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| When I flew into Orange County Airport on Sunday I picked up a rental car at a Payless Car Rental franchise (actually Fox Car Rental). They didn't have an office at the airport, but I took the shuttle. It turns out the shuttle was about 15 minutes, but took me to a location where there was a bus straight to where James works). I got a PT Cruiser which was pretty cute. I had reserved an economy car.... On Tuesday I dropped off the rental car, but after the guy checked off the car and said there was no damage, he came in to the office and said there was a crack in the windshield (shown above). It was a crack that went from the bottom edge up about six inches and then turned and went five inches sideways (left or right depending on your point of view) as shown above. My credit card covers it, but I challenged that crack as it is a stress crack and almost certainly caused by improper mounting and, in this case, heat (usually they are caused by the cold for me, but not in LA, of course). |
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| I had hoped my car might be ready on Tuesday so I could go directly from the car rental place to port / terminal. I called at 11:30AM and the boat had arrived (that had been true on Friday) and the container had made it to their facility, but it hadn't been unloaded as yet. As I had nothing else to do until James finished work, I took the bus to Disneyland and then to Norwalk. I got there at 2:30PM and my car hadn't been unloaded so I headed back to meet James at work. On the first bus I took, I asked the driver how much the fare was to Disneyland and she said it was 60 cents (I had $1.25 out). She said I could pay %1.25 as I already had it out (I looked confused at the sixty cents), so I did and she gave me a day pass. My white beard and confused look must have convinced her I as senior (I am 55 and I thought the senior rate was for 65 or older), but it was sweet. I rode like five buses that day all on the same pass. Great fun! |
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| Wednesday afternoon (the 29th), I got a call that my car was ready to be picked up, but on Thursday James was headed back to court in Palm Springs. As traffic was light and we got an early start, he took me to the Corona metro-link station (shown above, and only a little out of his way) and saved me an hour or so on the Riverside buses. It was good, too, as there were only a couple of trains that went to LA with the last leaving at 7:44AM (so I might have missed it had I taked the bus). The trains are pulled by diesel engines with double decker passenger cars (here and above). I went to the upper level (of course) and there were seat for everyone (about 2/3 of the seats were full, fare was almost $10). Below are views from the train with a short video of the train departing (with static from some after processing I presume, I had to change trains at Orange shown in the video) and a short video of the view. The ride was pretty comfortable and quiet (though pricey, of course). |
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| The Metro-Link trains took me to LA Union Station (which had lots of tracks and terminals as you would expect from an older central train station) where I switched to the Metro Blue Line (shown here). It turns out the Blue Line literally goes right by the terminal where my car came in with a station/stop only one block away. However, I walked a mile and a half as there weren't any roads which connected through (there were two freeways and a wash all crossing in that area along with the subway / trolley line. Below is one of the paths I tried, but it was blocked by fences at the wash. Doh! When I had picked up my car (also below) I noticed that the Blue Line came right by the Horizon Lines pick up / drop off terminal. |
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| Above you can see the Blue Line tracks (inside the fences) that I could have walked along (just a long block and under the freeway) from the street level station (notice that the blue line is light rail with overhead power). Note that from the street there aren't any no trespassing signs, so it could be used as a right of way to get to the station (as roads sure don't run that way)... When I had dropped off my car (months ago) I had been faced with an arterial over a wash which had no sidewalk (or shoulders) so a pedestrian is supposed to walk in the traffic lane facing traffic. I didn't risk it, but didn't take pictures of the alternative that I didn't take (shown here and below). |
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| This is the path that I did take with the dark underpasses and fences at the end. |
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This page was last updated on August 4, 2009.
