Archive for May, 2008

Hey Team,

It’s impossible to ride a Greyhound without being thoroughly entertained intrigued by the people around you and today was a particularly great day for passenger diversity.

To my left were a couple old men who seemed to be happy chatting with each other for the entire five-hour ride to Los Angeles. I didn’t listen in for the whole ride but every time I stuck my eardrums into their business unbidden they were complaining about a new topic. I’m pretty sure I don’t have an expansive enough list of things to complain about for that long of a time.

Behind me, in an awesome display of life imitating art, were three older ladies gossiping about their families in Spanish…unless they really did just have a problem with some dude named, “Hermano.”

But my hands down favorite character in today’s bus scene was the guy who, not two inches from me, seemed to be alternating between reading a dictionary at random intervals and staring into space. I liked to sneak peeks every now and then and imagine that he was having deep, intriguing conversations with himself until he would use a word he didn’t know and have to look it up.

“Why do we keep More >

Hey Team,

Why don’t you just go ahead and tuck yourself in and I’ll tell you a little bedtime story.

If you’re trying to get to Los Angeles from San Francisco the SMART thing to do would be to buy a bus or train ticket, show up on time and roll out Autobot style. For some reason, in Brettville, it makes just as much sense to NOT buy a ticket and rush to the bus station in the blind hope that you’ll show up on time.

Yesterday. The facts as I had them:

1. I hadn’t packed my bag – 30 min.

2. I still had to get to the bus station – 90 min

3. It was coming up on 9:30.

4. The last bus to LA leaves at 11:30.

5. I still hadn’t bought a ticket.

No big deal. I leapt into action with all the grace of a sleep deprived vagrant and threw my gear into the backpack, sprinting (metaphorically) for the BART station. This was the part where I was supposed to be stressed out, checking the time repeatedly and willing the train to go faster. Unfortunately, due to an unusual childhood, I tend to get distracted and forget to be stressed so instead I More >

Hey Team,

I was really hoping I could get caught up on my emails before I got around to writing the next post. But there’s no way that’s going to happen if you guys still want to know what’s what in the non-stop thrill ride of Amtrekker-ing.

I spent most of yesterday answering those same emails (largely because I was too sore and burnt to do much of anything else) but the day before was epic. Hopping from one thin slice of adventure to the next.

I was sold on the idea that a group of people were going to the lake and hanging out on a giant ten-man raft. Maybe this is my fault but I’m not real good at “hanging out.” Sitting still and I just don’t get along well. So instead of thinking, “I don’t know…we’re just going to sit on a raft in the middle of the lake…why is that fun again?” My brain decided it would be easier to take the news if it just lied to me.

So when people said, “hang out” my head translated that back to me as, “Running, jumping, swimming, probably a good solid king of the raft game.” Stupid brain.

It was three guys More >