Day 13

Before we start today, We need to say that you all need to comment, so that we know this blog is worth doing. We're killing ourselves trying to find internet access, so please post something so we know this blog is worth keeping up.

Today we got up, determined to see if our ticket 'reservations' for the Alcatraz tour were the real mccoy or just bogus. We showered and loaded the truck, and tried to set off back to Fisherman's Wharf. However, the GPS was having a lot of trouble acquiring a satellite signal. So, we did it the old fashioned way, and followed the signs (take that GPS!). We paid our toll to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, got lost in the marina district, and finally found some parking near the wharf.

We set off to find the man in front of Joe's Crab Shack. He called someone, handed us off to somebody else that we had to follow for a block, and that someone handed us off to yet another person hanging out outside a souvenir shop. We did get our tickets for both the harbour cruise and the Alcatraz tour. Apparently, the Alcatraz tour is always booked up full about 2 weeks in advance. These 'booking agents' somehow get assigned a pool of same-day tickets from the exclusive Alcatraz tour company they can sell, along with some other tour they piggyback onto the Alcatraz tour. This could be a bus tour or harbour tour. To be honest, it sounds like the booking agents themselves book the tickets themselves just so they can scalp them off at a higher price. And you can't just buy the Alcatraz tickets; you need to get a package, or no Alcatraz for you! What a scam. But hey we did get to go to Alcatraz and the boat cruise was kind of fun too.

Anyways, we left the seedy guy (who was at least funny and amusing), and headed down to Pier 33 to seeif our Alcatraz tickets were legitimate. They checked out, so we headed back to Pier 41 for some lunch: a pretzel, a hot dog and some nachos. Delicious! You've got to love "carnival food". We checked the time, and decided to do the 1 hour harbour cruise of the San Fransisco bay. Along the way we found a guy completely dressed and painted silver who was like a robot. We gave him some money and he came to life and posed for a picture with Brett. Later was saw some gold versions too. It's interesting how some people make money.

We boarded the ship, and we all received little audio headsets to listen to an audio guide point out the sights and stuff. Pretty neat! Rhonda was tempted to listen in a different language to see what she learned, but curiosity got the better of her, and she didn't want Brett to know everything and she would still know nothing, so there went that idea. We got out as far as the Golden Gate bridge, turned around, and did a close-up of Alcatraz Island. Took lots of pictures and gained some funny tourist comments ("It's cold. I'm from Chicago, and I know cold and this is cold!"). We were back at the harbour after the 1 hour cruise, and we set off to Pier 33 to board for the Alcatraz tour.

Rhonda picked us up a frozen lemonade cup, which was pretty sweet but refreshing. It was by far the nicest day we had seen for a long time. Mark Twain once wrote that the coldest winter he'd ever endured was a summer in San Fransisco. I'd have to agree. The breeze off of the bay is quite chilly, and San Fransisco is surrounded by water on 3 sides, which makes for a chilly city.

We soon arrived on Alcatraz Island. It's quite run-down (one of the reasons they shut the prison down in the 60's), and it's a fair hike to the top where the actual cell block is. We passed old apartments where the guards could house their families, a machine gun tower, the warden's house, and a reconstruction of the gardens the well-behaved prisoners were allowed to keep. Brett called his mom from 'prison' for the second time on the trip. Amazing that they have cell phone reception on the island!

We found ourselves in the cell block at the top of the island, where we got an audio tour of the building. It featured check-in for new prisoners, you could stand inside various cells, we were told of various break-out attempts and riots in the prison, and we even got to see the cells of probably the most successful breakout attempt; you know, the one where they dug out the vent in the back of their cells, placed plaster replicas of their heads on their beds for night count, then climbed the utility corridor behind the cells, out the top, and slipped into the bay on home-made rafts. The cells showcased their tools, the plaster replicas on the beds and the false wall they had made.

All in all, it was a very depressing, but cool tour. We headed back on the 5:00 boat and made our way back to the truck. On our way we saw a tour group on Segways, Rhonda quickly wondered why she had been doing so much walking. Our plan was to head out of the city, and start the drive towards Las Vegas. It would take us through Bakersfield, CA, which is not very far from Los Angeles. We got to the truck at about 5:45, but we didn't make it out of the city until about 7:00, and we didn't make it out of the heavy traffic until about 7:45. We pulled into a Motel 6 about halfway in between San Fransisco and Bakersfield at about 9:30 PM. Rhonda was very happy to realize a bed was close by. She started to get worried when we passed by the two other "bigger" towns and saw that the sign read next gas 1 million miles away (actually it was only about 42, but it felt much longer). We ate our first McDonald's meal tonight, and it is no different here. Looked in the mirror and realize that we were sunburned (actually probably a combination of wind and sun burned).

All in all, a very tiring but good day. About 350 km's put on the truck today. And everybody's still in the truck.