Unexpected Delay And A Caribbean Attitude
LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA – There’s a song by Jimmy Buffett called “No Plane On Sunday” in which he gets stuck in the Caribbean because the plane he was to fly out on was broken and nobody was getting off the island.
“No plane on Sunday,” the lyrics go, “maybe one come on Monday.”
Well I had one of those experiences recently, except it was a Thursday and not a Sunday, I was not stuck in the Caribbean and I was not trying to get on a flight. Instead, I was stuck on a train track in Southern California’s Orange County on my way back home to San Diego. The train ahead of us had hit a pedestrian who was walking on the track – WTF, right!? – causing a fatality, and as a result we had to wait for four hours while investigators did their thing.
Now I could have done one of two things: thrown my luggage down, lose my cool and stomp around or make the best of a hopeless situation, to borrow some lyrics from the song.
And, unlike a month earlier when I did the former as Delta Air Lines made me miss a connecting flight and the gate agent’s flippant attitude got to me, I did the latter. That’s because Amtrak had nothing to do with this situation and with no means of affordable alternative transportation available – I checked Lyft and it was $100 – I had no choice but to wait it out and hope for the best.
We were stopped in Laguna Nigel, which is ironic because that is where the annual Mooning Of The Amtrak happens each July. I was more than willing to wait it out at the Mug’s Away Saloon but that was half a mile down the tracks and not really an option. Knowing me, I would have been drinking a beer at the bar just as the track re-opened and I would have been, well, stuck sitting at a bar stool.
Instead, being a conversationalist, I made my way to the snack car. There I found a couple of other passengers sitting around as well as the Amtrak employees who check your ticket.
And then something really cool happened – the guy who was driving the train came into the car. I had never met a train driver before and it was quite exciting. I turned into a kid, wanting to ask him all kinds of questions but he stopped me in my tracks when I asked if he was the conductor. Well, he’s not; his official title is the locomotive engineer. The ticket checkers are the conductors.
I’ll be darned!
The locomotive engineer told me that has been riding the rails for more than 20 years, mostly west of the Mississippi on both passenger and freight trains. He popped in and out of the dining car at regular intervals and provided updates on the situation. He also apparently went to every remaining passenger and gave them updates, too. Awesome.
I must also say the conductors and the snack bar guy, Carlos Cisneros, were very nice. Well, except for the fact that, despite my constant begging (haha), Carlos would not give me free beer! I did, however, purchase a 16-ounce Arrogant Bastard Ale for $7.50, which is not a bad price at all for any place, let alone on a method of transportation. In an airport it would be about $18.
And speaking of airports, let me tell you that being stuck on a train for four hours is a heck of a lot better than being stuck on a plane or in an airport for four hours.
Due to arrive in San Diego at 10 p.m., we instead rolled into the Santa Fe Station at 2 a.m. But you know what, I arrived in a good mood.
No Train on Thursday? No problem. Got home on Friday.
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