There is a nice little Wine Bar on First Avenue in Arcadia....just around the corner to in and out from the old (now in Pomona) and now new depot location at First and Santa Clara. Monrovia Depot is being restored but is still a shell....visit the grave of Carl Ragoza at Live Oak Cemetery, where he will once again "hear da whistle blow"...... at the Myrtle Avenue crossing.

There are a couple of good Mexican Restaurants within a couple of blocks of the Azusa Depot (both old and new). Nature is crossed at the San Gabriel River, where you get a nice view of mountains across the 210, and the Santa Fe Dam "wilderness" looking south.

Blasting down the 210 from Sierra Madre Villa to Arcadia you can relive the experience of the days when the Super Chief and El Cap put the hammer down leaving the slow running in Pasadena, passing the 120 year old Palm Trees planted by Lucky Baldwin in front of the Santa Anita Depot, which are still there along the south side of the current 210 (just east of Baldwin Avenue on the south side of the freeway).

I haven't heard anything about the opening day "specials" like free service. Previously this generated nearly 80,000 riders on the original gold line "free" opening, so many it actually necessitated emergency buses to move riders who couldn't get on the train to get back to where they came from. Blue line, ELA, and Expo had large crowds first day as well.

I'll never be able to ride in the 2nd District local caboose with Shack to CQP's house after school, where the 210 bridge now stands, except in memories....but a whole new generation will get to ride the 2nd District once again. But then, I like trains....

My old colleague Paul Taylor (then with the old LACTC) told me back in 1985, on the front steps of the Pasadena City Hall, that this extension (beyond Sierra Madre Villa) would never ever be built......I told him that he was wrong. Hey, I think you owe me a beer on that call dude!