Fredericton to ... (On A bus)

Seattle Part 2 of 2

2011-05-01T21:18:00.000-07:00

After seeing the Seal in all it's glory, I went to the nearby Olympic Sculpture park. Deceiving in it's name, the park had nothing to do with the Olympics. Hell, it was barely relative to sculptures. Luckily, and I mean thank the higher spirit lucky, there were descriptions for each sculpture so we knew what exactly the artist was thinking when he came up with these ~~monstrosities~~ fine pieces of work.

Well that was five minutes of my life I will never get back. I did get a little chuckle from this though. I mean ... just because she works with a smile she gets her own hut? Hardly seems just. Oh well, enjoy your job and you get your own set up. Lesson learnt.

My immature chuckle aside, I returned to the hostel to recharge the batteries. After two hours I reemerged into great Seattle, in the rain (no Jacket of course, that would just be too damn logical) to hit up the famous Seattle Market (famous in Seattle anyway). Home of the Original Starbucks!

How someone can take such blurry pictures of inanimate objects is a Mystery. Embarrassingly, there is a new Starbucks on the same street that I got to first. I almost took a picture of that Starbucks which would have been very awkward. I am happy I saw the signs of modernity (they had wifi, and new age materials. not something a 1971 building would have)and perceived adversity in finding the new Starbucks.

Also at the Pine street market was a booth where men literally through fish to each other - as if anyone would say that figuratively. I was waiting for my Korean in food, because as they say, when in Rome, and there was some hollering across the way. These men were just chucking massive sword fish and other fishes at each other and shouting. It was quite the spectacle.

I also went to a famous cheese shop and got a Kraft dinner, apparently ranked second in the world for Kraft dinner. Fantastic. I then mopped back to the hostel in the Rain to catch the hockey games. Good day all in all.

Lastly for all my South Park Fans out there:

Seattle Part 1 of 2

2011-04-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

Seattle is a cool town. It's basically Vancouver but smaller and more american. But I mean, the climate and what not. The game plan for the day was to walk to the Seattle Needle, where there are few museums, then head to Union Park, by Union Lake, and return to the hostel down Edwards trail. It almost worked out.

After continental breakfast (sidebar, continental breakfasts at hostels are weak) my first stop was Walgreens to pick up some Batteries and a Cherry coke. That went well, but the problems started there. I went in the front door and exited in the rear, or the opposite, it completely bamboozled my sense of direction. I was no longer able to picture myself on the Google Map that I looked at before starting my day. But I did still know which was way up, and that was helpful, because up was the direction of the Seattle Needle ... a spectacle in it's own worth. I hate tall things. I dislike the CN Tower, the Tour d'eiffel. Sears building was pretty cool actually, but other than that ... so I didn't go up it. But here are a couple of shots I took of it throughout the day.

See how it looks the same from every angle. Fascinating.

Next to that there is the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and a Music Museum. Sticking to my "Not spending money other than way too much on food" budget, I didn't go into either. But check out this freaky building. It's in several shots because my photography skills are lazy and poor.

I then looked at other things that required payed admission before leaving the area and heading for the coastal trail. Trouble started here.
You see, the trail was between the Railroads and the coast. To stop people from getting on the railroad, there was a big fence next to it, making the trail in view but absolutely not accessible. Weak. I was determined to get there, but there was no break in the fence in sight. Well ... whatever, I will head for the lake and double back later... right?
Well, disoriented, I forgot what the name of the street towards the lake was. Might not have been going the right direction to be honest. But I did find what appeared to be a park. Some woods anyway, and it advertised a view point and tennis courts.
I headed up through the woods where I was happy to see that Seattlenites had as little respect for the keep your dog on a leash rule as Frederictonians. It was a small park with a crappy tennis court and a mediocre view, but it was a decent detour.

Wait, no it wasn't it was a terrible detour. It brought me right into the middle of absolute nowhere. In some suburb on top of a mountain. Every road down was a dead end blocked off by roofs. Oh and as some of the pictures so far suggest, it did start raining at this point. I wouldn't say I was lost, I knew where I wanted to be, just no idea how to get there. I walked to six dead ends before finding a road, well off the beaten course, that got me down the hill.
But after that it was a simple walk back tot he trail, the one I wanted to be on an hour ago. Alas, I was there, time to start making my way back to the hostel, or at least back into town. The skyscrapers were pretty far away, I don't remember coming this far.

The walk on the sea line was nice. I like water, and seeing it out into it was pretty good.

I also ran into this elusive bastard.

Part two to follow.

Portland

2011-04-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

Portland is pretty nice. I got off the train, exhausted, and went to the hostel to watch the Preds game online (followed by all other games that night)
Portland has the largest forest inside city limits in the United States. Woopti doo. I decided to check it out, went for a 5 hour hike, got lost (the maps were terribly messed up) got unlost and made it back to the hostel. Really a pretty uneventful day. The forest was really really nice, but my camera was out of batteries and I only got the chance to take one picture before it completely abandoned life.

Some Pictures from the Train Ride (LA - Portland)

2011-04-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

29 hours on the train was a long long long time. But the scenery was quite nice.

When I woke up ... it was like being in a new world.

Ducks Game

2011-04-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, the answer to the poll is Tootoo, I am surprised most of you guest that. Congrats.

Holy crap. Just the whole thing, unfriggen believable.
The crowd in Anaheim sucks. They really do, heck the two women next to me didn't show up again after the second period. Not like the tickets were cheap either. I really don't remember ordering the seats I got, but I ended up two rows from the ice, to the right of the net.

You couldn't have asked for a more exciting game. From Bobby Ryan's amazing breakaway goal to Weber's game tying last minute goal.

Midway through the second the two people behind me decided they had consumed enough alcohol to start dangling their Ducks towel over my head and 'accidentally' hitting me in the back of the neck with it while they randomly swung it.
When the preds tied the game at 2 – 2 I stood up and cheered only to get booed from the rest of my section. I particularly enjoyed that.
After Weber scored the goal with his goalie pulled I jumped out of chair looking for high fives, you know because it was overtime and we were getting our money's worth, but was given stares of hatred from the fellow hockey fans.
When the Predators won it a minute into overtime I knew it was a good time to keep my head down and get out of there with as little celebration as possible. The mumble and grumble of the crowd indicated their displeasure. I took the jersey off, for my own safety, once we left the rink but still some people saw it and yelled very pleasant obscenities at me.
Here is me and my home boy Head Coach Barry Trotz chilling before the game. No big. Just palling around.

I moved to their end for Warm up.

Once the game got going though, I went to my seat.

Flagstaff to Arizona (Hollywood in between)

2011-04-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

After my last day at the Canyon I had a full day before I needed to catch my train to Anaheim. I caught the shuttle out of Williams bag to Flagstaff at 11 30, arriving at 12; a full 9 hours before my train. Fantastic. I took a 50 minute walk to the grocery store where I bought a variety of food to subsidize my depleting trail mix stash. When exiting the store some man wanted me to give him money because he loved Jesus. I did not comply.
I then purchased socks before walking back to the train station. I essentially spent the next 6 hours stealing wi-fi from various places (the train station, downtown, this cafe) before boarding the 12 hour train to Los Angeles. I sat next to Dave, an older man from Australia who I met a few days before on the shuttle. He was fantastic and helped with the increasing need for some social connections.

California is beautiful. It really is just a nice place. We arrived in LA at 8 AM.

I immediately went to Hollywood, where I found Hollywood Boulevard. I could catch the second leg of my journey at any time. Hollywood was decent but I question some of the people who get their stars there. I mean, Judge Judy? Come on now

Bugs Bunny isn't even a person …

John Garfield? No, his name is John Arbuckle and the Cat is Garfield. Come on Hollywood, get a friggen grip.

Frustrated, I bought some breakfast and sat down for a bit. As it got late, more and more costumes showed up on the street. Spiderman, the Hulk, Shrek, heck, even Woody from Toy Story showed up for a bit.

Before leaving the restaurant I thought that maybe I should check where my hotel was.
I don't think I am ever going to search with Google for hotels again. There were 40 some hotels between the train station and mine, but no, of course it won't suggest that one, instead it puts me a 50 minute walk away from the train station, and a 53 minute walk away from the Arena. For the sake of exercise I decided to walk there once I got off the train. It was a nice hotel, I'll give them that much.

On the way to the game, I thought it would be best to grab the city bus, I didn't want to be spotted alone in the streets with my Nashville Jersey. It was good Friday though, so of course a coherent bus schedule was out of the question. But within an hour and a half of the estimated arrival time of the bus, one showed up.

The way back from the game was worse. Thank goodness that Anaheimonians hate public transportation. The bus stop outside the Honda center, that is adjacent to the Angels stadium, where there was also a game, had 4 people waiting for a bus – all from Vancouver. We had a good chat up until the bus driver blew us off. He was polite enough to wave but not to stop. The next one was coming an hour later. Since we were all heading the same way we walked it off, adding a bit more exercise to my day.

Grand Canyon Day 2

2011-04-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

Day two at the Canyon started with a lot of bad luck. Well no, it wasn't luck, it was my shuttle driver down right lying to me about the departure times of the shuttle and the train. I apparently had missed both and was to be snookered for my canyon visit for the day. The plan was to just head home to Flagstaff. But for no apparent reason they were running two trains to the Canyon, and I got there five minutes before boarding. What luck! I got tickets and headed onwards.

The train ride there provides some on ride "entertainment" including a crap guitarist, a crap fiddler, a crap mock train robbery and some crappy facts about random stuff around us. We saw deer though, that was okay.

The train only lets you stay four hours at the canyon because you have to make your connection back. Instead of heading down I decided to seek out the views across. I embarked on a 13 KM hike across the Rim.

This (the light brown running diagonally in the middle of the shot) is the path I walked down yesterday, from a different angle.

Some more scenic shots

It was at this point that some fat woman who had just stepped off a tour bus exclaimed "Wow look at those morons over there". I had no Idea what she was talking about, but I made it my mission to accomplish it. After a 2K walk I realized she was referring to a rock that stretched out over the canyon that people were climbing out on. Game time.

This is me at the point where people were being a moron, but not quite yet being a moron,

Here's a shot I took after of what the point looked like.

And here is what it looked like during

A little closer

Ah there!

And to top it off, one final shot of the whole adventure.

It was awesome, thoroughly enjoyed it, here are some final pics to top off the day. I head to Anaheim tomorrow night for game five of the Preds/Ducks series.

Grand Canyon Day 1 (all pictures at end of text)

2011-04-20T23:31:00.000-07:00

I landed in Phoenix at 11 15, and spent the night at a shady hotel near the airport. After four hours of sleep I was up and thieving all I could from the continental breakfast before catching the shuttle to Flagstaff Arizona, 2 hours away. First and foremost, before we sink our teeth into the first Grand Canyon trip I need to say something: I saw a cactus. I real one. Not some artificial thing, a real, growing on the side of the highway, cactus. It was awesome. There were a lot of them, I didn't get a picture because my camera in my bag in the back of the car, I thought I would see more but I didn't. Anyway, I was pumped.

So after a shuttle to Flagstaff, a wait in an internet Cafe and another 2 hour shuttle, I had arrived at the America's "grandest" natural wonder. One thing that makes the grand Canyon so spectacular is that there is zero build up. Basically you just drive, stop and then bam, you are staring 7000 feet into the abyss.

I only had 4 hours on the first day before I had to catch the shuttle home, so I decided to tackle what they call Angels trail or something. It is basically a full day hike down the canyon's side to the Colorado river. People aren't allowed to do the whole thing, there and back, in one day due to the looming death that ensues. Luckily there is a rest point at the bottom (or what I thought was the bottom) where you can camp the night.
Anyway, I of course did not do any of that because of the whole only having three hours thing. I began trecking down this path that criss crossed down the side of the canyon. I was motoring. Making excellent time, no worries at all. The people coming up however, they were looking like they had more difficulties. It wasn't until I saw a man in his late 20's sporting a "US Rowing Team" shirt, sweating through his shirt that I realized I might be in for a meal.
It was difficult to time it. I couldn't go too far, I would miss the shuttle and be forced to spend the night nestled in one of the bus stops, combating the cold night of the Canyon. But I didn't want to be back up with 40 minutes to spare either.

I turned around about 20 minutes after the first rest hut, fifty minutes of walking - Fresh as a Daisy. It didn't stay that way for long. The hike back up was pain staking at the best of times. You could walk for 20 minutes and no progress was apparent. I did make it back in time, but good god was I beat. I retired for the night in Williams, an hour and a half away from the Canyon, in one of the few hotels available on such short notice. It wasn't far from being a dump.

On the drive home we saw six Elk just hanging out by the road. I snapped a picture through the van's tinted windows with my 40 dollar camera but ...

Predators game

2011-04-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

Preds Game.

I'm not going to lie, I was literally bricking my pants pretty much all day in Nashville, but that might have been more due to the abundance of trail mix than the excitement for the upcoming game. I wore my Nashville Predators jersey on the 30 minute walk from the Hostel. I got a couple of shouts but people were generally oblivious to my support, but it was early yet. As the day went on preds jerseys flocked the downtown. They had a cute little set up outside the rink with live music, a jumbo tron, a big blow up slide and stick hockey for the kids, but my personal favorite was the Whack a Duck they set up.

I entered the stadium as soon as the doors open and got to my seats to wait patiently for some action. Fans slowly trickled in as the pre game warm ups were set to begin.

And of course this idiot had to show up.

I have set up a poll on the blog for you to have a guess at who the most popular Nashville player is, what name do you think is on the most jerseys. I'll reveal the answer after the ducks game. Finally the players hit the ice for a bit of a taste to the action. Amongst the fans and the Nashville players, the mood was festive.

They had their opening let's rock the playoffs video after the warm up which was quite weak to be honest. Nonetheless, seeing the mascot GNash swing down from the ceiling was a pretty good time. I tried to take a few action shots (at the end) but spent most of the time watching the thrilling game. 4-3 with back and forth action, it was amazing. They announced a sold out arena, and it certainly sounded like one, but some seats were evidently empty. Next to me was a very apathetic hockey enthusiast. Didn't really care much for the game, just sat through it. However next to him was actually the assistant coach for the Nashville Predators. She knew exactly when the players should “Get him”, “Shoot the Damn Puck”, “Play Harder”, and “Take it away from him” and she yelled the commands all through the game. Like actually, start to friggen finish. The only piece of mind was when she left towards the end of the second to get some food or something, however in her absent, without her necessary coaching, the predators dropped two goals to Selanee in this time frame. So I guess she was an asset. Here are the good pictures I took. Best wishes.

Woah how did this get in here, some pervert must have stolen my camera.

Nashville Tenn, you've done good (Day one, Night 2)

2011-04-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

After a fantastic stay in the hostel only interrupted by the drunk people arriving from downtown at many hours of the night, I woke up fresh to attack Nashville Tennessee. A 30 minute walk downtown brought me to the Bridgestone Arena where I went to pick up my tickets.

But disaster struck.
I don't know why, but it was only on the walk that I thought something fishy was going on. The tickets never did come up on my visa and no confirmation had been sent. I panicked, but tried to convince myself all was good. It wasn't. The man behind the desk confirmed my horrors, my tickets had not been processed and I was without admission to the game.
Luckily it's the Nashville Predators though and they still had tickets available, at the same price too. Sure I wasn't two rows behind the bench, but I was 5 rows from the ice on the penalty box side. Chalk one up for hockey in none hockey markets. And for those wondering, yes I do have confirmation for the other game.
So, tickets in hand I decided it was time to hit up something to eat. I ventured into Nashville's "Most Famous Burger Joint" (not sure who decided that) and ordered a Sandwich.
I then stepped outside to take in Downtown Nashville, what every downtown should be:

Lined side to side with Bars and live music. Fantastic, good for them.
There is also a park in downtown Nashville, or more likely, a "park". It was really just some grass by the river, but I went to see that because I had 5 hours to kill. The river was confusingly flooded. I mean sure it is spring but there isn't that much snow in these parts. Oh well. Also have no idea what that Red thing is. Though, I believe they call it Art.

Next stop was the stadium of the Tennessee Titans

And from the other side of the river you could grab some beautiful pictures from Downtown. The tallest building with the two towers is called the batman building because it resembles the one in the movie. The black one next to it is the R2D2 building for obvious reasions

And with just a bit of time to kill before the game ... well, when in Rome.

I'll do a whole other post for the game itself, off to the airport for now though.

Howdy from Nashville Tennessee, Night One

2011-04-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

The day that started in Raleigh involved a full 12 hours of bus riding right into Nashville, and in all honesty it wasn't awful.
North Carolina is absolutely beautiful. Some of the nicest forests I have ever driven by, I didn't get any nice pictures from the bus unfortunately, but you could google it if you don't believe me.
Raleigh itself was pretty great too, although I didn't get to see any of it. I did find my favorite commercial of all time though, mostly because it stars my favorite childhood character. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV369kpV4h0

Boarded the bus at 10 AM and, for the first time since the train, sat alone! It was great, absolutely fantastic. I remained alone for most of the trek, all the way to Knoxville Tennessee, which as most of you know is the birth place of Johnny Knoxville, the star of the "Jackass" series.
The next portion of the trip though was a full bus and I sat next to a man who was heading home to his family in Little Rock, who got hit (I was going to write Rocked, but I think that is bad taste) by the massive tornado there Friday. We actually drove through some of the remains, but unfortunately missed all of it.
Once in Nashville I did the walk, originally going the wrong way, from the station to the hostel where I will be staying the next two days. Pretty cool place I must say, I'll grab some pictures tomorrow I suppose. It is all about music though and my presence being related to a sporting event is quite confusing to some of the other guests. The fact that I support the Predators and live in Canada is also quite baffling. I was hoping that maybe, at least in Nashville, would my preds love be accepted. But I guess not. Hopefully tomorrow at the game it will be. On a last note, I can't wait to eat real food. I had a continental breakfast this morning where I devoured three bagels and two Bananas, but tomorrow I shall eat like a king.

NYC, DC Pics

2011-04-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

Just the pictures:

This one is Just for Phil, and all other Artists that are following.

New York, New York to DC, DC

2011-04-16T06:11:00.000-07:00

Arrived in New York at 8 30 and the city is just alive, it really is unbelievable how much that city is moving all the time. So walked from Penn station to Grand central just to find out that my bus was not leaving from there. On the way I saw what looked like an Amazing Indian buffet, I was hungry and planning on going back for it but the bus station, Port Authority, was pretty far away from it.
Got screwed over a bit with my bus pass, but oh well, what are you going to do. I bought that and went back for a walk. I just don't know what to do in New York. It's overwhelming when you don't have plans, so being in CS I popped a squat in Time Square after for a while and used their free wireless service to go online. Good experience. Overall enjoyable, but was happy to leave after 5 hours.

Now. The bus ride leaving New York at 130 AM and Arriving at 5:55 AM. Awful experience. Made me consider completely abandoning the premise of my trip. It was full, and full of sketchy people. And the bus station at 1 am is sketchy on it's own. I was happy to sleep through the majority of it until everyone in the bus started yelling. The driver went the wrong way, missed out turn off, started heading to Baltimore. COME ON. So the passengers are guiding him, it's hopeless. We finally arrive in Washington, an hour late, but we aren't done yet.
Apon arrival a police officer boards the bus and says "I do declare there has been a robbery on this bus I do declare"(paraphrased). He went on to say that no one would leave the bus until it was sorted out. Everyone pretty much knew who it was, sketchy women next to the guy in the front seat, stole all his stuff when he went to the bathroom. So she is removed from the bus, they find his money but not his credit card. I wasn't going to report this because I know mother will be freaking out but two things need to be said: I have now been told 3 times that the East is the worst place for bussing, and nothing at all has gone wrong on the other two trips. All will be good.

Now Washington was cool. I did a lot of walking, saw all that was to be seen and then left on the bus for Richmond and then Raleigh. Raleigh is beautiful, I love it, but I didn't get to go out and see much, I hit the bed, took off the clothes I had been wearing for the day and just collapsed. They actually had one of the hockey games on tv, which was surprising yet fantastic. I'll post pictures later, the Wifi I am stealing is no where near powerful enough to process it. I leave Raleigh for Nashville in about an hour where I will arrive late and then stay for the hockey game.

Best of luck.

Montreal to New York Part 2

2011-04-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

This is barely a post, but after Albany the train continued for another two hours to it's final destination. Here is the (delayed) play by play.

Part Two:

6:18 This guy five seats a head is just blasting some music it's awful, completely ruining my Wire experience.

6:28 The river and view is now on my side with a beautiful mountain backdrop. I will try to grab some picks.

6:35 Every old town tries to screw people into visiting it by claiming to be “historic” when actually they are just too poor or lazy to maintain it.

7:16 Finished season one of The Wire. Gaze out the window for a bit. Type this up. Okay, on to season two.

8:16 It's dark out now, Scheduled to arrive in New York in 15 minutes. Get me off this train. Out.

Montreal to New York Part 1

2011-04-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

So the Amtrak Website boasts that the Train from Montreal to New York was ranked by National Geographics top ten most scenic Train rides in the world. I have completely drawn blanks with my Google Foo to find any validity to these claims. For the benefit of both yours and my experience, I have attempted to live blog the events. Knock yourselves out.

Montreal – New York (Departs 9:30AM : Arrives 8:30 PM

9:10 Board Train, give guy my passport when he asked for my ticket. Get lipped for holding up the line. Spill eleven cents on the floor. Get further harassed. Board train in tears.

9:20 Some pretty cool cats in my cart, one guy is from Australia. He is okay, lent me a pen. One woman said she wanted to see Washington DC so I told her of the 1:30 AM bus I planned on taking to get there. She looked at me like I was an idiot for only spending 5 hours in New York and/or taking a 1:30 bus. We aren't talking anymore

9:30 Start Moving. Conductor is pretty funny. No wifi on the train. So the live blogging isn't exactly live. Work with it.

9:45 … This thing really doesn't go fast.

10:15 Ugly Farm lands. Muddyness. Industrial. Can only get better from here.

10:25 An hour in, not into the US yet. Feel like this apparent rating is dubious.

10:26 We just passed a day care and all the kids came running and were jumping and celebrating for us. Perhaps they know just how beautiful this train ride will be? Maybe they are excited for me to see all this. Feeling much more optimistic than just a minute ago.

10:48 The train has stopped in the middle of the road with eager traffic on either side waiting to cross. I don't know why, I think he's just being and ass.

12:26 We just barely got out of the way of the cars before stopping for an hour and forty minutes for customs. That was a whole story on it's own. They kicked one guy off the train and didn't think my trip was very conceivable. Alas, we are off again.

12:28 “We are 22 minutes late because of the customs procedures but that is time we should be able to make up later in the ride” … so you mean usually the train can go faster … you just choose not to go at a higher speed? Good on ya.

1:03: Mr. Seat Checker, why are you wearing your sun glasses inside the train?

1:40 Time to take on my first bag of trail mix

2:35 Okay so the view has started to pickup. We are now riding alongside what I think is the Hudson Bay with the beautiful view on one side and nothing but cliffs on the other. Guess what side I am on …

I did manage to snag a seat at the other end for a bit and grab a few photos.

3:52 The river and the mountains get repetitive after three hours. So I am watching the wire, only interrupting it to report on this awful smell that has overwhelmed the train. It's like Saint John but better. Perhaps a good place for this train to start making up some of it's lost time?

4:40 Eleven hours is a long train ride. Four left. We just passed a prison. Might have been Guantanamo Bay, not sure though.

4:40 Also, I have dug into my second bag of Trail Mix, fear not I didn't finish the first one, just time for a switchup. Okay, time for another episode of the Wire.

5:03 We are so far behind schedule it's disgusting, we were supposed to arrive here at 3:30. Good thing I wasn't planning anything extravagant in New York

[Pic 1]

6:01 I haven't seen one nice thing in an hour and a half. We are back on track though which is surprising. Very surprising. That being said the train is gunnin' er right now. I'm quite impressed.

One day

2011-04-12T05:59:00.000-07:00

Here it is ladies and gents. The moment ~~you've all~~ some of you have been waiting for. The schedule. Again, this is a guideline. I will try to follow it closely but I might lengthen or shorten stays or go off track. I am not going to worry about it. There are three solid dates that I need to hit though:

1. April 17th, Playoff game in Nashville
2. April 22nd, Playoff Game in Anaheim
3. May 1st, Flight home from Calgary

If I can get those three things done, then I'm set.

Before I show the schedule, here are a couple of stats:

Total time spent away on trip: 18 days, 10 Hours

Total time spent on a bus: 6 Days, 6 Hours, 30 Minutes

Number of States Stepped in: 14 (+4 provinces)

Number of extra states only bussed in: 3

So, without further "ado":
Montreal to New York, to Richmond, to Atlanta, to Nashville, to Dallas, to Las Cruces, to Flagstaff, to Phoenix, to Anaheim, to St George (Utah), to Salt Lake City, to Boise (Idaho), to Portland, to Coquitilam, to Banff, to Calgary.
Notable Transfers, being interesting places where I Get to leave my bus prison, include, in geographic order: Raleigh, Memphis, El Paso, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, Santa Anna, Seattle, Vancouver.

On a map:

It's set! As of 12 30 AM tonight

2011-04-12T01:52:00.000-07:00

That's right folks, I have set my trip. The route, although only a guideline, has been anticipated. The bus schedule determined, the activities planned, and the bus rides anticipated as painful. I have managed to keep it ... not dreadful? There were times where I found myself saying "Oh wow, great, that will only be a 13 hour bus ride, that will be nice." followed by immediate self loathing.
I leave Wednesday morning at 6 AM for Montreal, where I will spend the day amongst friends, trying to gather my spirits for what has been a much criticized trip idea. Some of my closest allies believe I am a lunatic. I have been told "Only you Ray, Only you", "You're crazy!", "That's Ridiculous". A lot of people are critical of my going alone, that it will be torturous solitude for much too long. I think I will benefit from the period of self discovery. I have plans for the bus, including the first two seasons of One Tree Hill and the full series of the Wire. So that should last me to Nashville. I think it is clear that people read lists more than long paragraphs. So I will leave you with this for tonight, since it's like 1 in the morning. I plan on releasing my travel plan in the morning, but I will keep my schedule pretty much to myself in case the blog takes off and people start plotting a mass robbery against me.
So, until tomorrow young ones.

My girlfriend kindly reminded me before going to bed tonight that it would be my last good sleep for a long time. It is the very depressing truth.

...

2011-04-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

Oh, and I am still not going to the Pacific Ocean. You want the pacific Ocean? Google Image it.

Drastic Change

2011-04-03T08:23:00.000-07:00

Okay this is the second official opening of the blog. I didn't release it when I wanted to but now I am quite happy about that fact. Since you are all just joining me now you can either ignore or acknowledge all that is posted below. It is but a Canadian prelude to what is no longer a Canadian bus trip. The idea hasn't changed, I am still spending an eternity on a bus. I am just going to be much souther than Canada.

The USA Greyhound has a deal that is all you can bus in 15 days for 340 dollars, or 240 dollars if you have a hosteling pass. So I bought one of them and started planning the trip.

Thus, the country has been decided. I am still off to Montreal for a day to see some friends, and it is the easiest access to the US (by bus). So I will be up there on the 14th. Then I will leave and do a trip that will attempt to focus mostly on hiking. Right now it looks as follows, but as always, is destined for complete change.

Montreal > New York > Washington DC > Columbus > Nashville > Dallas > Flagstaff > Las Vegas > St. George (Utah) > Sacramento > Portland > Vancouver > Banff > Calgary (Fly home)

Or, on a map:

I'm not going to the Pacific Ocean

2011-03-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

Even if I make it to Vancouver, I am not going to the pacific Ocean. It's a body of water, I am not psyched to see it. I don't even think there is anything interesting to see. I have seen water before, and the coast line of the Pacific would be no different than that of the Atlantic. What the hell, I'm not even starting at the Atlantic Ocean. It's not like I can take a bottle from one and dump it in the other (you know, like it's never been done before). The only point would be to observe the ocean and go wow that was grand, somewhere over there is Asia. Neat.

Also for all of you who are asking why I am (tentatively) ending my trip in Kamloops, it's because it sounds like a cereal. Deal with it. Also because it's not by the Pacific Ocean. Screw the Pacific Ocean.

One Month From today

2011-03-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

The start of the trip is now but a month away. I will be leaving April 13th at 7pm. Currently outside my window someone is insanely revving rgeir engine and I think they are having trouble starting their car. Hopefully this is not some sort of foreshadowing. I have been planning this trip for over a month now, and to my surpriseit has been met with a large number of negative annotations. Here is a pie chart of reactions so far.

But despite you're negative perception of the event to come, I carry on motivated and looking forward to my bus trip. As we stand, it will take just short of four days of actual travel. Giving me 13 days to enjoy the rest of it. Whilst on the bus there is an array of things I will try to take on, but that will follow in another upcoming blog post.

The reason I don't want to take a train is because with the bus system you can stop in places and spend some time here and there, checking stuff out and the what not. It's exciting, trust me. The train just shoots you from Toronto to Vancouver and then you fly home. Just how much fun would that be, he asked rhetorically.

I'll prove you all wrong. I will take the bus, and it will be awesome.

The Rockies

2011-03-09T05:47:00.000-08:00

For some reason, I find the idea of Northern Canada fascinating - probably much more so than Northern Canada actually is. This is the driving (pun, because I will be on a bus) factor in going to Northern BC, just basically checking stuff out, which is more or less my plan for every city. But I realized that through this route I completely miss out on the rockies. Edmonton to Dawson Creek goes around the mountains, Dawson Creek to Prince George further avoids them. Going to Kamloops is, of course, a necessity. So here is the new tentative plan.

Bus: Fredericton, Montreal, Ottawa, Sudbury, Winnipeg.
Train: Winnipeg, Edmonton, Jasper.
Bus: Jasper, Kamloops, Kelowna.

Description of trip

2011-03-07T05:27:00.000-08:00

I am in University and have 18 days off between my last exam and my first day of work. So I am going across Canada on a bus. Maybe. See I am not really sure what this trip is going to become. I want adventure, freedom, awkwardness, new stuff, revamped old stuff. All that is confirmed so far is that I will leave Fredericton New Brunswick via bus at 7 PM April 13th for Montreal Quebec. I will then start travelling westward across this beautiful country. Probably. Either way, I am going to cynically blog as much of it as possible and I hope you will all come along for the ride (PUN! Get it, because of the bus?)

Here is the original draft route: Fredericton, Montreal, Ottawa, Sudbury, Winnipeg, Yorkton, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Dawson Creek, Prince George, Kamloops.