March 21 [Coast Starlight]
March 21
I got up first and rather than get out of bed, I looked out the window at the harbor below. It was still dark out, but in the bay I could see the little lights that ships have on them, and I could also see airplanes flying over the harbor on their way to the airport which is just a little ways south of the hotel.
When Aquamarine got up, we took a shower together, and it was a lot nicer than the crowded shower on the train. We had room to stretch out and move around each other more easily.
I didn't know what we were going to do for breakfast, but when we were out of the shower I used the coffee machine to make a pot that Aquamarine and I shared. The smell of the coffee was enough to get Gusty to stick her head up in interest, so I made a second pot for her and Cayenne to share.
They didn't get up until the sky was getting light, though. By then Aquamarine and I were done grooming each other and I'd preened my feathers.
They had to hurry in the shower 'cause they'd taken so long getting up. Me and Aquamarine went down with Mister Barrow and had a quick hotel brunch, and Cayenne and Gusty didn't get anything because they were not morning ponies.
In the van, though, Miss Parker gave them each a granola bar and an apple so that they wouldn't be too hungry and grouchy.
The van got left in the parking lot, and Mister Barrow put the keys back where he'd found them, then we carried our luggage to the platform and waited for our train to arrive.
Our room was the same as it had been before, and they both had a room upstairs just like last time. Me and Aquamarine and Cayenne all went up to the Viewliner car as soon as we'd gotten our belongings packed away; Gusty wanted to change her clothes because she was wearing the same thing she'd worn yesterday. I hadn't been keeping close track, but I think she'd worn more different clothes so far this trip than I owned at all.
A conductor made the same announcements that the last one had, and then as we were pulling out of the station we passed by several wave-shaped trains called Sounder. Cayenne said that they looked like commuter trains, kind of like the Metra trains she rode on in Chicago.
We had to turn our heads to see Mount Rainier, but Mister Barrow pointed it out when we could finally see it. It was still a little gloomy and rainy, but even so the mountain looked very impressive.
Seattle stretched on for a while south, and then we got out into rural land again after we passed Olympia. It wasn't as spectacular as the mountains had been, and there were a lot more houses near the tracks. Even though we were following the coast, we were a ways inland and couldn't see the ocean at all.
He told us that sometimes when we crossed over Interstate 5, we might be able to see Mt. Saint Helens, which is a volcano that erupted thirty six years ago, so we kept a close look out. I saw some steam coming up and wondered if that was it and it was going to erupt again, but he said that wasn't it, that was some kind of industrial building.
The land had gotten flat and a a little bit boggy. It wasn't as pretty as the route through the mountains, but you could see a lot further.
In a town called Winlock, we passed by the world's largest egg. Aquamarine asked if it was a dinosaur egg, because she's learned that there used to be dinosaurs and that they were a lot like dragons. But it was fake—it had been made to celebrate the opening of the Pacific Coast Highway. That was kind of disappointing.
Mister Barrow said that if Aquamarine was interested in dinosaurs, there were a lot of dinosaur fossils at the Field Museum in Chicago, and that they could go there sometime. Cayenne thought that would be a nice opportunity to get together, and it sounded interesting to me, as well.
We ate lunch before we got to Oregon. The train had a parlor car which offered an exciting and unique alternative to the dining car (that's what the menu said). There were only two options for lunch, but on the plus side that made it a lot quicker to decide what we wanted to eat.
We had a long stop in Portland, and all got out to stretch our legs. Portland is the biggest city in all of Oregon, and I thought with a name like that it would be on the ocean or maybe a bay like Seattle, but it was just on two big rivers instead.
When we started up again, we went slowly over a very long bridge over one of them (the Willamette), and when the train went around a bend right after getting off the bridge, I could see the tail of the train and how the bridge had big towers and a little house on top of it. Mister Barrow said that was because it was a lift bridge that could be raised to let boats get by, and I didn't believe that could possibly be true because it was so big, but when we'd gone a little bit further, I got a look back at it and the bottom part was slowly rising.
The scenery all started to blur together and I was kinda getting tired because I'd stayed up too late last night, so I went to our room for a little nap. I was hoping that Aquamarine might want to join me, but she was still wide awake.
One nice thing about the train is that the side-to-side rocking motion is very soothing. I didn't want to bother the sleeping car attendant to get out the bed, so I just stretched out on the chairs and went to sleep that way.
When I got back up and went back to the Viewliner car, I didn't know what time it was. My sense of time was totally messed up by being so far west. So I asked Cayenne—she had her iPhone out and was looking on the map at where we were, which was just south of Albany near a little town called Tangent.
It was all flat farmland on both sides of the tracks, and we still couldn't see the Pacific Ocean. I wondered if it would be possible to see it from here if we were high enough, but when I looked at the map it looked like we were as far inland as Kalamazoo was from Lake Michigan.
Mister Barrow promised us that the train would run along the Pacific in California, though, and that was something to look forward to.
After we left Eugene, we turned more inland, towards the mountains. Pretty quickly we left the farmland behind and were right back in snowy forest. We ate our dinner in the parlor car with trees practically brushing against us as we went.
It was getting dark after we finished up dinner, but we still sat in the Viewliner car for a while. I think there would have been a really nice night view if they'd turned off all the lights in the car, but then I remembered how I'd had a good view out the back window of the train, so when it finally got dark enough that we couldn't really see anything outside anymore, all four of us make our way to the tail end and took turns standing on our hind hooves and looking out the little window.
I could see the moon glowing through the clouds, but I couldn't actually see it or any stars at all, which was kind of disappointing, but it did provide some light on the forest that was all around us.
We looked out the back window a little bit longer, but the sky didn't get any clearer (and from looking at the clouds before it got dark, I didn't think it would), so we went to our bedroom and had the attendant fold down the bottom beds for us so that we'd be ready when we were tired.
Cayenne got out another bottle—her supply seems to be neverending. I wished that I had brought more than that one bottle of Jameson's which was already half-gone when I got on the train.
Gusty wanted to know if we might be able to come to see her play. She said that there were weekend performances, and that she'd be really happy knowing that we were there.
Cayenne said right away that she would, and I thought I probably could, too. Maybe I could get Aric to drive me! He'd probably like that. And Aquamarine and Cayenne talked about meeting up at the Field Museum to look at the dinosaur bones.
When we were getting ready for bed, Gusty said that she wanted to stay up and see when we went into California. I thought that was kind of silly; it was dark outside and probably California would look just the same as Oregon. But it seemed pretty important to her, and then the way she started talking about how great California was, I started to get interested in it, too.
Well, we knew that we wouldn't be in California until after we stopped at Klamath Falls, so we made her promise to wake us up when we stopped there, and then we'd all stay awake so that we could celebrate getting to California.
We didn't know how long it would be after Klamath Falls, so we all kept our muzzles to the glass, although Cayenne kept looking at the map on her iPhone. As we went around a curve that took us away from the highway and then back again, Cayenne said that we were really close, and said that she'd let us know when we crossed into California.
I spotted a sign on the highway that said that we were entering California, and Gusty got a little glimpse of it, too, although probably not enough to read it.
Gusty got a huge smile on her face and hugged us all, and then we had to stay up a little bit longer so that we could have another drink to celebrate.
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I remember Klamath Falls being very scenic, especially snowcovered.
There's a question- does/did Equestria have dinosaurs, considering they have dragons?
Good old Oregon. Shame they didn't spend much time in Portland, I think they would have liked it.
7220315 Probably not because Pony planet doesn't seem to have evolved into its current state. How could the planet exist before it was inhabited to have creatures control the Sun? I'd guess their world was created from scratch less than 10,000 years ago in a manner not too different from The Bible's Account in Genesis. No Evolution equals no fossils.
But did they get to see a SLUT?
It's interesting how Portland, OR got it's name. Two leading immigrants of the time were ready to lay ot the design for the new town, but each wanted to name it after their old hometown. One man was from Portland, Maine and the other was from Augusta, Maine; they decided to flip a coin to see who got to name the city and the man from Portland won. Oddly enough, Portland did become an important commercial hub with ships loading up on timber from the coast and grain from the inland Northwest and shipping it all across the Pacific Rim. The biggest hurdle for all of this was the Columbia River Bar, also called 'The Graveyard Of The Pacific' from the over 400 ships that have foundered trying to cross it in the past almost 300 years. Portland might have been overlooked as a commercial hub save for there really wasn't any better port location save for Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia; for that, you have to be able to cross the Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River provides that to some extent.
You have to wonder if she's starting to get stir crazy. I don't think she's flown since the whole trip started.
I wouldn't have gotten up to celebrate that border crossing, but then, I live in California. My thinking is that someone was waxing nostalgic/homesick, and Gusty took the heightened emotional account as being accurate. My expectation is that she's in for a bit of a letdown. I can't really imagine what could possibly make CA worth staying up for. ....edit: except for the Sequoias! Does the train get close to any groves?
7220401 she did fly very briefly at one of the stops... and she did get a little panicky in that one long tunnel
That should be either "pointed at it" or "pointed it out."
7220470
Correction made, thank you!
7220358 With a world like that, you'd probably get a bunch of different origins for the various creatures. Some may have just appeared as they are, some might have seen some natural adaptation over time, and some may have come about via some magical mutation. It's hard to tell.
Huzzah! Glad to finally be caught up! And now I'm also a little envious... I've never had the chance to go to California, but I've always wanted to go. Maybe that'll be my next destination.
Cute to see Gusty so worked up about crossing over into Cali, and then to see them celebrate it. Nothing like celebrating pointless milestones!
7220358 Fossils are just corpses. They don't need evolution to exist, although studying them can tell you about the process of evolution.
Minor Head Canons
Ponies use gems as money. The average pony knows as much as the average Earth jeweler. They might find the difference between Earth & EQ values to be confusing ,& maybe stuff like cubic zirconia.
If I was a Unicorn & I got in a fight, I'd flash my horn to blind my foe. Add a loud noise & make a flash bang grenade. Throw dirt, power lines, dumpsters , whatever.
Considering Glimmer's village, ponies probably understand about cults. Militias = tribalists? IMO they were asked to be discreet about some things.
The world's largest egg, sound just as useful as the world's largest lobster or the world largest mosquito...
7219674 True, but thinking about it from the perspective of other species, it migth not be true unless you hire yourself a pegasus.
7220677
7219600
Most of my experience with them is through LARPing, so weird is good.
And Heinlein is a pretty good author, definitely worth reading more.
I've wanted to take the coast starlight several times because it's the only direct route between where I'm at and my parents place but it's more expensive and gets into a sketchy post of town late at night. I'm from California, so it'll be interesting to see what you choose for them to do.
Man. The coast starlight misses all the big trees.
It woulda been neat to see their reactions to 1000 year old trees that are almost 400 feet tall.
Though, they'll pass within a half mile of my place, going through Oxnard. That's cool.
Pick a tense, man.
7221028 Present tense is correct because the volcano is still there and still a volcano.
7220637
What a vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/e/ec/Applejack_collecting_bits_S01E03.png/revision/latest?cb=20121114050620 plausible vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/2/22/Chest_filled_with_bits_S1E03.png/revision/latest?cb=20140523170707 headcanon mlpforums.com/uploads/monthly_04_2013/post-2257-0-03259200-1367310648.jpg .
That's not even a headcanon, that's just a school of tactics employed by unicorns who don't have the magic power to have a proper duel.
A militia is most commonly defined as a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency.
Tribalism is a pony-specific version of racism, wherein a unicorn is prejudiced against earth ponies and pegasi and vice versa.
Militias =/= tribalists.
7221040 The thing I'm pointing out is that he's using both was and is to refer to the same thing.
7221054 wich was is sounding very silly
7221088 You're funny.
Obviously, ponies use gems as money. Head canon was what this means. It should have started ”because ponies use gems....’ My mistake.
Here in the US, "militia' is often used to refer to an armed band of separatists. Almost no one uses the older meaning. They sometimes get violent about being separate, as at Waco or Ruby Ridge.
7221236 But ponies don't use gems as money. They use gems as gems. Because that's what gems are. They're gems. Not money.
Also, separatists =/= tribalists either. There are very obvious tribalist attitudes pervading every level of Equestrian society, and we never see anyone making any sort of effort to reform these attitudes. Even Fancy Pants, arguably the most cosmopolitan unicorn in an extremely tribalist city, treats the Ponyvillians as one might treat the quintessential 'noble savage', speaking to them like children or pets, and is seen as the good guy for it.
That, and Equestria's socio-political atmosphere doesn't exactly match the modern United States. An Equestrian militia would most likely fit the 'older' meaning.
And finally, this is not the place to be randomly spewing your headcanons. There are forums for this. At the very least, keep your headcanons confined to topics that are actually being discussed in the story that you're commenting on.
West coast best coast.
Native Portlander here. I just want to point out that the river that Portland is really "on" is the Willamette, not the Columbia. It is the Willamette they would have crossed right after the train station, with the bridge you described. They would have crossed the Columbia just before getting into town.
That bridge, known as the Steel Bridge, is a double-deck vertical lift bridge, and is believed to be the only one in the world with dual independent lifts. The lower deck (for the trains) actually telescopes up inside the upper car deck, so they can lift just the lower deck without disturbing car traffic. The whole thing then lifts up the towers if they need more clearance.
"Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place, such a lovely face...."
(This story's making me wax lyrical lately.
)
7220414 Flying up and down a platform for like 5 min isn't flying.
7219630 Good times. Good times.
That put a smile on my face.
The Field Museum also has some amazing archeological exhibits.
7220119 Where I live it's hard to find some foods without high fructose corn syrup. For instance, there are 4 grocery stores within 5 miles, and not one of them has any kind of pickle in anything but high fructose corn syrup, no matter the price. To be reasonably assured the store you go to will have cane sugar pickles, you have to either pick some up at an over priced tourist shop in the area that happens to have them, or drive 100 miles to the nearest Whole Foods.
7222420
My home town teams are somewhat decent. The MLB team can occasionally put on a decent game but their stadium sucks, and it is new, and our minor league team usually plays well but they are not in a convenient location for me to get to.
Heh. This is an interesting section to read, as you'll be passing through my hometown in the next segment. Having both ridden the Surfliner and driven 97, though, I'm a little skeptical on how visible that highway sign would be from the train, especially at night.
Also, it's too bad that Amtrak isn't running late; Mt. Shasta and the Sacramento river canyon are very scenic if you pass through when it's light.
7221296 In Just for Sidekicks everyone in town uses gems for currency, so apparently Equestria has a duel currency system (like we used to do with silver and gold).
You have a great point about tribalists though.
7222609 I've actually got one worse. There's this stuff called "chocolate drink" and it's the worst kind of chocolate stuff you could ever taste. Think of chocolate flavored syrup water. It's so nasty.
7222865 It has admittedly been a long time since I binge-watched Spike episodes, so I'm not sure if this is specifically mentioned, but is it possible that they're only using gems because they're talking to Spike? Like, they're one diplomatic session away from being a mining town. Were I in a situation where a dragon with childish impulses lives up the road, I'd want to keep some dragon-bait close to hoof.
The idea of dual currency, though, is definitely plausible enough to make sense. Nice save.
7220358 Regarding evolution, in CSL Lyra explains the origins of ponies to Dale by drawing an image of a horse, followed by a series of progressively smaller horses. Then she points at the picture of a horse in Dale's book and on the large horse, then on the smallest of her horse drawings and on herself.
Hmmm... How many clothes does Silver own anyways? Then again, if Gusty fits the typical Unicorn stereotype, she likely has dozens of clothes.
Well, she appears to be the expert at this. If this was a more zany fic, I would say that she stores those bottles in hammerspace.
Well, I guess Silver Glow and Co are entering California in the next chapter.
The more you write about this train ride, the more I want to ride the same train they did.
You know, I'm starting to find Silver Glow's outlook on things nicely refreshing, often seeing both the good as well as the bad... even when most others wouldn't even admit it exists.
7221028
Tenses are so overrated.
Mount Saint Helens erupted 36 years ago, not 34. (Well, a few months shy of 36 as of this entry, if you want to be particular)
7225482
I outsmarted myself on that one. I was pretty sure the major eruption had been in '80, but I checked the wiki just to make sure, and the leading picture was of Mt. St. Helens with a steam cloud rising from it taken in 1982 . . . which I foolishly assumed was shortly after the eruption. Probably should have read a little bit more of the article.
7220315
Maybe. Alternate Equestria does; that's comic canon. Could be that dragons evolved from dinosaurs? Or else ancient dragons occupied the niche that dinosaurs did on Earth.
7220334
They would have. If I ever move out west, I'll move somewhere near Seattle or Portland.
i.ytimg.com/vi/cnVjkE87FDY/maxresdefault.jpg
7220358
Could be that their system worked normally until it got broken (most likely by Discord), and they've only had to control it since then.
7220368
Cayenne's on the train with them.
Yeah, they probably would have. They run near the Space Needle, don't they?
7220371
Huh, that's an interesting bit of history. I always used to think that Portland was right on the Pacific; it wasn't until rather recently that I found out how far inland it actually was.
7220548
The first pegasi, for example, came from springs.
7220574
That's kind of funny, because I never have wanted to go to California. It was the one state in the union I had no desire whatsoever to visit.
But now I have, 'cause my brother lives there.
7220677
Every town's got to be famous for something. Why not the world's largest egg?
I would think that any captain worth his salt would. Not only can she help insure good winds, but she can also fly out ahead of the ship if needed.
7220929
My experience has been that the Amtrak stations are usually pretty safe, but I haven't got all that much experience. The part where it runs along the Pacific looks really nice.
7220995
It does, unfortunately. Aquamarine would probably love to see them.
Awesome!
7221296
I've always thought that, and it's been something that winds up in a lot of my stories. Each tribe is kinda convinced that they're the best tribe, and while they do get along with each other pretty well, they all seem to prefer ponies like themselves.
I don't mind; I like hearing random headcanons.
7221408
7221659
Huh, that's interesting. I made the appropriate corrections in the chapter; thank you!
7221721
That's a good thing, I hope.
7222264
They do, and I have a friend who works there.
7222284
Why not beet sugar? I bet that's what Aunt Jane's pickles used, seeing as how they were right next to a sugar beet factory.
7222591
It'd be pretty marginal. In google street view, it looks like you might be able to see it from the train.
That's the one downside to taking the train early in the year, too; the days are shorter. Amtrak tries to go through the most scenic places during the day, but of course they can't hit them all.
7222865
I think they might use both. Some gems seem to be valuable to the ponies, and others don't. I'm not sure how that all works.
7223122
In Rarity takes Manehattan, she tipped the bellboy with a gem. So it's not just with Spike.
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/b/b8/Rarity_presents_a_gem_to_the_bellhop_S4E08.png
7224116
Not very many--a couple of dresses ranging from 'nice' to 'fancy,' and her flight vest. That's about it.
One of her trunks is full of personal stuff, the other is full of liquor. Cayenne comes prepared.
7224334
You can, 'cause they're all real. Even the schedules are accurate.
7224835
Ponies are eternal optimists.
7254853 And I counter that he's a bellhop at a high-end hotel in Manehatten. It's an observed real-world phenomenon that most people rich enough to stay in such hotels very often are desensitized to the value of money, and usually don't know what the small change they've got on them is worth. Sometimes a rich man will hand over a wad of 1-dollar bills for five-star service, or a few thousand dollars for finding his room key for him, and be basically blind to the difference.
That, and Rarity is a skilled diplomancer who probably knows the benefits of tipping generously, and as aforementioned lives a short walk from prime gems, so I could make the case that she was just using high-price gems to guarantee premium service.