122902

 

Los Angeles, CA to San Francisco, CA

Sunday December 29, 2002

                   It's the next morning now. I believe its Sunday, the 29th or so. I just woke up. Well, they woke me up at the homeless place. I got a full eight hours of sleep, I guess. They woke me up because that was the deal. It's 3:34am. I did go to the thing and I saw my stick safely there, so I'm not going to lose my stick. I wonder if the buses run 24 hours today.

                   Whoa, I'm walking in downtown LA and I just saw some rats on the sidewalk. whoa, crazy.

                   Now I'm walking down 7th Street.

                   Okay, I walked all the way down to the Greyhound station. Guess what time it is. It's 4:20. I stood in line and asked them how much a ticket to San Francisco would be. They told me it would be $42. I checked my wallet and I only had $37. Damn, all that bus fare I paid. So I am short five dollars and I have to figure something out. Alright, later on.

                   I was walking back down the street and all these people were asking me if I wanted to buy some drugs. This guy was all, "Hey man, you want some crack?" I gave him my whole no drugs, just weed line. Then he immediately asked me how much weed I wanted. I told him I wanted to go see how much a bus ticket was, because I might not have any money to spare. So they've been following me around at the Greyhound station. I found out the bus ticket is forty two dollars and I'm short five. I don't know I'm going to do. I'm just going to sit here at the bus terminal. There's all these pretty palm trees out front. I'll just see what happens. Later.

                   I'm a little hungry. I'm going to drink me one of my Two-Cals high nitrogen liquid nutrition.

                   What was your name again? Ernesto? Okay, this is just to document the generosity of Ernesto at the Greyhound bus station in Los Angeles. He helped me out with the five dollars for my bus fare to San Francisco that I needed. Thanks a lot Ernesto. I appreciate it, man.

                   Kickass! I just bought my bus ticket to San Francisco. This older Mexican dude, Ernest, who was outside hooked me up. I told him what I was doing and that I was short five bucks for my ticket. He told me, "Man, if you're going to get marijuana legalized, more power to you." I was just expecting a small contribution and I would eventually gather five dollars, but he pulled out his wallet and gave me the whole five dollars! So, I went and stood in line and bought my ticket to San Francisco. When I bought the ticket the girl asked me if I had any luggage and I told her just what was on my back. I asked her if it was too big to take on the bus and I needed to check it in. She looked at it real quick and told me no. Express at gate number sixteen. Departing at 8:45am. It's about 5:35am right now, so I have about three hours to wait. That's cool. I can smoke some weed.

                   Okay, we will be arriving in San Francisco at 5:40pm of December 29th, 2002. Leaving at 8:45am and getting there at 5:40pm. Hmm, that's what? 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Shit, so that's a long time. Oh well, as long as it takes.

                   Wow, I can't believe I got all the way to Los Angeles with absolutely no money. I mean, I had money, but I barely used it. I saved it and I'm glad that when I'm finally using it, I'm paying for something I believe in, the bus. Patience is a virtue. Things take time. I was kind of contemplating that maybe I would walk/get a ride to San Francisco. Then I thought, "Nah, I believe in the bus too. They run cleaner than cars anyway." Time is of the essence. I'm going to make it there before the end of the year, just like I said I would. How awesome is that?

                   Okay, time is about 8:25am now. The bus leaves at 45. I came outside and thought, "Damn, I wish I had a working lighter." Both the fireplace lighter that Chasity stole for me, and the red one I took from my mom(that she was looking for) didn't work. I had a can of butane too and I refilled them to the max, but they still didn't work, damnit. I bummed a cigarette and a light of this lady who seemed pretty cool. I told her, "Hey, guess what. I'm going to eliminate money and bring world peace." They said, "Wow, somebody needs to. It's about damn time." I came to these seats close to the station and I'm just reclining on my army bag. Then I thought, "Man, I wanna smoke some weed, but I don't have a lighter." I took out my little bag of dust/shake that's in a tiny bag and loaded a couple hits into the bowl. I'm going to load a couple extra and see if I can get somebody to bum me a light. I asked that same lady if I could borrow her lighter again. She gave it to me and I hit my little pipe. She asked me, "Are you smoking marijuana?" I was holding my breath and I asked her, "Want a hit?" and she said she sure did. Then this other girl that was with her came up. I guess they were traveling together because she leaned over on her friend's shoulders, who was bent down and was supporting her weight on my leg. The other girl told me, "My boyfriend just turned himself into prison so we drove up here and he fucking lost my brand new glass pipe." I told her, "That sucks, do you want a hit?" She said sure and everyone got stoned at the bus stop. Me and my good 'ol sneak-a-toke. I got high and they gave me their lighter. They asked me, "How long are you going to be here?" I told them until 8:45am. They asked me if they could trust me to watch their bags for them while they walked off somewhere. I told them of course they could. I said, "I hope I've made your day better." One of the girls grinned and said, "Your smile made my day better." Aww, gawrsh. How sweet. Hopefully, when they get back, I'll get their names for my book.

                   Ahh, what a nice, clear morning. The sun came up at the bus stop over the palm trees. There's a big sign that says Welcome to Los Angeles. Wow, this city has so much history. I can't believe I got to visit it for free. Sweet. I'm not going to stop, I'm just going to keep going and learning. I can't wait. It's going to be awesome. San Francisco is going to be my rest stop. Hopefully, I'll find somebody who will let me crash, do my laundry and take a shower. I'll walk around and learn that city good. I'll ride the bus and learn it like the back of my hand. I might even get a job. I'll go get a computer job somewhere. It'll be so badass. I can live anywhere. I am the epitome of independence. Badass.

                   Okay, I just caught a glitch in this tape. The time now is 12:21pm. I have a lot of catching up to do, because I lost a lot of information I had already recorded. Last time I checked, where I left off was, I had been asked to watch those girl's bags. This one guy I bummed a cigarette from before came up to me and I was just lying there, leaning on my army bag. He comes up and offers me a cigarette without me asking. I asked him, "Hey man, do you burn?" I had already told him about my ideas. I offered him a hit. He said, "You mean right here?" I told him they didn't call them sneak-a-tokes for nothing. I told him to just hold it with your teeth and cup his hand over it. He took a hit and that just made his day. He said, "Thank you, man. I've never met anyone like you." I told him it's because there isn't anyone like me." While he was there I asked him, "Hey, if the bus is scheduled to leave at 8:45, can I just wait until 8:45 to go line up?" He said he wouldn't. I looked at my watch. I knew there was a five minute differential between my watch and the time in the bus station. I had noticed it before. I didn't know if it was forward or behind. I better hurry up. Shit, I'm watching these girl's bags. Fuck, umm I think saving the world is a bit more important than their bags.
                   So, I got up and over by the door I asked this one lady in Spanish if she could look at the bags. She told me that she was leaving soon too. I asked her if she could just look at them until she left and she said ok. Then I went inside and to gate sixteen. This tall black guy who worked there started giving me problems right off the bat. I walked up there with my walking stick and he told me I couldn't bring it on the bus. That I had to go check it in as luggage. I needed to get a ticket for it. I told him, "Now seeing how there's a big line and everything, would it be safe to say I'm going to miss this bus?" He told me, "Well, the more you stand here talking to me, the worse your chances get." Prick said I needed a tag for it. So I walked all the way back to the ticket counter and the line was huge. I noticed there were all these blank tags sitting on the counter. I thought, "Hmm, maybe that's all I need." I grab a tag and walk back to the black guy. I asked him, "Is this what you meant by tagged?" He told me no, that I needed to check it in like any other piece of luggage. I reiterated at the big line and asked him if it was safe to say I was going to miss the bus and have to wait for the next one. All of a sudden, the driver of the bus I'm on right now comes out and says, "I'll take that. I'll just throw it underneath with all the other stuff." Then, the dickhead black guy told me that my backpack was too big and that I needed to check that in too. Shit. Driver to the rescue again. He told me, "There's going to be one empty seat on this trip. You can carry that with you." First, I had to get it inspected. There was this security guy standing there with a metal detector looking through bags. I put my bag down on his table.
                   Okay, let me back up a bit. Right when I got in the line at first, I noticed that they were searching bags with a metal detector. I thought, "Shit, I have my sneak-a-toke in my 5th pocket of my jeans. They're going to find that shit for sure. What do I do?" Ah-ha. I'm going to put it in my Adidas bag with all my other stuff, so when they pass the wand over it and it goes off, there's other things in there that's metal and hopefully he wont search it good enough to find the pipe and I can get away with it.

                   Okay, let me fast forward back to where I was. Back when the security guy was checking my stuff, I put my army bag down on his table. Then I put my Adidas bag right behind it, so it was kind of hiding it. I was hiding it on purpose though. He started looking through my army bag and I told him, "Listen, there's something in there that looks exactly like a kilo of cocaine, but it's not. It's my food. It's called Muscle Blast 2000. It's complete nutrition. It's what I've been eating on this trip." He gave me this weird look. I asked him if he wanted me to take it out of the compartment it was in. He said it was Okay, that he believed me, so cool.  Then I realized that he hadn't even seen my Adidas bag and I don't think he's going to search it. He passed the metal detector over me and it went off when he passed my Swiss army knife that was in my left pocket. I pulled it out and he told me I wasn't supposed to have it on the bus. Hmm, what do I do now? I thought for a second and told him, "Go ahead and keep it. That's not going to stop me from getting to San Francisco." After he ok'd me to go, I grabbed my soccer shoe bag and put it on real quick so he wouldn't notice he hadn't checked it. Dumbass me, I started getting on the bus and he told me, "Hey, don't forget your other bag." I had left my big army bag on the table. Earlier, when the driver was loading luggage under the bus, I thought he told me to follow him, so I did. I followed him and he looked at my big bag and told me, "Oh no, that can't fit down here." I asked him what I was supposed to do then and he said to just take it on the bus with me.
                   So badass, I got on the bus. I got my weed in my Adidas bag. My army bag is taking up a whole seat. Like one other person wont fit on the bus because it's jam-packed. Everything's just working out. Right now I am on my way to San Francisco. I wish I wouldn't have messed up on this tape because I've passed some cool shit. Like Magic Mountain already. Okay, so I fixed that error and didn't lose that much. I still got my book to write when I get to San Francisco. How I'm going to write it, I don't know.
                   I'm not even sure where I am going to stay. I'm going to see if I can borrow someone's cellphone and I'll call Chasity and ask her to give me her friend Elizabeth's number, who lives in San Francisco. When I last saw Chasity, I told her I wanted to visit her friend Elizabeth when I got to San Francisco. Chasity said, "She'll probably agree with your stuff." Now, Elizabeth has a computer, which means I can type all this up. The time now is 12:30pm and I'm on my way to Frisco. I'm glad I was able to fix that before I forgot it all.

                   Okay, I just discovered I have three Two-Cals left. I got 1500 calories left. Hmm, should I waste one on this bus ride or wait to eat it when I'm walking? I'm hungry. I think I'll have some of my Muscle Blast 2000 powder first, before I start going into my last supply of Two-Cals. Alright, later on.

                   The time is about 12:52pm. I'm in the bathroom right now. I'm going to sneak a toke in the bathroom. Yeah, hehe.

                   Okay, time is now 12:55pm and I just snuck two hits in the bathroom. I don't have much else to do and I'm not that tired. Maybe I'll read that book that I brought that I was going to read on the way over here that I never read. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac.

                   Man, this shit is pathetic. It's 2:30pm and I'm on the Greyhound still. I tried to nod off, but I just can't sleep. We are at a dead crawl here. This is like rush hour traffic at 2:30pm on a holiday. It's just pathetic. We are out here in the country. You're supposed to be hauling ass out in the country. It's not supposed to be this congested. All these people who wanted to come to California since it's so cool. We are going so slow. Look at this shit. We are out in the middle of nowhere and there's cars everywhere! Damn, we need to spread out already.

                   On this bus trip, I've had a clever idea. The time is about 2:50pm. I'm going to need a girlfriend if I'm going to be traveling. I'm not going to stop in San Francisco. I'm just going to visit there and learn. But, it would be really good to have somebody with me to go along. It would be even better if it was someone I could eventually have a relationship with. Even if we were only very good friends. Hmm, I don't want to be in a relationship with a girl from out here though. I want to get somebody from San Antonio and ask them if they'll live with me for free. Once word gets out about my travels and more people hear about me, I was thinking, hey, maybe I'll call Sabrina(12-22-02). Last time I talked to her, she told me she was having all these problems in San Antonio and that she thinks I'm a sweetheart. I just hope she'd say yeah. If not, then I can go for another girl. She would just be ideal. I would be helping her out. That's all I really want to do. Even if we just stay close friends, at least I would be getting her out of her hell-hole she calls San Antonio. I'll tell her I'm starting a revolution and ask her if she wants to come join the party. I hope she says yeah. I don't know, I kind of take a liking to Sabrina because she's told me that she's been to the shrink and stuff, and diagnosed bipolar too. We have that in common. Other people think she's crazy too. I want to give her the chance to be her total self and just have some fun. Well, later on.

                   This guy I smoked with when the Greyhound stopped for lunch told me that there are all these communes in Northern California. Wow, that would be really cool. Then I thought, "I'm not going to go live in a commune, I am going to make the world one big commune first. Then everywhere will be a commune." I don't even want to be exposed to a commune. I want to be totally independent and do this all on my own. It's all obvious to me. I don't need to go learn it.

                   Whoa, it hasn't rained at all, until now. This is the first time I see rain on my trip. I'll get to put my rainsuit and poncho to work, hehe.

                   Okay, the time is now 3:08pm. We have a measly 88 miles from San Francisco. 

                   The dude I smoked out with turned around and asked me what I write about. I told him, "I write the truth. I'm just logging the whole experience and it's just what really happened. The easiest book in the world to write." He asked me because he noticed my Jack Kerouac book out. He asked me if I had read some other book and I told him I didn't much like to read. I told him that I didn't want my own writing style to be influenced by any other. That I would read when I had the time. He said that was really interesting and tipped his water bottle at me and turned around. Later on.

                   Oh yeah, the time right then was 3:26pm.

                   Okay, time again is 3:27pm and we have a mere 67 miles to San Francisco. That's it, 67 miles. Sweet.

                   Wow, I'm really enjoying this majestic landscape. we're still going on 5 North. It's weird, if I look to my right, I see one picture and when I look to my left, a totally different one. It's so unique.

                   Okay, I'm going to have some of my Muscle Blast 2000.

                   We just passed a sign that said Rodeo Park, next left . . umm . . or right. I don't remember.

                   Wow, this place is really beautiful, these tall hills. Whoa, this road is awesome too.

                   We just entered the town of San Leandro. I don't know what that's a suburb of. That's where I am. San Leandro. Wow, there's some beautiful houses here. There's just too many. It's way too crowded.

                   Ahh, this is great. I'm all giddy like a school kid. I have never in my life seen the Pacific Ocean. I'm going to see the Pacific Ocean today. This guy I made friends with on the bus said we were going to go over the Bay Bridge and I'm going to check it all out. Fuck yeah. Happiness can be bought for a little more than free.

                   To the victor go the spoils.

                   The time now is 4:07pm and I think we are in Oakland right now. Maybe I should pay BJ a visit. Hehe, fuck BJ. Hehe, blow job.

                   Whoa, everything is so cool. All these neighborhoods and shops and houses and roads and highways. It's all so modern.

                   Downtown Oakland. Dump boyfriends, not major appliances. Don't trash Oakland, it's home.

                   Ooh, I saw a good billboard. It said, "Concentrate on making time, not money sometime."

                   Wow, I'm thoroughly impressed. I saw a train.

                   Right now, I'm passing the San Francisco Bay, or a finger of it. Wow, water.

                   Time is 4:20, once again, hehe. Which reminds me, I'm going to sneak another toke.

                   Time is 4:26pm and we are crossing over the bay bridge. Umm, my friend pointed out that in the distance is the Golden Gate Bridge and beyond that is the ocean. So, finally for the first time in my life, I see the Pacific Ocean. Cool.

                   Man, I can't believe I've made it this far, this quick. Not only did I get to California, I made it to San Francisco in about two days. Sweet.

                   Okay, I'm going over the bridge into San Francisco now. You can see Alcatraz from here, wow. That doesn't look big at all. Now, I have to figure out what I'm going to do because I'm officially out of money. I'm going to go bum some bus fare. I'm going to go be a tourist and find a place to sleep tonight. Wow, tall buildings.

                   Yeehaw, I just got off the greyhound in San Francisco! The time is about 4:40pm. I can't believe I got here in three days, for free. Now what the hell am I going to do?

                   From the bus station, I'm going down some escalators. I'm in some mall, I think. I came across this 'Zero Emissions Vehicle' hooked up to something up in the power lines.

                   Okay, I'm in Frisco. Let me ask where a library is.

                   I saw a bumper sticker I like. "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." How hypocritical that it's on a car.

                   I went into some school and I went up to a security guard and told him, "I just got here from San Antonio, Texas. Is there a computer I can use here?" He said he didn't think so.

                   Hehe, I can't believe I'm walking down a San Francisco sidewalk with tall buildings all around me. This is great.

                   Okay, I just asked these guys where the library was. They told me I had to walk down to 3rd and take a right. I told them my whole story how I had gotten here from San Antonio and how I didn't stick my thumb out. That people just picked me up. I asked them, "Do either one of you guys have a spare buck I can have for some bus fare?" They hooked me up. .

                   I'm over on Post Street. I went to a bus stop and asked this girl if she knew where a library was. She told me there was one on the route of the bus we were waiting for. When the bus came, I saw people just getting in through the back door and not even paying fare. So, I just got on too. I asked a girl, "Ya'll don't usually pay fare when you get on a bus in San Francisco?" She said, "Well, you can if you want. If you ask for a courtesy ride they usually hook you up." Badass, free bus ride. Even though a couple blocks later, the bus stopped working for some reason, and I'm walking again. I'm over here at the corner of Post and Kearney.

                   I walked Kearney all the way to California and I see a sign that says Chinatown and North Beach. Then another one that says Sacramento. Umm, I don't wanna go anywhere. I want to stay in San Francisco. So, I'm going to turn right and walk down the street. Damn, that's one tall muthafuckin' building.

                   Now passing the bank of California. What a big building. It's got all these big pillars and shit.

                   Bastard, I walked up to this trolley that was stopped here and I tell the guy, "Sir, I'm from San Antonio, Texas. This is my first day in Frisco. I was wondering how much does it cost to ride the trolley?" He was rude and said, "Well first off, it's San Francisco and second, it's not a trolley, it's a cable-car and the fare is two dollars. You're not in Texas anymore." I said, "Then you will have to excuse me."

                   Oh yeah, it's already night time and this dude showed me a place I could crash. I get to crash in this badass forest they have here, Golden Gate Park. It's like three or four miles long, this park is. It sucks, it's all drizzling.

Next day..