Sunday, July 20, 2008

Day 9 - 16th July - New Jersey - Philadelphia - Houston - Sacramento

Got up early - zipped u luggage and sat talking to Jazzy for a while. We then packed up the car and took us to a nearby town called MontClair (Upper). We walked around the town taking photos of the historic buildings then had a cold drink in a diner before heading off to Newark - Penn Station to catch our train back to PHiladelphia.

For some reason catching the train is the hardest thing for me to do, and I was very nervous. When asked why - I narrowed it down to not hearing where the train was, missing my station, and ending up in Alaska somewhere. My fears were unfounded. We sat next to a guy also travelling around USA who was getting off at the same station. He just happened to live in San Luis
Obispo where we were heading on the 20th.

The train was 20 minutes late, and when we got to the station, we had to catch another train to the airport. Because of construction the trains were going every hour, instead of every half hour. This cut our airport check in time very close, but we managed to arrive at the airport at 4.10pm before our 5.40 flight. Queues for security were long though. Mike got stung with a $50 fee for overweight baggage - 12 pounds overweight. I was also slightly overweight by about 4 pounds, but was allowed to take 2 pounds out of my luggage to put in my backpack and thus didn't have to pay the fee. Weird - it's weight still being carried on the plane!!!

Arrived in Houston - had dinner at Wendy's as it was the only thing open that was 'okay' as far as food was concerned. Caught another plane to Sacramento. When we arrived we 'lost' our luggage, but found we were standing at the wrong carousel!!! Once we had the luggage, we caught a super shuttle to the Hostel we were staying at. On the way our shuttle had a crash on the freeway. Trying to merge into a lane while someone else was merging and had a side on crash. We had to wait for the cops to come, then give statements - we our now registered with CHIPS!

By the time that was sorted out (about 2 hours) we arrived at the hostel to find it CLOSED. No one there to open up at all. So the shuttle driver drove us around and found a dive of a place for us not far from the hostel. However, it was 3am and we were stuffed and a bed is a bed. Our alternative was to sleep in the park!!! It cost us $72 usd for this dive - not bad I guess!!!

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