I'm on the road to nowhere...

I managed to find a rideshare through the Couchsurf website going from LA to San Francisco on Friday (17th December) so decided I would take that as my cue to move on. I spoke with Rose a couple of times as she was deciding what time to leave (and so she could verbally interview me without me realising, which is fair enough, letting a stranger into your car), and we arranged to meet at the Highland Park station just out of downtown. I sent out a few lastminute messages on Couchsurf to see if I could find a place to stay, and to quote Neil's response; "at the risk of committing to something without fully thinking it through...yeah". So I had a place to stay.

Fabio's housemate Natalie gave me a lift to the local station on Hollywood Boulevard and I made my way to Highland park. One other guy joined us in the rideshare (so four in total as Rose was travelling to SF with a friend of hers) and we made the 7 hour journey to San Francisco. We were dropped off at the Castro Valley station on the other side of the bay and I got the BART to the Civic Center station where I then got the number 6 bus to Neil's appartment. I didn't get to the appartment until about 8:30pm, so we immediately went out to get some dinner, along with Dina, a friend of Neil. I spent the following days exploring San Francisco, although the weather had taken a turn for the worse. I ventured into downtown, and then across Chinatown to the touristy Fisherman's Wharf, and across to Fort Mason. Neil showed me round a few bars in the trendy Mission area, and on Sunday he gave me a little driving tour of Ocean Beach and the Sutro Bath Ruins, as well as swinging by Golden Gate Park and the Bison that the San Francisco Zoo keep there. There was a definite feel to San Francisco that I felt at home with, and its relative small size (San Francisco itself is only 7 square miles) made it good to explore, although with the many hills it was tough on the legs.

The Golden Gate Bridge

Sutro Bath Ruins

The Pacific Sun Set

Michael, my close friend Raven's brother, is currently living and studying in San Francisco, and I had tentatively arranged to stay at his for the final 2 weeks of my trip so I could relax and settle down for a while, but something was gnawing inside me, and I felt I needed to explore some more. I met up with Michael before he returned to England for Christmas, and he kindly gave me a key to his place so I could crash there, but I decided I needed to see more of America. The rain was pelting down on the West Coast, so I looked up where might be dry. Southern Arizona was showing pretty decent weather, sunny, and in the high teens (Celsius). On Monday, I just thought "Sod it, let's go", so I contacted Enterprise, rented a car until December 30th, and began my Gonzo Road Trip to Arizona...