Anniversay / Trip to LAX

Since March 17 was our anniversary and I knew that I'd be feeling down for not being with HB I decided to do something instead of moping around. It is our 31st anniversary and it just seems like yesterday that we were married and living in a 28' travel trailer. We've come a long way. I'm planning to fly home in about 10 days and Sandi fly back with me. I hope that it works out.

I guess I hadn’t been feeling enough stress, so I decided to on a reconnoitering trip and go to LAX via mass transit. I wanted to see if I could find my way to LAX and see how difficult it would be if I really needed to do it.

I left my apartment about 11:45 AM and drove about a 20 minutes to the eastern-most terminus of the Metro line in San Bernardino. After a few questions I figured out how to use the automated ticket machine and bought the $11 ticket to some place called Union Station. After about a 40 minute wait the train finally arrived, or maybe I just arrived 40 minutes too early. (Lv 1:00 PM) As I found out, Union Station is for anyone coming into or going out of the greater LA area. From there you can take a bus, taxi, van, or another train to your final destination. (Ar 2:30 PM) I arrived there and managed to find the FlyAway van to the airport and bought a $14 round-trip ticket.

After another 20 minute wait I boarded the bus and saw what was it was like to drive a bus in rush hour traffic. This guy wasn’t intimidated by the traffic he just put is put his blinker on and started moving over when he needed to. The driver dropped me off at the arrival gates and I walked down to the departure gates to get on another one going back. (Ar 3:40 PM) Just as I got there the bus going back to Union Station was just pulling out and so I had to wait an hour for the next one to come (Lv 4:45 PM). It’s a good thing I wasn’t in a hurry to get back. My appointment was at 11:15 PM so I knew that I’d have plenty of time to get back. I got back to Union Station and waited for the next eastbound train to San Bernardino (Ar 5:35 PM).

(Lv 6:00 PM) The train was pretty full going back to San Bernardino as this looked like a train that a lot of people that work take to get back home. By the looks of these people it gives me a new-found respect for those that have to do this every day. I felt like I worked an entire day and all I did was ride the bus/train all day. (Ar 7:40 PM) The train arrived back at San Bernardino when it was dark. I was hungry as I had been somewhat hesitant to leave the boarding area, as it seemed that the train or bus left whenever I was farthest away. Anyway, I got back to my apartment and my stress factor immediately went down again.