Here's Your Sign..... Again!!!

Now to outline the utter hell I went through in California....

Should have been simple, drop the car off to the lady's family there, and they were supposed to get me to the bus station to catch my train back.... Riiiiight.

I was dropping the car off in Aptos. I was getting very sick, and still had to drive 700 miles in about 12 hours. I had a reservation with Amtrak to catch a connecting bus out of Santa Cruz, near there, at 5:25 am. That bus was to San Jose, about 25 miles away, where I was to catch a coach train to connect with the scenic California Zephyr train back east.

Speaking with these folks the night before, it was agreed that to avoid waking them, I would nap in the car until they woke up once I got there.

Due to apparently insufficient aptitude to look in the driveway, this guy is sitting in his living room, wondering if he should call me. I wake up at 5:45, and my bus has departed 20 minutes ago.

Then it took an act of God to get these idiots to understand that simply dropping me at the bus station was not going to work now, because I was going to have to pay an extra $200 that I didn't have to reschedule my train tickets.... Not to mention the fun of waiting in a bus station for two days!

And they didn't even seem to WANT to help me make my train. Pretty fucked up, I thought, considering I slept in the car to avoid waking them when I got there... Not to mention it was their fault in the first place!

By some miracle, I managed to make my train with 4 minutes to spare. Moral of the story? Want something done right, do it yourself! I am definitely not going to California if and when I relocate.... I was not impressed with anything about the state.

An Impromptu Vacation To Arizona By Way Of California.....

Some know it, some don't, but I have been quite interested in a woman in Arizona for quite some time. We get along quite well, and she is planning to move to Nevada as well.

She wanted to come see me first, but after her boss screwed her over (for the third time) on time off to make the trip, I decided to go see her. I lucked out and found someone who needed a car driven to California, crossing Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. They were willing to pay for the gas, but I split it with them in exchange for a few days detour into Mesa.

This is my first vacation since 1997, and the trip has been great so far. Currently in Mesa, AZ. We finally met, and things are going extremely well. Lots of good pictures to share from the trip as well... Until I crossed into New Mexico, I thought I-40 was the most boring and forsaken highway I'd ever driven. New Mexico is beautiful, as is Arizona. I really wish I could check out Nevada, but I just didn't have time this trip around.

I think I finally found someone worth keeping that actually wants me. I will be broke when I get home, but I finally got to meet her. What's interesting is that neither one of us was looking for anything. All I can say is this. What you THINK you want, isn't always what you really want, and what you really want and what you actually need are usually two different things. When you stop looking for what you THINK you want, what you actually need will find you.