Heading West_30

San Francisco for 7 hours

We were each holding less than 8 dollars, and we had three days of hitching to get back to Jersey.

If I hadn't mentioned, my traveling partner: Robert Raymond Farley was an extraordinary fellow. You couldn't ask for a better road mate. He was upbeat, garrulous, optimistic, and always saw the sunny side of life. On this trip, he was again exceptional, never complaining, always easy to collaborate and willingness to share everything.

But on this date, we silently agreed, it was time to get our asses back to N.J. We did consider visiting a friend in Peoria, Illinois on the way back, but who knew if the rides would swing us near there?

We had a full day to ourselves. We walked up some steep San Francisco hills, I mean, some of these hills in North Beach were hard on your legs, especially carrying our packs and sleeping bags. This city reminded me of Hoboken, or North Bergen, or Hudson County, which also have great views of the Hudson River and bridges and harbors. We looked at North Beach, and Chinatown. We checked out the cable cars, and instead of riding them, we invested three bucks, actually I think Farley negotiated a "two for five" purchase of some west coast baseball caps from a street vendor. I bought an Oakland A's hat, and Bob a SF Giants black cap.

We finally got a view of the real Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatrez, and we took some fun pictures with my camera.

On Telegraph Hill, thinking about Jack London, we clowned around Coit Tower, (which a rich lady gave 1/3 of her fortune to beautify the city) A large bronze statue of Christopher Columbus is in front of the tower, and what is Columbus doing on the west coast?

He was as displaced as we were, I suppose. (you bet the local Italianos had something to do with this)























We walked around Columbus Circle and then Bob found a comedy club called the "Purple Onion" where the Smothers Brothers had performed before they had their television show.

We hung out back at Market, watching all the girls run for BART and buses on their commute home. They all had switched to sneakers, white sneakers and running shows instead of their leather pumps and high heels.

Women dressing habits are amazing.

So, the sun started to set, and we had a cold beer or two at a bar close to the skid row section we were to dine at.

This was our last day in California, we toasted that we had conquered LA, Hollywood, Laguna Beach, Newport, Disneyland, San Diego, Ensenada, and now we had sacked San Francisco. What a great feeling of accomplishment for two nineteen year olds, as those beers kicked in.

We found the mission around 6:30, got a table and enjoyed fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and tall glasses of cold milk. It was a feast, a begger's banquet on Howard Street.

The highlight of the evening, beyond doubt, was an industrial, Dairy Queen like, Vanilla ice cream machine. Farley must have had 4 or 5 bowls of vanilla ice cream; I was too stuffed from the chicken. We thanked the helpers behind the counter, bade farewell to the toothless, the homeless, and the bompies we had shared this meal, and we stepped into the sunset hour.

The on ramp for the Bay Bridge was packed with hitchhikers.
The protocol is as follows, if you are the last ones to arrive, you get in the back of the lineup.
We used a Jersey style of hitchhiking, where one walks a block ahead of the entrance sign, and just "Presume" these cars are going on the freeway.

We walked back about 4 blocks from the ramp, and we nailed a VW bus right headed for Oakland. We went by all six parties, and turned a few heads as we got on the Bay Bridge.

Our driver on this initial ride east, was a long haired, hippy Jesus Freak. He had electric lights with rosary beads and an electric cucifix on the dash board. Whimsical painting and biblical sayings were all over the roof. His wife and a tiny baby rocked and sat in the back floor on
a platform and on a mattress. The baby cooed as his dad, the driving preacher started to convert us to the "Lord's way".

We explained that we were all ready saved. Hold on there fella, we are two Catholic boys from Jersey City. We are indeed, saved by your kindness, as we are going home to NJ and Jesus, Thanks to your kind German bus taking us over this big blue bay.