Thanks for nothing, Amtrak (or Feeling trapped in this city)

Not my pic

This post should have been titled 'T minus 72 hours'.   The plan was to take Le Velo on a train south and in 5 days time to cycle over this bridge:

not my pic

 And it almost would have become reality. Because this train, the Amtrak Cascades, would have happily taken Le Velo et moi to Portland, Oregon.  And Le Velo would not have to suffer the indignity of being disassembled and being stuffed in a box.

not my pic

But to travel by train further south than Portland, one has to change to the Amtrak Coast Starlight. And while the Starlight offers great comfort to its human passengers, bicycles are not that lucky:  It's disassemble & box time ;-(

Unfortunately, Le Velo does not take kindly to being boxed, as several tiny mishaps on the way from France to Vancouver have shown.

The really sad part of it is not that I'd miss cycling over Golden Gate. It's that I will not be able to cycle the road below. A one-line e-mail from my secret source of worthwhile travel destinations (aka my  'ferry consultant') triggered an intense hour of mapping (the Google kind) and I was already ecstatically looking forward to going on a 3 or 4 day cycling trip along the coast of California along the Cabrillo Highway:

not my pic

not my pic

I guess it's time to settle back and rethink. I know I will cycle down there at some point, but the logistics will need some more work.

Thank you for the inspiration, Alan & Happy Cherry Blossom Festival, Saki !