Late night dinners on Caltrain

Posted By Hup | December 18, 2008

As many of you probably already know, I take the Caltrain to and from San Francisco during the week, which is a pretty decent commute from where we live in Palo Alto. In the mornings it’s not too bad - I’ll usually catch the train at some point between 7:05am and 7:36am, which gets me up to San Francisco no later than a little after 8am.

But, the way home is a little different. Normally I’ll work until about 5pm or so, jet to work out a few blocks away at 24 Hour Fitness until 6:30pm, haul ass back to the office so that I can get my stuff together and take off on my bike to catch the train that leaves by 6:56pm. Of course, that’s if all works out perfectly and I don’t need to stay at the office a little later than usual.

Tonight is one of the nights that I actually did end up sticking around a little later - well, actually a lot later. I stayed until the only 2 trains heading back to Palo Alto were at 10:30pm and midnight. As I jetted off into the night of San Francisco toward the train station my goal was to make it to the 10:30 train, which seemed easy enough since it was only right around 10. I made it to the station with about 15 minutes to spare so I decided to head to a nearby Safeway so that I could grab some grub for the ride home. After I quickly picked up some hummus, carrots, pita bread and turkey I headed for the register with over 10 minutes to spare and only 3 people in line.

Of course, the 2nd person in line decided to pay all in small change, which led me to asking the 3rd person if I could cut in front of her so that I wouldn’t miss the train which was going to leave in about 5 minutes whether I was on it or not. She let me jump in front of her and I ended up making it to the train with at least 20 seconds to spare, which in my book isn’t all that bad. :)

At that point there was really only one thing to do now that I was on the train at 10:30pm with an hour ride ahead of me.

It was time to eat me some dinner…doesn’t it look tasty?


a smorgasbord of late night awesomeness

Filed Under adventures in bicycling, random thoughts

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    3 Talkies! to “Late night dinners on Caltrain”

    1. Todd on December 18th, 2008 8:49 am

      That’s a crazy schedule. Way to hustle. I’m in Green Bay, so my commute is like a bizarro version of yours… Only time I run late is when a train is crossing the tracks I’m trying to drive over. Thanks for the glimpse into your *life in the big city* routine!

    2. jess on December 18th, 2008 9:01 am

      that makes my commute look easy (30 min car ride to daycare, then hop on the metro for another 30 mins or so). thank goodness for the kid, she makes it possible for us to take the express lanes.

    3. Hup on December 18th, 2008 10:46 am

      Yeah, it’s been a BIG change from back when I was in Indianapolis. I used to literally drive my ass off each day between my condo and my office and downtown Indy, which were all about 30-45 minutes apart from each other.

      I have found that commuting makes you really stick to a schedule, which isn’t real easy for someone as random as me, but most of the time it’s probably a good thing.

      Commuting also makes you much more of a planner, which doesn’t hurt either.

      One other thing that it really forces you into is dealing with lots of random people on a day-to-day basis, especially since I haul my bike to and from the city each day and you have to coordinate your stops and where you stack your bike each time you get on.

    What do you want to tell us, hmmm?