The Border

Last night I dreamed some pretty strange stuff. Mostly after that dude whent through my pants. I Dreamed that i was in a waffle house, which I have never been too, and eating disgusting pancake pizzas. They were topped with raspberry jelly, ham, and Shitake mushrooms. What I remeber the most was that I thought they were really gross and that these Americans have a real wierd taste buds.

When I woke up and cruised into the kitchen for breakfast what were they cooking. Pancakes! there was even raspberry jam. I looked for the ham, and mushrooms but there wasn't any. I did have some of the jam though.

After breakfast I collected up all my personal effects and went to check out. On the way down I noticed that the Hostel had a bag room where you could stash your stuff for the day if you wanted. I went for it. Leaving my Enormous pack there and taking along my valuables. I then waltzed up the street, fairly unencumbered, to the Trolley. Got on the one to Tijuana and headed south for the last time. 45 minutes later i was at the Mexican Border. I was the only person there who was over 5 feet tall. It was pretty crazy a few children pointed at me, so I pointed back at them, and said your so smallllll!!!! I don't think they got it.

proirities?


that is one huge flag

I didn't stay very long at the border. In fact once i got off the train I pretty much turned around. A part of me really wanted to do the tourist thing and go to Tijuana. I have that Manu Chao song on my mp3 player right now and was sorely tempted to see if the song was true. But I am on a Mission here. Hell I am way behind schedule as it is. I took a few pictures of the border to prove that I was there and then started walking. Initially I was walking through some pretty shabby neighbourhoods. A mangled Rotwieller barked at me from behind a precarious fence, but it looked to aged to be of any real threat. I followed the trolley tracks initially. As it was a good straight route. The no Tresspassing signs kept me on the otherside of the fence.

Eventually The tracks started to cut all diagonal like to the city grid and I was forced to zig-zag across them. Eventually i just gave up trying to follow them. And just followed streets. I walked through some pretty nice neighbourhoods later. The architecture was very Spanish. Stucco and Terra-Cotta. Each house had either a palm tree or a spiked desert bush that I don't know the name of. There were a few succulents around looked to be of the Aloe variety but I am not a botanist and this is not my native bio-sphere so i can't be exact yet. I will buy a plant book if I come across one.

About 2 hours into the walk i left the houses behind and entered an area that was either heavy duty commerce or industrial. At one point I was walking on Industrial way. I ran into alot of obstacles on my route and had to continue zig-zagging. Either the road I was following came to an end or it curved in an undesirable direction. I crossed the i-5 about 10 times or so and the trolley tracks about 3 dozen times.

I stopped for lunch at a burrito shack. The lady at the counter and all the staff were very Mexican. Short and smiley. When i pulled out my wallet the lady behind the counter noticed my Canadian $5 bill. She asked if I would like to trade. I obliged as I didn't really need the five anyway. With the American dollar the way it is she only lost about 15 cents, but I left 50 cents in the tip jar to compensate anyway. It could be a good investment for her if the American dollar continues on its current route.

In the afternoon it got pretty hot. I was cursing having only brought black t-shirts. I drained my water bottle pretty quickly. As I got further north the coast started curve towards me. The i-5 squeezed up to me on my right and soon I was just walking next to the highway. Thankfully David Bowie was able to drown it out a little bit.

around H street I noticed some signs indicating a bike route. It seemed to be headed in the right direction so i started following it. It took me on a long trip around some old navy structures, and out to the ocean. It swung around a corner and a large marsh land opened up. There was a small dirt path going off into the brackish marsh so i opted to follow it as it seemed softer than the concrete. The path took me way out into the middle of nowhere marshland. I got a little worried about getting stuck out and having to turn around so i went cross country on another path back towards the highway. Upon arriving back at the road I connected up with the bike route I had been following earlier. It left the main road and started its own little route which i followed to the edge of San Diego Naval Base. At that point it disappeared. I was left on Harbour Way which took me directly past the base.

marshy marsh

I am still not sure why people think its a good idea to have a military. Especially in such a god fearing country. Have God-fearing Americans never read the passage: "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isaiah II Its ludicrous to spend all this money on weapons of war. What are they trying to protect? Last time I checked every other country in the world is either peaceful or is having some kind of internal conflict which would negate the ability to attack let alone invade the US. perhaps thats just my naive Canadian view of War-mongering. As I walked up Harbour way I counted 2 aircraft carriers and at least two destroyers, and a half dozen of those smaller cruisers. What purpose are they serving? And then all the cars parked outside the base had either jesus stickers or god stickers. Lets face it here if god were to see all these tools of wrathful vengence do you think he would approve? Lay down your arms and prove to the world that we have nothing to fear. It would be a very Noble gesture and might even convince North Korea, China, Pakistan, and all the other baddies to do the same. I say, now mind you i am a pacifist, Beat these giant ships of hate into bicycles and screw all this war shit. But then again we may be attacked by aliens next week and are bicycles would be useless against them.

there they lurk there are even more to the right

On with the story. Once i left all that Navy bullshit behind I was back in San Diego proper. As I mentioned before its a pretty clean town. I like the downtown alot. Especially this time of year. Its strange for a downtown it is pretty devoid of people during the daylight hours. The street infront of the hostel only gets busy after 9. The rest of the time the pedestrian population is pretty low.

signs of infatuation

I got back to the hostel at around 3:30pm making the entire 26 mile walk somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5 1/2 hours. A pretty awesome pace really. I don't think i'll beat that on this trip. Not if i actually have to carry my pack. Well we will see I guess.