Day Twenty-seven: I awoke early again, in time to see the highway bridge over Lake Shasta, but I couldn't stay awake.  The next thing I knew we had stopped at Redding. Mary was now awake too and crawled down from her top bunk. We cuddled on the lower bed and wished the trip was not coming to an end. We still had six hours left. Mary fell back asleep and I donned some clothes and went into the parlor car for fruit and coffee. After about three cups Mary showed up and we went into the dinning car for breakfast. Everything on the menu was available, except one item, which the waiter pointed out before we had even looked at the menus. We ate with a couple traveling to SF from Victoria BC: a pleasant conversation and meal.  We were able to see Chico in the daylight, and Marysville too.  By the time we pulled into Sacramento, we had made up some of the lost time.  But we stayed in Sacramento for about thirty minutes and were back to three hours late.

The rest of the trip went by fast: I have traveled this line numerous times and the scenery always fascinates me. A California Northern freight was leaving Suisun Junction as we sped past. We passed a couple of Capitol Corridor trains and the California Zephyr as well. At last we arrived in Emeryville, our departure point.  The car was still under the tree where I had parked it. This was the first train we had not taken to its final destination so it seemed rather sad to watch it leave the station without us. We hurried home and Mary re-packed the suitcases and we were off again. This time I left Mary at Gate 30 of SFO and drove back to Corte Madera alone. The vacation was over!