here one day gone the next

life on the train

On the move again! After two months of mild winter weather, mother nature dumps 9" of snow on The Woolley Mammoth the morning I am leaving, and its still coming down, hard. Jeff's car is at the bottom of the hill, and I've got a train to catch at 9:15. Frantically I grab all my bags and march out the door, unsure if I'll be able to get out. With a little push and some quick shovel work we get the car out and rolling! And just in time to miss one of the biggest storms the NW has seen in several winters.

Portlandia!

I board the train (Amtrak Cascades this time) and within 5 hrs I'm in Portland. Surprise surprise its pouring in Portland! I put my new jacket to the test as I stand at the bus stop and watch my bags get soaked. I hop on the bus (mmm ihop on the bus) and decide to go way too far in the wrong direction, why not? Eventually I get to the right stop and am kindly picked up by my very first SERVAS host, Carol! Carol and her husband Arnie take me in at their beautiful warm home and feed me a delicious dinner.  Portland is an amazing city, the next day I met an old friend for lunch and took off on foot to get to know Portland. Everywhere I went I met super friendly people who seemed to be more sincere and engaging than I think any other city I've been in thus far. It was very refreshing. After two days of exploring and chatting with the locals it was already time to leave. 

Graffiti Bunker! (look for more photos in flickr account)

On the way to the train station I get an automated call from Amtrak telling me that my train has been delayed indefinitely... After talking to a service agent I find out that the massive amounts of snow up North in Seattle had caused them to close the tracks and that they were turning the northbound train around to come back down to Portland and that would be taking me down to California. Fair enough, so I get another afternoon to explore Portland, no skin off my back! Eventually the train shows up, 7 hours late. I was probably the only person in the train station who wasn't really fazed by this, everybody else as you can imagine was pretty pissed. It actually made for a much more scenic ride, which I was stoked about. Just as the sun was coming up Friday morning we were crossing in to Northern California with stunning views of Mt Shasta and the beautiful countryside. After a long 17 hrs I arrive in Emeryville, CA, transfer to the bus, get to the Ferry building in San Fran and jump right on the ferry to Sausalito. Of course, its pouring again. My new help-x host Elizabeth comes and picks me up from the ferry and brings me back to her warm beautiful house and feeds me a delicious dinner (see a pattern here?). 

So here I am in beautiful Sausalito overlooking the bay, eating well, and sleeping like a fat drooling baby. Content, to say the least. One week until NZ!

Front Porch (insert rainbow joke)