Day 22: Amtrak Coastal Starlight, Santa Barbara

At 5:45 on Tuesday morning I rolled out of bed, grateful that it was finally time to get up. I’d hardly slept a wink; one of my new roommates had been snoring with the strength of a foghorn the whole night. I finished packing, biked downtown, caught a bus to the Emeryville train station, and boarded my 8am train bound for Santa Barbara.

I was riding the Coastal Starlight train, which was the same line I used to get to San Francisco from Portland. As such, there was a viewing car with comfy chairs and big glass windows and I spent most of my trip there. Our train spent the first 7 hours winding through the California countryside, passing lush farmers’ fields. The best part: for the last 2-3 hours the train ran right along the Pacific coast, presenting beautiful views of beaches, ocean, surfers, and even dolphins! Even though the total trip was something like 10 hours, it actually flew by.

I got into Santa Barbara to find that my bike had actually arrived with me this time! Breathing a sigh of relief, I biked to my hostel, about an 8-minute ride down the road. The hostel was a little ‘rough around the edges’, so I was very glad to be only spending three nights there. I decided I would try to spend as little time in my room as possible.

My only cycling Tuesday was between transit connections; about 6km total. With that, however, my total mileage for my trip was brought to 562km, working out to an average of 25km per day!