The Joys of Getting to Monteray

Monteray was the next destination on the Tour-De-Chad route. In fact that wasn't a far off description considering what I did.

Of course getting to Monteray was nothing but pain. LA you may be aware love their cars. And well 2 hours to get to the inner city bus terminal was quite some pain. Oh well I expected pain and got it. Mind you I don't know what it is about Bus drivers in California but for this whole leg I was their entertainment. They all had to chat to the Aussie. The bus driver in LA though was cool.

Anyway the bus at LA going to Monteray as per Greyhound standards left late. Be it only 1/2 an hour. Thanks to traffic though this soon turned into an hour. By the time we were over half way he decided to make up time but cutting out our food stop from a good place, and changing it to Outer Mongolia at 8pm. Seriously we ended up stopping for food at a stop where the Greyhound office was no more than a ticket register in a country service station. Heck the station was a tin shed with farming Mexicans hanging around because the bus was the excitement of the evening. The food inside, well that had been there since 8am when Grandma Sanchez did a batch of Burritos. Of course I took too long to even come around to thinking they looked appetizing, so they were gone and I was left with a packet of chips and peanuts.

Of course this break put the bus back behind square one. 1 and a 1/2 hours late. Not an issue if I were going to San Francisco or another major centre. But I was hopping off in Salinas (yeah, its farming country California) and hoping to connect onto a bus going to Monteray. Panic set in as the revised schedule of 9:15pm was after dark, and well I was starting to remember the connecting buses didn't run all night. My email print off of the directions to the hostel were not detailed outside of catch bus number 1 to Monteray.

I didn't write down the connecting bus schedule. I had seen it on the net, and thought, as long as I get there before dark. So now I was on a bus in the middle of nowhere California, irritably hungry, and unable to confirm how I was getting to my hostel. Wireless Internet doesn't work in the middle of nowhere.

Of course by this stage I remembered issue number 3. Hostel reception closes at 10pm. Ah I was just building up issues like no tomorrow. Of course I didn't write the number down. I was supposed to be in Salinas by 7:15pm. My ticket told me this. Great, all I could think was that Salinas was probably going to be not much more than the food stop, filled with Hicksville California. Not a place to be trying to get a bus, or looking for last minute accommodation. So with this building I turned to back up plan. Text mother in Australia. Get her to check the internet for the connecting bus schedule, and hostel phone number. Everything would be fine and dandy after that.

That's when issue 4 came to a head. Low credit message on Canadian mobile phone comes onto screen. Argh! Not now. Not when I'm about to pillaged by farming Mexican peasants at Hicksville California bus station coming up. Any time but now. This new issue left no choice. Bring out the Aussie phone SIM. Pay exorbitant prices.

Okay texting back and forth a person in Australia, who rarely has their mobile on, (no offense Mother but adds to story and is the truth) is a risk. Mother thankfully was responding and able to help out. But not all news is good news. Bus 1 apparently stops at 7:45pm. Argh! But wait another bus stops in Monteray with other buses until 10pm. Good but bad. Created need to call hostel to advise of issue.

Hostel was well being itself. They were to close at 10pm but their phone answering indicate otherwise. After the 4th attempt I managed to get a real voice with the message give us a call just before 10pm if you're not here. Oh and being typically Californian the person answering didn't know about buses.

I made it into Hicksville Salinas at 9:15pm. Walked over to the bus terminal at caught a bus nearly straight away. Of course this bus driver loved my accent, and well I was again Mr Conversation for them. The bus ride to Monteray exchange seemed to take forever. Especially for a backpacker who had skipped on Salmonella Seasoned Burritos, concerned he was about to be locked out of the accommodation. I finally made it to the hostel at about 10:30pm. Once inside I was not getting out for anything. Couldn't risk it. Not even for food. But I was in Monteray. That was all that mattered.