I'm alive!

24 May Tuesday

Up at 8.30am and showered in the bad boy (the motor-home).
Cleaned it inside, emptied grey and black water
Packed up gear
Checked directions to fuel place and depot.
Got to fuel place at 10.45am and looking good for a drop-off at 11am just around the corner. But after fuelling up, had to come out totally wrong direction to where I wanted to go. Turned right at lights to go around the block – but it was a fire station and a dead end! A ten point turn later, sitting at the same lights to exit but they would not turn green – probably activated by fire station only. So ran a red light and took off as quick as I could.
Onto highway and looking for Johnson St, Durbin turnoff for the motorhome place just two or three miles away and still looking good for the 11am deadline. You guessed it - there was no Johnson St exit – just a Loxton St, which was also another highway. And that was what I wanted. Where Johnson St came from I do not know. Also had exit 44b written down, so kept plowing along the highway to that exit, but by now I was sure I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, Toto.
Clever me picked the only exit (about 15 miles north into Walnut Creek) that didn’t have an overpass to come straight back out in the other direction. I immediately ended up in a little residential street, that was getting narrower and starting to go uphill. Swearing profusely, I pulled over, couldn’t find my map, and it was now past 11am. Huge reversal back into a side street and then a blind three point turn (holding up traffic) to get out of there and start backtracking again.
Got to the correct exit (one minute away from the initial petrol station) and then nearly missed the next exit from that highway… It wasn’t a good start to the day.

But located El Monte (YAY!) depot and gladly handed that bad boy over. With pleasure.

From there it was a 15 walking loop to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train for the 45 minute journey onto the other side of San Francisco’s bay where the Servas hosts lived.

The lovely hosts met me at their BART stop and I spent the rest of the arvie (by now about 1.30pm) chatting and was then taken out for a quick tour of San Francisco. As the main centre is only seven by seven miles, it is a really compact city and I saw a lot, and the view from Twin Peaks (a lookout on a small hill) gives a really good overview of the city. I loved the architecture and the distinctive San Francisco style. Evidently after the big quake about 100 years ago, much of San Fran was burnt by the ensuing fires (caused by the ruptured gas lines and gas lights etc during the quake) and skilled Irish builders rebuilt many of the houses. All gorgeous (again!) and each unique but still within the same style.

After dinner, and some wine, I got onto the internet, but quickly became tired and was in bed by about 10pm – it had been a big day.