Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Journey Part 2 and Welcome to California!


So…lots of sitting down on a train. Not too exciting but also not as terribly boring as I was expecting. I got a lot of books read, Big Bang Theory and MASH watched, and became the Pokemon League Champion. What more could one hope to accomplish?

Nebraska was boring, Colorado was pretty but took forever with all the tunnels and switchbacks, Utah was dull and I slept through most of it because it was at night, and Nevada was nothing to talk about either. Oh, and there was snow everywhere in Colorado. Don’t they know it’s May? I now believe my super smart fifth grade teacher who taught us about land biomes and how different biomes support different plants. There weren’t exactly any cornstalks or soybeans growing in the gross dirt of Nevada…Regardless, I took some pictures of each just for kicks and giggles.








I got to Sacramento early so I had an even longer break before my connection to Merced left. With the guidance of the man working at the baggage area, I headed to “Old Sacramento” to go exploring and finally use my legs for walking again. It was super duper warm and I was carrying a 30+ lb. backpack, so naturally I stopped and got ice cream and mini donuts. Mini donuts because my Grandma Joyce absolutely loves them, and ice cream just because I have an unhealthy obsession with the delightful substance.


I ran into these two women who saw my UNI t-shirt who happened to be Waterloo natives AND THEY KNEW WHERE PLAINFIELD WAS!!! (Nobody knows where Plainfield is so this was quite the discovery.) :) I talked to them for quite a while on a park bench—they were extremely nice and were in California for the week. They had just been to Yosemite yesterday—pretty nifty.




Then I decided to go walk around a different direction and wound up in Cesar Chavez Square. There I borrowed the Sacramento Public Library’s internet to catch up on emails. Backtracking a bit, I received a phone call from a man in the Yosemite Aramark HR department essentially apologizing for his coworker’s blunder about not sending me the information I was supposed to receive. So he sent it to me on Monday afternoon while I was on the train. Included in this super helpful email was a packet about living at Yosemite and a packing list. Pretty useful packing list to finally read while I’m already in California. Not. Whatever.

Then while I was still in the park I witnessed a fight break out that was so loud and so bad that the police showed up and had to drag the infuriated people apart and had a long sit-down conversation with them. So that was an interesting sight. Then I meandered my way back to the Amtrak station so I didn’t miss my next train.

The second train’s setup was quite a bit different. Still two stories, but this one’s upper level was a mixture of four seats facing in towards a table and then the two seats. But these seats weren’t as comfy and there wasn’t as much leg room. The perk was that this train had internet, so I could finish everything I started while borrowing the library’s internet (aka my continual checking of my grades). So boo—comfort and yay—wifi for the nerd!

After yet another train ride, I arrived in Merced 51.25 hours and 2267 miles after I began in Mount Pleasant on Sunday. Larry came and picked me up from the train station and then he and Jan led me through a nice little info session on the area. (It wasn't actually little, but it was extremely informative and factual.) They have some peculiar rules, but I don't really mind any of them since I'm an early bird also.

Fun fact #1: I looked at the map of hostels in the United States and there are zero in Iowa. Good job Iowa.

Fun fact #2: In case you didn't understand my reference earlier—my fifth grade teacher was my mother. *light bulb* (Also, I’ve referred to my dad as “Plant Guy” for forever, so if I didn’t understand how the USDA vegetation zones explain plant growth by now, I’d be an idiot.)

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