Out and About

After spending last weekend stranded in my apartment, I had to get out and away, even if it was against my better judgment to take the car on a long drive without a good test drive first. So on Saturday, I drove up to the Bay area, and met up with Mark, of "Knockin on the Golden Door." Had a blast

Car ran fine (thank Gott), and after a three and half hour drive, I arrived at Casa de Knockin. It wasn't rockin', so I bothered to knock, and got a loud laugh in reply. Next thing I knew, the door is thrown open, and there's Mark with a huge grin on his face. He introduced me to his wife, we visited for a bit, and then we headed out to San Francisco.

I'd never been to the city before, so we had tons of things to see, but little time to do much of it. Especially since we were going to hit the four o'clock tour to Alcatraz. After a lunch at Mel's Drive In, we headed on down to Fisherman's Wharf, where I learned about time keeping in SF.

Seems that time and distance are measured in ways that aren't common elsewhere. For instance: looking for pier 33, we were pointed in a southeastern direction, and told to go "ten minutes past the Christmas tree." WTF??? A glance at my companions told me that this was not really common there, either.

Alcatraz was very cool. I'd have loved to have spent more time there, snooping about, but since we were the last tour of the day, we had only so much time. I plan on going back, and spending some serious time there, though not in confines.

There's talk of Alcatraz being haunted, and that was of great interest to me. Especially one of the "hole" cells. Eyes have been seen, and voices heard in the darkness of the cell. It's been said that an inmate was killed by something spectral, too. I wanted to check it out.

As we toured around, some of the hole cells were open. These things were kept dark, with the lights rarely on. On the audio tour, one inmate described keeping himself busy by removing a button from his clothes, dropping it on the floor, and searching in the dark until he found it. Once he found it, he would drop it again and repeat the process.

Anyway, as I entered one of the cells, I had an experience. I walked in, with the lights from outside barely cutting the darkness, when I felt a smothering sensation. The air was putrid, and I could barely breathe. I didn't see any eyes, however. But I was dealing with the ghosts of someone's lunch. Someone had decided to drop ass in the cell just before I got in there. They about killed me dead...

The following day, Mark and I ran down to Ft. Point, underneath the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge. Another place that I'll check out again. I want to know more about it's history...

Mark and his wife were very gracious hosts, letting me crash in their guest bedroom, instead of making me stay out in the garage. And that's despite the posts about me and my slight snore. Oh... and also despite leaving a comment at Mark's, once, telling of the burning and itching sensation I deal with. (A joke folks. Just a joke. It doesn't really itch...) I'm looking forward to heading up there again, as well as returning the favor in the spring.

A trip to Yosemite is in the cards...

Posted by That 1 Guy at December 10, 2007 09:37 PM | TrackBack