3 days of travel.....memphis.

so its been a couple of days now since i have been in seattle. not much has happened, but a lot has gone on.

i wandered around seattle for a little while because my train didnt leave until around 430pm. everything looked a lot different during the daylight hours than at 300am. here are some random pictures of a seattle park i found.



once it was time to go i headed over to union station. i needed to pick up my tickets for my trip from new york to miami, and miami to charlottesville, so i went up to the amtrak ticket counter. off in the distance i heard this dude say, "i can help you over here." i walk over to him and who did i find. a dude named jessica. i couldnt resist. i took a bunch of pictures with my camera phone, and even felt gutsy enough to take to with my real camera. soooooo scary. soooooo interesting.




that leads me up to the next void. a 46 hour train to chicago. the first 14 hours or so was spent sleeping. i had only got about 1.5 hours of sleep in seattle and was very tired. i woke up around montana. i then started getting off the train where ever i could and took pictures of the train station signs. the shelby picture was taken right after i woke up. i hope that explains the way i look. on of the stops i got off at i went in to see if they had a soda machine. canned sodas on the train are freaking $1.75. i found one and hallelujah they had mountain dew. i buy one and just as i am opening it, i notice that the can looked a little different. it was caffeine free? not that i was looking for caffeine, but weird. anyways, i was always trying to have something to do, so i played with my computer a lot, whether it was watching simpsons or enhancing photo opportunities.










i arrived in chicago about 430pm. which gave me about 3 hours to quickly wonder around. mikkele had given me a general direction i should go and so i did. on my travels i ran into a chipotle. the heavens opened and a beam of light was shown on its door. for those of you who dont know, chipotle is in at least my top 3 favorite (of chain restaurants) places to eat. and well i had been living on bagels and wheat thins for the past 2 days. it was everything i could have hoped for.
as i was wondering around i found the channel 7 news room. i stood outside and as they were signing off they panned the camera outside to say goodbye. kinda like the today show. i was briefly seen. i then took a couple of pictures whenever the opportunity arose as i headed back to the train station.













































































































the trip to memphis was short. only ten hours. we actually arrived 45 minutes early. first time for everything. i then walked towards the downtown area which is where i currently am. i was looking for an internet connection which i found in a pleasant park area. i got to play with some squirrels too. it did kind of suck though, out of nowhere, sun out and all, it stared raining and i had to get my computer out of the rain.




well this leads me up to about 9am, thursday, may 3. as i am typing all the details of the trip out the pictures dont seem to be uploading. i hope that i can get this posted before i head back to chicago this evening.....

USA USA USA!!!

the first two pictures are during the return trip from jasper.
back from canada. usa usa usa. next stop seattle.

the next picture is me on my way to meet molly rose. the small flying saucer looking thing just to the right of the street sign is the space needle. then, of course, is the wonderful molly. i was able to hang out with her while she finished up work, then we walked down the street, ate dinner, and talked for a couple of hours. mostly catching up over the past two months, since the last time i was up here in seattle.

we said our goodbyes and i then had about 18 hours to make it back to the train station to catch my train.

the next two picture are from a store i ended up standing in front of while waiting for a bus. (sorry to any adults, or peers for that matter, who find the pictures inappropriate. they are funny to me...) once i got on the bus i had no idea if it was the right one or not. i ended up riding the first one until it was the end of the line and got kicked off. i just walked about 2 blocks and got on the next bus. i did this a couple of times. soon enough i had zero idea of where i was. for all i know i could have just been going around in circles. i really didnt mind though, because it let me stay off of my feet and out of the cold.

i finally found my way to the general area of union station. about 5 blocks away there was what seemed to be a very "hip" and "happening" club. i felt at home again. i just stood outside very awkwardly for i think like 2 or 3 hours. watching. my legs were getting tired. my bones were getting cold. so i went to find shelter. as i was leaving i saw one of the most ridiculous vehicles i have ever seen in my life. it was a hummer raised, pimped out, fugly as all get up.

i like the trains. especially after last night. there is no indoor enclosure whatsoever anywhere in seattle. it turned out that last night got to be my first real all-niter. when i was in vancouver i had to wander the streets for quite a while in the middle of the night, but that didnt start until like 2am, and the train station opened at 5am. last night in seattle i was on my own on the streets from like 7pm until now 7am.

it was very cold. i guess not to terribly bad, 46º, but with the wind, only one sweatshirt, a thin blanket, and 10 hours, it got very uncomfortable. the whole night i was trying various ways of keeping worm. covering up on the ground. hiding in a bus stop. trying to keep my mind off of the cold by taking random pictures at 4am.

i like to think that the night officially ended at 530am when a starbucks across from the train station opened up and i was able to get hot coffee and sit in a warm room. the last picture is from when i start this blog that is now finally fully up to date. i will try to update daily, but it may not happen. especially since like tonight when i get on the train at 445pm, its a 45 hour train ride to chicago, then i have about a 4 hour wait, just to get on a 10 train down to memphis. we will see what happens.

im having a great time......

bakka does canada: part II jasper

the canadian rockies are very nice to look at. i only wish that there was a place to stop and get off the train and take pictures instead of trying to snap off pictures through glass with trees whizzing by.

here is the jasper train station. and some of the surrounding scenery.
i was only in jasper for about 3 hours. hmmm an 18 hour train ride for a 3 hour tour, just to catch a train and go 18 hours right back from where i came. 3 hours was actually the perfect amount of time to get something to eat and take the pictures i wanted to take, so all is good. its not like i didnt want to ride on trains on this trip or anything....

bakka does canada

i arrived in vancouver, bc around 2am. the train station did not open until 5am, so it gave me time to go and wonder around. mostly looking for an open internet connection. it didnt take to long.



after interneting, i was kind of hungry so i went to look for a dennys or something of the like. somewhere i could sit and stay warm. i didnt find a dennys, but it only took one canadian to change my view of canada. i there was a burger king and mcdonalds next to each other, and since i really dont like eating mcdonalds, i walk the bk lounge first. the drive thru was open 24 hours but not the dining. all of the bk's employees were outside smoking and when i asked if i could get some food they told me sorry, but they cant serve walk up customers, but that mcdonalds did. i said thank you very much, i was just hoping that burger king did as well because i really dont like mcdonalds. at that moment one the dudes said hold on a minute went inside and came out with a whopper combo meal and told me that it was "on the house." free food = awesome.

since i didnt sleep at all the night before and i had about 12 hours before my train left for jasper, ab, i found a nice "quiet" corner and made a nice little sleeping area for myself.

i only got about 4 hours of sleep, then it was back to wondering the city. it was raining so i put a trash bag over my gear to keep it nice.

finally my train departed for jasper. it was a nice 17 hour train ride. i went up to the observation area of the train for the sunrise. beautiful.

30 days and 30 nights

well it seems that my blog here mysteriously started working again. so here is my second go at it, but this time i hope it to be better because at least for the next 4 weeks i have something to blog about....

this is the early morning of april 25, the start of a wonderful journey.
optimistic but concerned especially about my ankles. not just because i knew that i was going to travel around 12,121 miles over the next 30 days, but because i was to be doing it with a 55 lb backpack on.
so far so good......






this is on the connection bus en route to san francisco, my first destination.













this is in san francisco. one of my favorite types of picture to take are that of myself in some type of reflection, preferably not in a standard mirror.





























union square. the apple store and here is where i spent the majority of my time in san francisco.















i also met up with an old and dear friend diana agraz. but at the last minute, while i was in san francisco, i realized because of bad planning on my part i had to cut my time short with diana and leave that same day in a mad dash to make it to vancouver, bc for my canadian train reservations. it would have been nice to stay an extra day.






my first long train ride. 23 hours from emeryville to seattle. about 2 hours into the trip a lady woke me up and told me that her seat was the one right next to mine. the train was only half full, why she needed to sit in "her" seat i dont know. for the next 5 hours i had this old lady laying all over my right arm. i couldnt sleep. i took a picture of her. luckily she was only there for about a total of hours of the trip and i got some sleep after she left....






coming up next, canananada

holy crap, is it finally working again?

this is only a test to see if i can start posting again on my current blog. i this works, onward to my 30 days and 30 nights posts of my travels of north america....