[varmint]

took amtrak from L.A. to san francisco, and L.A. to seattle a few times. trains should be a beautiful way to travel. but they were never less than four hours behind schedule. $7 for a bag of peanuts. and every car had either a shrieking baby, or a hippie with a guitar.

on one trip a passenger had a heart attack. the crew stood around with thumbs up their asses while a doctor on board saw to him. they stopped the train in the middle of vandenberg air force base, and waited for almost an hour for a military ambulance to arrive.