Manifest Destiny: America from the Bottom Up - 96 - San Francisco, CA - Bay of Liberty

The first full day I was in Livermore I decide to check out the transportation system around the Bay area and go into San Francisco. My host, Steve Powell, was an expert on traveling around and gave me great tips. Now I just had to get used to it on my own. It is the best way for me to really learn.

I walked into Livermore and ventured down First Street (the major center of the town) until I got to E Stanley Blvd. I ventured west until I found a bus stop at Wall St. Seemed an appropriate place to catch a bus to the Bay Area Regional Transit (BART) station in Pleasanton/Dublin. That would be my connection to a train ride into San Francisco. Bus number 10 showed up at 12:23 pm and I paid the $2.00 for the ride to BART. It is well worth it, since I was going to walk the 10 mile distance, but I thought to myself, "Self, wouldn't paying $2.00 be worth saving over two hours of walking?" And my Self answered back "Why yes, Self, it certainly would!" I didn't have much money, but a deal is a deal.

The bus ride over was relaxing and only two other people were on board. We arrived in Pleasanton and I deboarded at the BART station. The system for buying tickets is super easy. You look up the rate on a chart for where you're going. Then you step over to the ticket kiosk (there are a dozen to accommodate many people at once). The machine has you insert your cash (debit and credit cards welcome too). You can ask for cash back if you put too much in, even down to the nickle. But don't worry, if you are short at the other end of the line, since the station won't let you leave until you've paid for the complete fare, there are "Add Value" machines were you insert your ticket (a paper card with a data strip) for the amount you owe. Just have at least that much handy.

I wanted to go to 16th Street in San Francisco. I messed up and used the 24th Street value on the chart in Pleasanton, which read $4.25. When I got off the train at the 16th Street Station I went to leave and was told to add money. The actual cost was $6.00, so I went to the Add Value machine, inserted my card and added $1.75. As I approached the gate to leave I inserted my card and the gate kept it and let me through since the exact amount had now been paid. It's very efficient.

I walked up the steep stairway into the sunny and very crowded area of 16th Street and Mission. I was trying to take in all that I saw. But it was a challenge. The diversity of people was overwhelming. All milling about. There were no less than three groups of people out in the open smoking joints or bowls. In fact, marijuana was the first thing I smelled in San Francisco. I had to chuckle. One group offered me a toke but I passed it up (for now), needing all my senses sharp to find my way around.

I checked out the bus routes and map at a bus station and discovered that my goal for the day - the Haigh Ashbury District - was just down 16th, then Market, then Castro, then Haight. I took pictures all along 16th Street...

Mision San Francisco de Asis

Mision San Francisco de Asis

Gas Prices in San Francisco - Ouch!

Nearing Market Street

I took a wrong turn leading me up a hill to...

But it was all good. I found Haight Street and followed it down the rabbit hole to the fabled land of the Summer of Love...

Jammin on Haight

I highlight the above business because the

employee who greeted me was very nice and informative,

even when she realized I wasn't going to buy anything.

All Above - Haight Street

View From Buena Vista Park Hill

On Haight Street I found a Goodwill store and stopped in to browse around. I was very tight on funds but there were a couple of things I needed. I had been wearing the same uniform for three months. One pair of jeans two t-shirts. Today I wanted a button down long sleeve shirt.

Sure enough, a bright blue Indian linen shirt caught my eye. Same color as my ring. Checked the size--just right. Four ninety nine. It was a hard choice but I bought it. Love it. Now I can say I bought my shirt in San Francisco. Ha!

It was the same marvelous eccentric spirit all the way up and then down Haight Street. But the sun was getting low and it was time to head back.

I walked back down Haight and took a right onto Castro, Then I walked back to Market and onto 16th Street...

16th Street as Art

While standing at the mouth of the 16th Street Station I remembered I had the little schedule pamphlet in my pocket for BART. I saw the next train would be there at 5:06 pm. It was 5:00 pm. Why not try to take it? I walked back down the long steep stairs into the station and saw on the LED screen that the Dublin/Pleasanton train would be there in five minutes. Perfect.

I paid the ticket machine, got some change and received my ticket. You insert it into the gate and it spits it out for you. This time I paid the full $6.00 and everything worked out on the other end of the line.

It arrived on time at 16th Street. And I'm glad I was first in line, because the seats were filling up fast. Then as we stopped along our way, all the seats and handrails were taken up. Every single person except one guy and myself was furiously tapping away on their iPhones and Smartphones. There was order where there seemed the likelihood of chaos.

We sped along faster than Amtrak - maybe 70 mph - back through to each station until we reached the terminus at Dublin/Pleasanton. I hopped off the now empty train - having deposited commuter at other stops - and walked out of the gate, through a covered area, toward the food stand out by some seats. There I found a bus schedule. I chose the same bus that brought me to Pleasanton about 6 hours earlier. Good old number 10!

I had walked all day and was a-some tuckid out. So I decided not to walk much further and would instead take the bus all the way into the middle of Livermore (First Street). I did so. Steve's place was only a two mile walk away. It was a short two miles and I was back.

Good Day Sunshine.

I'm not sure I could ever live there. But it would be fun to try. In the coming weeks I should be able to do a lot more in the Bay area. Just trying to save up first.

* * * * * * *

California itself hit me like a blast of orange-sunshine. It was intimidating until I actually arrived there/here. The energy is different than the whole rest of the country. It is accepting in a way I'd never really seen before.

To me, the Southwest, particularly Arizona, was filled with natural beauty and art. New Mexico too, in its own way. It is still kind of unsettled there. But that wild is appealing in its own way. The Midwest was polite and even emotional, great loving people, with a story book landscape. New England was hard, cold, beautiful but ambitious; it is my home and I dearly love her. I know New England. Yet, it will be very strange trying to re-adapt there.

California is a beast unto itself. It seems to integrate all the other aspects of the nation. Anything grows here. Anything goes here. It is no wonder why its trends flow eastward. It is also no wonder why people want to live in the state. It is pricey, but obviously it is worth it to millions of people. I can see why now--though I would have never believed it without seeing it.

One thing that strikes me, as I get to know Livermore and the area around it, is that people here just want to be happy. that's all. They work at things something-like what New Englanders might call "jobs" and they actually try to be happy at them.

But the real happiness comes - it seems - from togetherness. I was at a convenience store and was taking way too much time to put my stuff in a bag and I finally went outside. The woman behind me came right out after her purchase and apologized for rushing me! And she really meant it. I didn't even know she was there. We talked and it seems she's from the Midwest but stayed here in California after seeing it only once. I'm not in New England anymore either, Toto...

There is still a pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps work ethic here. But you are left to do it as a self-designed major if you choose. What is it about those mountains that shield California in the east? It feels more like Real Liberty.

I don't know.

But I will do as much as I can to find out. Before I'm done here I will understand it. And that may take awhile...