On the way north, Emily and I had dinner in the train's dining car. Since we were only two, we were seated with two gentlemen who were each traveling alone. As I told you before, one did plenty of talking for all of us.
As we trundled through the Paso Robles area while we dined, he decided to share his wealth of
At Camp Roberts, a large WWII-era mail bag was found stuffed in the rafters with tons of letters that were never mailed. How sad for the people who never got to send that final goodbye letter to their families! *sniff* I couldn't find any evidence of that story. He may have been confusing the recent news about a single WWII letter from there that was finally delivered to its recipient.
Our companion also reported that a bunch of stolen belongings like wallets, watches, and wedding rings were also found stuffed in the rafters at Camp Roberts. Partly right: a bunch of wallets were found a few years ago according to this LA Times article. I think the guy embellished it a little, so he could show me his wedding-ring finger (empty) in illustration!
He also told how the National Guard from Camp Roberts really screwed up during the LA riots of 1992 when they "forgot the bullets" when reporting to duty in Los Angeles. The truth is a little more complicated. Bad decisions were made that caused the ammunition to be quite late in arriving. This man was working on a book about the history of California's highways. We heard a lot about the roads and road fragments we could see from the train, such as the 1934.....ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz.
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Some more views of Chinatown:
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The solar-powered dancing monkey that I got in Chinatown was made in China (duh), so the instructions and warnings are in charming Engrish. Here is the bottom of the box. Transcription follows. (It reminds me, go visit Engrish.com for more funny translations and English-butchering)
Attention:
- In order not course the danger of asphixial, Please do no to put the spare parts into the mouth.
- In order not to course the danger of swallowing, forbidden to give the toy playing by the Children who are not enough 3 years old.
- In order not to course the danger of asphyxial, please do not cover the plastic bag on the head or face.
- In order to avoid accident, please safekeeping the toy that make sure the children who are not enough 3 years old not reach the toy.
- Please do not shake and haul the toy.
- Please do not use the sun energy battery tough and don't throw it away.
On the back (not shown):
No need to control
Batteries not required
As long as the light
It will shake up leisurely
Language sure is flexible, isn't it?
You can watch the video in HD!
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We ate lunch at a restaurant that had motorcycles and HUGE chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. We hoped that there would not be an earthquake while we were sitting there.
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San Francisco sights:
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We thought it was kinda funny that this warning at each Caltrain stop came after you already lost your head or arm:
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| Your average graffiti. Banksy does it better (I bought his book at City Lights). |
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| A resident of the pond near the Exploratorium |
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There is a horseshoe curve near San Luis Obispo. You can see the front of the train from the back of the train!
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Notice how foggy it is? It was foggy as all-get-out the day we left the Bay area allllll the way down the coast! We were so lucky to have sunshine while we were in the City!
