The Rose King/ on Amtrak

"I'm just rolling along...on the #567...and in heaven today...today in heaven am I...It's a Santa Ana Day, but no need to mind...The cushioned Amtrak is simply divine..." 
   
   San Diego was having another Red Flag week. Yet I slept like a King in my 'Y' cell. My nose stopped up at night but I woke up alive. I fled to the 922 bus. I needed pure oxygen to survive. As soon as I entered the Number 1 terminal, I sneezed several times. Guess I need pure air in order to sneeze.
   I entered the #567 out of the Santa Fe Station. My nose spoke. "It is all clear ahead." It was great to be breathing again. The porter came up to me.
  "Let me see your ticket." I turned to the new conductor. He stood small, rather than tall, had perfect white teeth. He looked the way all conductors should look: immaculate and clean shaven. The name of Steve was printed on his badge.
   "Well Steve, welcome aboard. I sure wish I had your teeth. My Mom never made me brush mine. How in the hell did you ever get so perfectly aligned white teeth?"
    "My Mom insisted I brush my teeth every morning and evening."
     "Bet your from the Midwest."
     "No. We came to Bloomington first, and then to Leucinger, in the Los Angeles area."
      "You're kidding me. My football quarterback practiced there during the day...I will call you from now on, Mr Perfect." Steve woke up the two passengers behind me. One I know worked as a domestic in Carlsbad. (The 567 stops in the main beach cities.)  
 
   An elderly couple got aboard at Old Town. His wife seemed lost. "Is this business class." She kept repeating herself. It was then I stepped aboard and answered her question. "This is Coach classless." un-business class. You need to go to the front car." Perplexed now-she responded-but we are going backward. "No Mam, this car will return forward after it arrives in Los Angeles These are two headed trains."
   The Lewis's sat across from me. "Are you from San Diego?"
   "We are visiting my son Walter. He lives in La Jolla. We also attended a Rose Convention at the Town and Country Hotel." We are from St. Louis. I am known throughout the world as a lover of Roses."
   "What did you do in St. Louis?"
    " I was a professor of Biology. What I enjoy most about St. Louis' Washington University is its diversity...and it is connected to the most beautiful botanical garden in the world...My passion is Roses. Last year I was voted the Rose King of 2013. The Garden rivals the one for the Queen of England."
    "What does your son do?"
     "Walter took drama classes in collage and lived in England. He was a member of the Shakespearean Group that staged plays throughout England. The cold climate did not agree with him. He moved back a few years ago."
     "By the way, our new bridge was dedicated the Stan Musial Bridge a few years ago. It is beautiful."
   At the Sorrento Valley stop, Walter gave me his card and told me he would send a copy of another book he had written. (On the internet, it described his passion was treating diseases with plant medicines. He was also a Research Ethnobotanist.) 

   I got off at Encinitas and said good-by to Mr. Perfect. I did not look forward to another blast of heat from the Clipper weather front. I had been told an El Nino would soon follow this winter.