and then a further three hours to board UA870 for SFO (back to Coach). Aided by a good jet stream, the flight across the Pacific was only 12 & 1/2 hours; the 747 was about half full so there was plenty of room. Just about as good as one might expect. Arriving at 10:30 AM Tuesday (SFO time), process through customs was really amazingly quick. The BART train was waiting to go and I got off at Pleasant Hill at 12:45 PM to find my friend Frank Wright waiting for me. Altogether, a smooth and almost enjoyable journey!

To minimize jet-lag, I stayed up to 10 PM, nodding off here and there, until finally succumbing to an amazing ten hours of sleep. And what a grand start to my time in SFO...pizza and jazz/blues for lunch, visit to the UC Botanical Gardens following, and then a very enjoyable evening meal out that included a delicious calamari steak, not forgetting to mention excellent company. So to the end of this day and this posting.

It is good to be back in the USA where I feel strangely at home. February 19 marks the beginning of my 17th year of living here, so that is not so surprising perhaps. This begins quite an adventure the end of which is hard to predict. You will just have to watch this space is it unravels.

LAST WEEK IN OZ

ONE WEEK FROM TODAY, and I will be winging my way back to the US.

As the sun sinks slowing in the West, as the old travelogues used to say. I thought you might like this photo from 58 frames I took over 20 minutes two weeks back (from a look-out just half a mile from my sister's house).

Five months almost have passed. The obbligato to this time has

been natural disasters. The worst floods since the beginning of European settlement in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victorian overwhelmed almost a third of the continent. Thousands of homes destroyed but fortunately, relatively small loss of life. In Parliament today, the Prime Minister paid tribute to the victims, the rescuers, and the many volunteers who have given time to assist in the cleanup. She spoke movingly of scenes she knew of, including the saddest story of a young pregnant woman rescued from housetop just minutes after her youngest child had been swept from her arms by the force of the flood waters.

Much of the flood affected area in Queensland has been hit, in this last week, by a Category 5 hurricane that has sent even more heavy rains. The Prime Minister's announced one time tax levy to assist in reconstruction initially did not meet with the unvarying support I had expected but the sheer scale of the devastation seems to be evoking

increasing support for a huge national program to get the victims and industry back on their feet. In the supermarkets we see part of the economic effect of the flooding and the cyclone. Fruit is of poor quality and produce from the areas affected has disappeared from the shelves.

My daughter and her family were off on a camping holiday in New South Wales during much of this time. They finally gave up, hemmed in on almost all sides by floods or impending flooding, and finally gave up to come home a week early. Only by accessing the Internet (my daughter rigged up her cell phone to their Netbook to get up-to-date weather and flood situation reports) did they make it back safely.

In the meantime, far off to the West, Perth has been experiencing severe bush-fires that destroyed many homes.

For my part, I have been pottering about painting my sister's house and retiling my daughter's en-suite shower. The latter turned out to be a complicated and challenging job. It was with great joy that I placed the final tiles. Now all that is left to do is to clean up and polish the new tiles following grouting. . The latter turned out to be a complicated and challenging job. It was with great joy that I placed the final tiles. Now all that is left to do is to clean up and polish the new tiles following grouting

I have been doing other things, of course, including renewing old friendships and continuing the research for the next project, building my sustainable small home. However, next Tuesday sees me more than all day in planes and airports (the long flight picks up a day as we pass Hawaii). I am looking forward to five or so days in San Francisco with friends and then to taking Amtrak around to Glenwood Springs in Colorado. Only a local bus ride and I will dragging my gear up the hill to my elder daughter's condo in Basalt.

Climbing up and down ladders, long walks and lots of bike riding have done wonders for my knees. My body has become accustomed to doing more each day and has lost the tentativeness of movement I felt on arrival here five months back; I am even feeling pretty fit. The next posting will be from SFO.

Happy Valentine's Day...may you find your true love.