Day 107 - The End of the Road

Morning of the final day. I left early, wanting to be on my way as soon as possible at this point. Also, my host is in nursing school, and had to be at the hospital very early in the morning. She dropped me off at a nearby truck stop, where I hoped to catch a quick ride across the mountains and into the warmer central valley. No luck with the quick hop, though. I had a trucker let me know that a lot of people were waiting out the day, as the wind was gusting through the pass. After a few hours at the truck stop and freezing in the wind, I walked out to the on ramp and tried my luck with the cars. A good idea, too. I suddenly realized that while there were plenty of trucks around, very few were actually getting onto the freeway heading west.

My first ride took me across town, he was a cool guy with some personal hitching experience. Short ride, though. It was probably one of the best spots to get dropped off in Reno, and had an IHOP where I tried some eggnog pancakes, but even so it was hours before I actually got a ride.

My second ride was a cute girl on her way to the stables with a load of hay in her pickup. She couldn't take me very far, just a few exits, but at this point I'd take anything. So I did :)

Third ride got me almost as far as Truckee. Awesome guy, out here for the skiing. Super grateful to him for the lift, too, as the place I'd been dropped off really didn't have much traffic. Though it was the shortest wait so far...interesting.

Fourth ride was a woman from Palo Alto who was up skiing for the day. It was a test run, seeing if she minded the four hours of driving to go each way. Since she didn't, her plan is to take two days off from her job owning a yoga studio and ski every single week. She has a son named Daniel as well. Who also lives in San Francisco. And who also has a birthday coming up, on the exact same day as me. He's a year younger than I, though, so we're not completely secret twins. After a car ride listening to the TED talks off of my mp3 player, she dropped me off at the BART station and I headed back home.

At this point, I should really sit down and write a profound wrap-up of my trip, explaining what I learned, what I think, and all of that jazz. And someday I may do just that. But truth be told, I'm not in that much of a hurry to do so. It's been an awesome trip. I'm incredibly glad that I did it, and wish I could have spent even more time at it. It's something I'd love to explain. But it's not something I feel a burning desire to summarize on paper. So if you want to know my thoughts, ask. Because it'll be a long time till you ever see me write it up on here :)

Trip Stats:

Total Distance: 237 miles
Total Time: 10 hours
Google Estimated: 3:56 hrs
# of Rides: 4
Total Cost: $8

Day 106 - Off again

Time to go! Work starts next week, dance thing I want to see is on Friday, and a church Christmas event is on Saturday. It's starting to get late, so now I'm on my way back to California with speed as my primary goal.

I began at a little before 10am, just as snow started falling. My main goal on this trip has been to avoid snow, but it looks like that was not entirely possible. I'm glad I didn't have to wait nearly as long this time as I did the last time I was leaving from this point. Within a half hour I was on my way to Twin Falls with a group of county officials on their way to Boise for a meeting on taxes. Pretty cool guys, one of which had a number of awesome stories about his own hitchhiking adventures. Back in the late 60's, he'd decided that he was going to go LA and make it big, and so with no plan he took off from small town Idaho. It didn't really work out. He knew that he had an uncle in San Francisco, though, and he had an address, so he stuck out his thumb again and was off on his way. He found his Uncle's place at about two in the morning, somewhere in the Haight area, not having had any opportunity to let his uncle know that he was even coming. He knocked on the door, but unknown to him the building had two apartments, and the outer door only knocked to a corridor. He sat down on the doorstep to wait till morning, when the neighbor across the street got up and called him over to see if he needed help. He ended up giving him a place to stay for the night, and in the morning he was able to get in touch with his uncle. His uncle was a bit freaked out by the idea he'd spent the night with a complete stranger, and my ride was introduced to the idea that in cities, people often don't know their neighbors. Anyways, this guy's uncle was gay, and lived with his partner. And for the number of months that my ride stayed with them, he was introduced to the gay scene of San Francisco. Not a lifestyle that he was interested in, but he said they were an excellent group of people to hang out with. He had some great stories. Also, after mentioning that I was returning to California to take a job in the architectural field, they said that they were looking into designing a centennial park in some little town, and they'd be interested in getting in touch if I had some ideas for the project. I told them it might make an interesting portfolio piece, so shoot me a message. I hope they do, it could be fun :)

My next ride had an elk in the back. The driver had just driven up from Wells where he'd been out hunting for the past few weeks, and finally had what he'd wanted to get. Too bad I hadn't met him a few days earlier when he was on his way south. Still. he got me to the other side of Twin Falls, onto a junction heading south.

The next ride was very short. I wanted to get into the next little town, to a junction where all of the south bound traffic would have to pass. The two guys (mechanics, actually) who picked me up said they could get me close. Close meant about 7 miles away, or about half way between where I was and where I was flagging for. I was a little irritated at when I first looked at the spot, since where I'd been had had a pretty solid shoulder and slower traffic speed, and they'd had to drop me off at a side road with no shoulder and 60mph traffic, but as always, it worked out. And probably helped me, actually. The next ride to pick me up was a couple coming through back roads from Oregon on their way to Wells. They got on the highway below me, headed the wrong direction, passed me, then realized their mistake, turned around, and picked me back up on their return. I'm sorry that they had to lose time by going the wrong way, but I'm glad that I was able to get a ride the 90 miles or so to the next truck stop.

Wells, NV is pretty much nothing. It was a few truck stops for people heading east and west on I-80. I think there's a small town a ways off from the freeway, but I've never actually seen it. Still, pretty good place for me. I hung out by the truck stop for a bit, then got cold (snowing again) and headed to the on ramp to try and catch car traffic as well. This was a time of getting lucky, I was a bit worried that I'd get stuck here for the night, and I do not have the gear I'd want for the temperature it was. Luck was with me again, though, and as it was getting dark a truck pulled over for me and gave me a ride all the way to Reno, where I had some CS friends I'd hosted at the last minute the year before. He was a very Christian person, and we talked about God and religion through most of the trip. He didn't agree with my faith, but was very respectful as offered his thoughts on why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was not 'truly' Christian. Overall, it was quite a good trip.

A successful day. Later than I'd planned, but exactly where I'd hoped to be on the eve of the day.

Trip Stats:
Distance Traveled: 562 miles
Total Time: 12 hrs
Google Time: 9:03 hrs
# of Rides: 5
Total Cost: ~$5

Day 105 - Kick Back and Read

I now own a Kindle. And it's awesome. Touch screen is a bit wonky, though, so I'm going to have to have a replacement sent out to California, but this will do just fine for now. I really like the idea of having books with me all the time now, and without taking up a ton of space or battery life on my phone. Now if only the Couchsurfing website will work on it...

Day 104 - Relax

Today I learned that the Kindle 3g no longer has free web access through the experimental browser. This is a sad, sad fact. On the plus side, it does mean that the version of Kindle that I've decided on will be $50 cheaper than what I'd expected. Thanks family for the awesome gift!

Day 103 - Church

The church is a place of many functions. It is a place where God's instructions can be shared. It is a worldwide community that supports itself and others whenever needed. And it is a major part of what 'home' is. Coming back to Idaho, going to my parent's home ward (congregation), and meeting people who have known me since I was eight years old...it's a very rewarding experience for me. There are many new faces that I do not know, and perhaps someday will, but it is those who I've known who make it so enjoyable.

Of course, it's not entirely for these specific individuals that I come. It's because it is a body of believers who follow the same God and doctrine. And that is part of why I attend wherever I may travel.

Day 102 - Thanksgiving v2.0 in Idaho

On the road at 7am today, but not via hitchhiking. My sister-in-law, nieces, and I headed up to my parent's place for our time-conflict-free Thanksgiving dinner (sweet potato pone and rice dressing, the season is now complete :D ), then our traditional early Christmas. We do this a lot: Rearrange holidays to fit the schedules of those who are around, rather than basing them on the day they actually occur. It makes things a lot less stressful, and allows us all to attend events with other family on the day itself. I like this idea quite a bit.

Otherwise, relaxing day. I should begin hitchhiking again on either Wednesday or Thursday.

Day 101 - Utah

A day of visiting family, not much to say on the travel side of things.