Hopping Freights — part 8

In March 1981 I was sitting in beautiful Oakland, CA at the diamond where the SP tracks down the coast to LA crossed the UP tracks going to Stockton and points east. I, as well as these two guys, had waited there all day — they were headed to LA and I was headed to Salt Lake. At this point they (and I) would have been happy just to be headed somewhere, and in an hour or so they were — on the back of a grainer headed to West Colton and another hour later I was on my way to Stockton in a similar fashion. By then we could have switched trains and enjoyed the ride just the same.