Canada Travelogue Day 1

Just want to keep a brief outline of my time Greyhounding to Canada and back.

Took off from Stockton on Tuesday, 7/17 at 4:30pm.  The station is sketchy and people looked at Rachel and I funny so I asked her to stay with me while we waited.  Don't worry about me though, there is much kindness in traveling strangers and even if there isn't the beauty of Greyhound is that I have a pocket knife and pepper spray that I won't hesitate to use.

At a transfer point in Sacramento I met the one-year-old Misha and her lion-hearted pregnant mother.  Misha became my fast-friend, and by extension so did her mom Kimi.  So I had travel companions from Sacramento all the way to their stop in Medford, Oregon.  Kimi and Misha were on a journey from Texas to meet with Kimi's mom whom she had only reunited with in the last two years.  I was glad to be of help and to hold Misha as much as I could.

We get far out from Sacramento, way past Marysville and the driver gets a call.  Corey Fischer is deaf and he's on our bus.  The wrong bus.  The driver goes down the aisle saying his name and Corey, beside us, sees his lips move and raises his hand.  The driver rolls his eyes and runs to the front. Without explanation to any of us, or to Corey he turns the bus around and hits every dirt road and little path to drop Corey back at Marysville.  Not that any of us were told this, but we deduced it was either this, or the driver was going to shoot us all in a cornfield off the beaten path.  We didn't' even know that Corey was deaf, but Kimi had already put two and two together and was scrounging for a pen and explaining the situation to me quite loudly so that people would stop giving the confused and embarrassed Corey bad looks.  She found a receipt and a colored pencil and wrote out, "Wrong bus.  We've got to get you to your luggage.  Don't worry, they'll fix it."

The whole drive back to Marysville was comical for me and everything I expect the Greyhound experience to be.  I'm in no hurry, I'm here for the ride.  I did feel bad for Corey though.

I'm off to a great start because I also met a 24-year-old Irish girl who was going to Vancouver as well.  On the way we met an Irish guy and it was great talking with the two of them.  Dennis and Maeve gave me a list of must see Irish movies and shows when I asked, but I was told Americans don't really get the humor.  One of our drivers, Tony, cracked jokes and knew how to bend the rules so that we were back on schedule from our Corey detour while also getting frequent stops for food and bathroom breaks so we didn't need to use the scary toilet at the back of the bus.

For this night I am grateful for a bed at The Cambie in Gastown of Vancouver.  I've stayed here before and had a great time, plus I know the area like I was here yesterday.

I leave bright and early tomorrow for Winnipeg!