Way-ell....this day did not get off to a good start.  We woke up about 6 a.m. to the news that Amtrak is cancelling long-distance trains ahead of a potential strike by the unions servicing freight trains.  In this country, the freight companies own the rails, so if the freight trains aren't running due to a strike, no one is maintaining the rails and Amtrak can't run either.  Well, just she-it. We are a long way from home if they cancel our trains.  Strike is slated for Friday, and we're supposed to get on the Southwest Chief on Thursday.  That won't go if the strike is not settled tomorrow, because Amtrak doesn't want trains stuck somewhere mid-route, and depending on what time the strike starts, our train could be stuck in the back of beyond with nowhere to go.  

Other annoyances: the door to the bathroom in our room locks itself and cannot be unlocked except by the maintenance guy with a big screwdriver.  Whole mechanism needs replacing, which he didn't want to do, of course, at 11:00 last night after we got back.  We just made sure to keep the door open a little bit, but somehow or another it got locked again this morning.   Fortunately, we had already gotten all of our stuff out of there.  What a pain.  Then we had to stop at a Walgreen's to pick up a prescription which we ordered yesterday morning and which, we were told, would be ready any time after 10 today.  So we got there at 11:30, and there is a new story:  after 3.  No.  We will not have a car any more after 3, and we cannot come back and get it.  Oh, well, we are very backed up.  Okay.  So you lied: it's not in the system for after 3; it was in the system for after 10 and no one got it done.  An apology would have gone a long way, but, of course, none was forthcoming.

Apart from those annoyances, large and small, the day was a nice one.  We were able to check into the hotel next to the train station early and drop the bags, and they upgraded us to a suite, as there were no regular rooms available.  The receptionist asked if that would be okay, and we allowed as how we would try to bear up.  

We then went to have lunch with my dad and his wife, and we had a nice visit there.  Another wide-ranging conversation ensued during which we dissected everything from the 49ers new whiz kid quarterback, Lindsey Graham's proposed 15-week abortion law, and Meghan Markle's shoes. Liz made us a very nice lunch of chicken with some homemade sauce made by a friend of hers who grows all the vegetables that went into it, and we finished off with apple pie that Tim and I brought from Fat Apple's, one of my dad's favorites.  After lunch we took a walk around the neighborhood.  We visited the heifer.com hens (hens in a large cage in front of someone's house. Passers by can buy food for a quarter--none of us had one--and the proceeds are donated to heifer.com.)  

After lunch, we returned the rental car.  This time, our dealings with Enterprise went smoothly.  They checked us in in about 5 minutes and then the guy drove us to the BART station.  No hour-long wait this time.  

Our last California visit was with a friend of mine from high school, Karla, who we had not seen since our wedding.  Karla works in biotech, developing oncology drugs, so hers is work for which we should all be grateful!  We had a good time catching up and talking about friends from high school; she produced a photograph from our Senior All-Nighter after graduation--blast from the past!  She took us to dinner at a Malaysian restaurant, called Banana Leaf, where we had a truly delicious dinner.  It was really nice to see Karla again--and once again, we hope it won't be 34 more years before we catch up again.

When we got back to the hotel, we spent an hour making Plan B for the eventuality that our train to New Mexico is canceled.  Stay tuned.