It wasn't such a great sleep. The tracks are rougher, and the bed is smaller, and I kept waking up. Oh well, I'm awake now.
I realize that my tipping on this train has been a little spottier. I haven't been paying cash for much, and so I haven't had change on hand. Ugh.
At Sacramento I've stepped off the train for a few minutes to walk around a bit. Louie asks me if I'll run into the station and get him a copy of the Sac Bee, which I do. Got the last one in the box. As I return, there's an interesting bird perched atop a nearby dumpster and I try to take a picture of it so someone can tell me what it is, but the pictures don't come out. Not light enough yet, I guess. It was blue and black, and kind pretty though.
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| US Navy Mothball Fleet |
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One of the sights this morning is the US Navy's Pacific National Defense Reserve Fleet (Mothball Fleet). The ships are stored in the waters of Suisun Bay at Benicia (near Martinez) because the brackish water doesn't rust them as fast as ocean water would. One of the ships there is the USS Iowa. Most of my pictures didn't turn out because the camera decided to focus on the dirt on the windows of the train, rather than the outside world. Bleh.
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| US Navy Mothball Fleet |
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Eventually I arrive in Oakland. Most of the other folks going to San Francisco got off at Emeryville to take a bus to SF, but I decided before I left home that I'd rather go to Oakland and take BART across. The only real trick is getting from the Oakland Jack London Station to the nearest BART terminal. I end up taking a bus, and there's a gal at the bus stop who verifies that this is the right bus and there should be one along any time now. When it does eventually show up, we get stuck in traffic pretty quickly, and she offers to show me the way to the BART station, since it's right by the office she's got to get to. We get off the bus and walk the remaining three or four blocks in the time it takes the bus to get half a block. Traffic is really fouled up this morning.
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| my hotel room |
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After a ride on BART (from the 12th St. Oakland station to the Powell St. Station) I get off and make my way up to street level and to my hotel. It's a lot nicer than I expected, given the pretty darned good location (at least for my needs) and the relatively cheap price I got on the room. It's an older building, but everything's been spruced up, and the roms have nice high ceilings and plenty of space.
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| Turning the Cablecar around |
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I decide to take the cable car to fisherman's wharf and wander around a bit. The line is pretty big, and it's about a fiftenn to twenty minute wait to get on, but I get one of the older cable cars, instead of one of the new-built ones. I like it.
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| Alcatraz |
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The day turned great around noon. It's still breezy and a little cool, but there's a beautiful blue sky and a warm sun. Walking around is pretty pleasant.
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| Alcatraz |
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I get to the waterfront and take some pictures of Alcatraz and the S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien. The O'Brien's a Liberty Ship that was previously part of the mothball fleet and is the only active ship that was part of the D-Day invasion. It's also the only Liberty Ship that's been put back to original condition. During WWII it took between six and eight weeks to build one of these. Impressive.
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| The Jeremiah O'Brien |
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I take the cablecar to Chinatown to get some grub. There are a couple performers at the turnaround taking advantage of the people waiting in line. I get on, and a older Japanese man and his daughter are getting on. She's got a backpack on, and when the driver yells at her to take it off and hold it in front of her, she doesn't seem to understand. When he yells at her a second time, I pantomime what she needs to do, and she gets the backpack in front of her. Apparently backpacks on the cablecars can be pretty dangerous. If you pass close to a truck mirror, you can get grabbed and pulled off. Makes sense, but I wouldn't have thought about it without this encounter. We don't take off right away, and they take a few pictures. Me and the old guy, me and the gal, and then I step off to take a picture of the two of them. She's a cutie, and when I get off in Chinatown they both wave goodbye to me. I kick myself that I didn't give them a card so they could email me a picture. D'Ohh!
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| Trans-America Tower (as seen from Chinatown) |
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The parks here are fairly homeless-hostile. Benches have armrests spaced so you can't sleep on them, and it's illegal to loiter where children congregate - a $1000 fine. I was planning on stopping in the park in Chinatown for a while to jot down some notes, but I'd rather not be hassled over possibly loitering, so I move on.
On the way back to the hotel, there's a tourist couple on the cable-car next to me. As the gal's taking a picture of the guy, hanging off the side of the car, he makes a face at the camera. She looks at me when I laugh and says they never grow up!
in exasperation. I reply yeah, and that's what makes us men
and get a good chuckle.
I'm no expert, but here are some things I figured out about the cablecars in San Francisco:
- They fill up on both ends of the run, and you'll have to stand in line.
- The Powell/Market <-> Wharf line runs about every 8 minutes, according to one of the drivers
- An all-day pass is $6. A single ride is $2. Plus the all-day pass works on buses, too. Just make sure to scratch off the right day on the pass
- The best view in the cable-car is on the front, facing outward. If that's not available, stand in front, facing forward. The back will get so full that you won't be able to see much.
- If you're getting on in mid-route, don't stand on the curb waiting. Get out to the left edge of the parked cars and walk up to the cablecar as soon as it stops.
- Take off your backpack and carry it in front of you. You don't want to get grabbed by a passing vehicle and pulled off
After some time spent in the hotel room, I decide to wander out for some dinner. I'm not really hungry yet, but I'm thinking I might decide to head up to the Giants game. Then again, maybe I'll just wander around a bit. But as I head out the door of the hotel, I notice a bunch of bikes heading down Market. Oh yeah!, it's the last Friday of the month, which means the Mass is riding today. What I don't know (until I follow them to the meeting point) is that it's the tenth anniversary of the Mass, and it's a big deal.
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| Massing |
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Here are some things I noted (or had pointed out to me) while waiting for the ride to begin:
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| Rolling out |
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The Mass could probalby fill Market.
- There are thousands of bikes here. I hear various numbers, but figure 5000 isn't too far off.
- It's pretty exhilirating, even on foot.
- The police sent motorcycles to keep order before the ride started. Definitely better than cars, but a lot less friendly than bicycle-cops.
- Apparently the reason for few bike-cops is that they
fraternize too much
. - I should've brought more media for my digital camera.
- For an anniversary like this, many people are digging bikes out of storage. There was a guy with a toolkit, and I helped a little getting a few people back on the road.
- I missed the Giants game, but I think this was a lot more fun.
- It was over a half-hour between the first bike to roll out and the last.
- People who were blocking the Muni (buses) before the ride were treated harshly by the cops. But fucking with the buses is wrong. They're part of the solution, not part of the problem.
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| Rolling out |
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After the ride started to wind down (it basically went in a circuit, and went around at least three times), I stopped to watch a bit, and had a Japanese gal stop me and ask me what was going on. I triekd to explain it to her, and pointed her to the website, but as with the one on the cablecar earlier today, she didn't seem to speak much English, so I'm not sure if I got through or not. I find myself wondering why me?
but decide that maybe it's because I'm big and appear to be fairly non-threatening. I briefly wonder if maybe I should make a trip to Japan and see if I can attract hordes of cute gals there.