Snap - I think what you're referring to is the Spring & Kirkendall book I keep yammering about, Bicycling the Pacific Coast. It was out of print for a little while but the 4th edition was just published in 2005. Thanks for the offer !

Cindy - Lee & I actually talked about maybe renting a car or an SUV for the trip home from Santa Barbara as an alternative to the train.

While the Amtrak would in theory work great, the bikes would have to be boxed up for the trip on that particular line (I know on some Amtrak lines you can just roll the bikes on board, unfortuantely the Coast Starlight isn't one of them). Plus I checked the schedule and we would roll into San Jose around 9:30 at night, IF the train's on time (which it almost never is), so in reality taking the train has a fairly high pain-in-the-butt factor.

Oh yeah, the Cajun Kitchen has been duly noted ! I love cornbread !

And milkshakes .... yum ... you guys sure know how to take care of me Not to mention you'll be Lee's new Best Friends.