After a night of very little sleeping (I traveled coach on the train; the chairs are next-to-impossible to sleep in), I woke in the early dawn and watched the sun come up as the train traveled through Sacramento, CA. An hour and a half later, my train was pulling into Emeryville station, just across the bay from San Francisco. As I waited on the platform for my bike to be unloaded, it quickly became apparent that my bike was not there – they had taken it off nearly 8 hours ago at a station in Oregon! After some conversations with Amtrak customer service staff, my bike had been located and was going to be loaded onto tomorrow’s train and would be there in 24 hours.
It felt strange traveling so far on my own two feet (it also took forever), but eventually I made it across the bay and to my hostel just outside of downtown San Francisco. Realizing I would be without my primary form of transportation for a day at least, I elected to buy a transit pass on the SF’s MUNI transit system to get around. The system is very multi-modal – they have everything from the classic, historic cable cars to LRT, to electrified busses. With SF being such a hilly city, it certainly makes getting around easier.
I took the train out to Ocean Beach, where I finally dipped my feet in the open ocean for the first time in my trip. I enjoyed a nice walk on the beach and through Golden Gate Park, then grabbed lunch and headed back to my hostel. Feeling pretty exhausted from my lack of sleep the night before, I went to a grocery store, made some food, and passed out for the night.
Beyond the Automobile 