2009-05-31-0228Z


Been home for a day and a half now, still recovering from the trip. A lot of my gear is moldy from the Humboldt weather, now it's drying out in the desert heat.

The ride home was interesting. A blond guy two seats behind me and in the opposite row started choking the guy in front if him. The driver, a short tough guy apparently of Chinese extraction, told him in no uncertain terms to sit up front, and he did, in the seat ahead and to the right of mine. He got off at San Rafael, of his own volition though it wasn't his destination, perhaps correctly surmising that the driver was going to throw him off in any case. He was obviously out of his mind on some drug, though I don't know what it may have been.

Greyhound tip: often waiting in line to ask for what door at which to wait for your bus is a waste of time. I was recently given the wrong info twice, once in Sac and the other day in SF. The security guard knew the correct door. And he let me leave my luggage in line while I went out for food; went back to Elephant and Castle for the fish and chips, mistakenly remembering that that was the place that had gotten it right. Damn. Shoulda read my own blog; I dropped about $24 there for fast-food fried frozen fish, big soggy fried potatoes, and a pint of Anchor Steam. At least the beer was good.

Usually I seem to lose valuable stuff on my trips. This time all I seem to have lost is my REI compressing duffel bag, $12 if I remember right, and a $1 Wal-Mart pocketknife.

I thought of another advantage to using compressed air for powering a small vehicle: the tank could be filled at many existing gas stations.

Camelbak tip: keep the water tube tucked away inside the hydration compartment whenever it's not absolutely necessary to have the tip dangling within easy reach. Those tips easily get pulled out and lost, and the bite valves degrade quickly in sunlight.

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last updated 2009-05-30 22:59:35. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com