On the Southwest Chief and home

---

California boasts no less than 12 museums devoted to the automobile in all its different aspects. On Wednesday we drove up to Sylmar north of Los Angeles to the Nethercutt Museum founded by the makers of Merle Norman Cosmetics. The museum featured vintage Rolls Royces, Talbot-Lagos, Packards, Pierce Arrows and many other different kinds of cars from the early 1900’s, 20’s and 30’s. This is an exceptional collection and worth a visit- and it’s free admission. We then drove to just outside Pomona to the National Hot Road Museum a real contrast from the Nethercutt.



This museum featured vehicles developed and customized post WW11 by de-mobbed soldiers looking for serious excitement. The museum featured racing cars from the 40’s and chronicled the development of the SoCal (Southern California) car culture.



The next day it was time to leave Los Angeles on the Southwest Chief headed for Chicago. We had some time to kill before the train left and after exploring the magnificent Mission Revival Union Station we went over to Olvera Street which had an outdoor market complete with a museum-style pedestrian square given over to the early history of Los Angeles. This is a great place to grab a bite and buy some last-minute souvenirs.



The next day the countryside changed dramatically as we looked out on the landscape of New Mexico. Huge red rock formations, mesas and adobe style bungalows were all part of the scene and could have easily been part of a Wild West movie. Having passed through Arizona, New Mexico, then Colorado and Kansas the vastness of America so impressed us. We continued to meet so many different kinds of people on this train trip from all over the USA. Soon we were back in Chicago, changed to the Lakeshore Limited which took us to Buffalo and then on the Maple Leaf which dropped us in Oakville- the end of the journey for us. We hope you enjoyed our California journal skewed as it was to our particular interests as much as we enjoyed producing it.



Until the next time, Pat and Chris.

---