Thanks, all, for the good advice. I followed your suggestions and got us to Santa Barbara, then hopped on the train from there. Apparently the buses TO Santa Barbara were very delayed in departure, and arrived in Santa Barbara about 3 hours after expected, so we had time to have lunch and enjoy the afternoon there before hopping on the train.

I had already had the tix printed, and asked Amtrak for a refund of the portion of the trip from home to Santa Barbara, but Amtrak said they couldn't get a refund of that portion -- only the whole trip, and then rebook from Santa Barbara on, but the prices had been raised at that point to the point where it'd be less money to actually hold onto the ticket I had and just not use the first portion than it would be to rebook from Santa Barbara.

I also purchased refundable tickets for our return date, just in case. I will be remembering this Southwest refundable idea for ALL future Amtrak since it seems there is usually a problem with Amtrak (returning home, we were 4 hours late).

Thanks again for the great advice!