"Ventura Highway in the sunshine
Where the days are longer, the nights are stronger than moonshine
Some people say this town doesn't look good in snow..."
I am playing Ventura Highway on my phone unwary of running it out of battery. Yes, the members of the band would probably be 75 years olds of they are still alive. I am really trying not to use this phone but here I am blogging.
I love riding Amtrak. Instead of driving for two hours from San Diego, the train ride takes four hours. The last time I rode Amtrak, I was with the Rose of Jeddah POLO. (Hi 'te Guy, wish you were here.) I tinker with my D3200 while listening to fellow passengers. A heavily inked lady with a surf board is bound to Oregon and the conductor tells her that she's getting off LA. A couple and another elderly wanted to occupy the area designated for families or a group of 3 or more. The conductor comes back and the group of three decides to be a family. The lady conductor is getting frustrated. Another middle-aged lady who asked another passenger of her name and what she does for a living, nosy as she is, calls her room mate for a credit card number because the conductor has told her to get a ticket in order to ride the train. Middle-aged lady and has a room mate. I wondered if she really intended to go to Santa Barbara when she got off at the LA Union Station.
I see something unusual all the time and the middle-aged lady with a roommate who I suspected is getting a free ride from San Juan Capistrano to Santa Barbara passes by. She tells she didn't get off the train at LA to her earlier seatmate as if dispelling her of her suspicions She is on her way to the café at car number 2. I bought my ticket through an Amtrak app in seconds and have gotten used to showing my e-ticket on my phone screen automatically to the conductor. I never had problems like not getting the e-ticket or not being able to buy the necessary ticket using my phone.
I thought Chatsworth is just a fictional town in Suburgatory. Suburgatory is a TV series where a teenage girl moves from New York City to Chatsworth. I didn't know Chatsworth is in California. This reminds me of the exchange I had with the Subaru salesman yesterday. I thought of making Djeline as reference and decided to list her address from memory. When I said Newark, the salesman asked if we ever lived in Newark, as in New Jersey.
The roadside of Simi Valley reminds me of the way to Muhayl in Abha, Assir Region in Saudi Arabia. After this shot, the train goes through two long tunnels with a brief glimpse of a the same dry and barren scenery in between.
"'Cause the free wind is blowing through your hair,
And the days surround your daylight there,
Seasons crying no despair..."
I come upon Sister Golden Hair who flees from the trolley stop upon seeing two cop cars at downtown Ventura where the visitor center is. Maybe she is an artist despised as a beach bum.
The trolley ride is convenient for sightseers and could be pleasant. The driver ask if I needed help. I asked if he is going all the way to the far end of the harbor where the Channel Island Visitor Center is. The boat concessionaire transporting visitors to the island National Park Services site is side by side with the visitor center. It's about more than a mile walk from the trolley stop to the visitor center.
I watched a video of the Chumash tribe of Native Americans who inhabited the islands. What is now called Channel Islands must have been a refuge not only for wild animals but also for Chumash tribes . Laborers from the Chumash Tribes built a system of aqueducts under the direction of the Spanish friars of the San Buenaventura Missions founded by the recently canonized Padre Junipero Serra. The recently canonized Padre Junipero Serra is the same friar who founded missions all over California and enslaved tribes after tribes of Native Americans they called Indians. Ventura is the shortened name for the city named after St. Bonaventure or San Buenaventura of Tuscany Italy.
The Channel Islands National Park beckons.
Comments