Nov 13th, 2001
Hi Everyone
Since I talked to you last from the pacific coast town of Cambria (10 miles from Hearst Castle), I met two fellow travellers that completely blew me away. I am finding that equally as important as the incredible sightseeing that I have done, are the acquaintances that I have made.
Shortly after e-mailing you from the library at Cambria last Wednesday, I went back to the hostel that I was staying at and went into the common room to read over some travel stuff. There was an older lady there ("older" being a very relative term - hey, I'M not old!!). She was talking to another fellow and I happened to hear the word "Drive-a-way" come up in the conversation. I immediately tuned in to what she was saying since it was "Toronto Drive-a-way" that I delivered the Jaguar for. How's this for a coincidence. Lucy, who was a grandmother and had 5 kids of her own had just spent the last 3 1/2 months travelling around the states and her main method of transportation had been delivering cars for a drive-a-way company that has offices in most major cities. She had done 25,000 miles and had visited 38 states!!! She was from Melbourne and was actually a taxi driver there. She was coming to the states for her son's wedding in July and heard from one of her passengers in Australia about these drive-a-way companies and decided to combine her trip to her son's wedding with an extended travel holiday in the USA. She had stayed almost exclusively in hostels during her travels and she had some pretty interesting stories to tell as you can imagine.
The second person I met was on the train from San Francisco to Denver. Ron was an engineer from San Francisco and I am guessing pretty close in age to me. I don't think he was ever married and that obviously allowed him the freedom to live the lifestyle that he had chosen. The interesting thing about him was that it sounded like his main priority in life was to travel. His job allowed him the flexibility to work when a where he wanted and he fit his work around his travelling. This was the 4th time that he had been on this particular train trip and he had been on most of the train routes throughout the states. He had worked in Alaska, Saudi Arabia and numerous other places. He had visited most of the continents. He travelled very frugally - almost always staying in hostels. On this train trip which he was actually taking all the way to Boston, he had a satchel full of food and drink and was travelling coach which means you sleep in the regular seats in the coach cars for the four day trip. The other interesting thing about him was that he was amazingly informed about Canada - listened to "As it Happens" on a regular basis; seemed to know more about Trudeau than I did.
A few highlights of the remainder of my trip:
- the drive along the coast to San Francisco is spectacular - I'm sure you've all seen shots of the coastline in movies or TV shows - winding roads that cling to the hill side with the surf crashing into the rocks below
- in at least three different places on that drive, I was able to observe sea lions, elephant seals, harbour seals - in some cases they were either swimming just 100-200 feet off shore or actually basking on the rocks no more than 100 feet from me
- San Francisco is a fascinating city - you have to actually drive up or down some of the streets to actually appreciate how incredible steep they are - drove down Lombard street - the famous one that zigzags from top to bottom, walked across the Golden Gate bridge - had supper at Fisherman's wharf, rode a cable car
- the hostel in San Fran is actually in a building that was built during the civil war and was later used as barracks for troops in WW1 and then as an infirmary during WW2. It is in an area called Fort Mason which originally was a Spanish fort looking out over San Francisco bay and later became an American military base. In 1980, the whole area was turned over to the city and the hostel was established after a number of renovations. It is in a great location - 10 minute walk to either the Golden Gate bridge or Fisherman's wharf. Only $22.00 night but dorm rooms are pretty small with 8 bunk beds and the washroom down the hall - not the Holiday Inn!!
- the two day train trip to Denver was a very relaxing break compared to my travelling up to that point - the last 7 hours of the trip was going up the Colorado river and heading for Denver - the train slowly wound its way along the river climbing higher and higher into the Rockies - saw at least a dozen Bald Eagles either sitting in perches or flying over the river looking for food - at the top of the Bertroud Pass we were right below the Winter park Ski area - there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground - the train then went into a ten mile tunnel and when we emerged we were about 3000 feet above the city of Denver which spread out below us - it was getting dark by then and the city's lights sparkled in the clear mountain air as the train wound its way back and forth descending the mountain until we arrived in Denver around 7.00 - then it was a final night's stay in a hostel - plane trip back to Buffalo and a bus ride home
Many, many memories to cherish and many, many plans for future travelling back to some of the places that I saw so very briefly.
Just thought that a great March break trip would be to fly to Las Vegas - rent a car for the week - spend 2 days in Vegas and then do a loop that could include the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Sedona (south of Flagstaff), Phoenix to Palm Springs and back to Las Vegas. There are all kinds of wonderful things to see along that route. I'd guesstimate that you could do that trip over 5 days with maybe 5-6 hours of driving each day.
All the best,
Larry Return