Night 5 on the Road

I was both excited and saddened by my ticket purchase at the Ferry Building the other day. I was excited because it would officially mark the start of my "on the road" journey, but saddened because I could already feel myself missing the buzz of San Francisco. I had an hour or so to kill before the bus would come and pick me up to take me to the train station so I sat on the pier and watched the Alameda Ferry come in and out of port. It was a beautifully perfect day despite my emotions and now it was time to finally get going.

The train ride went by quickly and while the scenery was awesome, it was otherwise quite uneventful. Once I arrived in Sacramento, I took the Regional Transit Light Rail all of the way until almost the last stop in Folsom where I met Eric. Both of us were pretty tired so we stuffed ourselves with some hearty Mexican food and laid low for most of the night in front of the television.

The next day, we took a short road trip to Davis to wander around the university campus, Eric's alma mater and old stomping ground. After an hour of checking out the sites, we both agreed that we felt much older now in comparison to the students cruising on their bicycles and noses glued to their text books. Seeing these students caused Eric and I to reminisce about the hopes and dreams that we had while in college and how much different they were in reality to our existence now.

A lot of people have been asking me why the hell I chose to come to Folsom, CA in the first place other than to see Eric, especially because it's not that far away, it's a small town and it's very conservative.

Well, Eric being a friend and in a very similar situation as myself is one of the reasons because we both desperately wish to write for a living full time. Another big reason why I chose Folsom as a first stop on my journey is because it is the antithesis of San Francisco and I thought that it might give me some insight. Overall, it was a pretty quiet trip and I had a lot of fun catching up with Eric about old high school friends and admiring the leaves that had already changed colors and were beginning to fall.

I also was able to follow Eric on one of his reporting gigs much to his dismay. I thought that it was rather interesting but he was embarrassed because he was charged with reporting on the Folsom Tree Lighting Ceremony for the local newspaper. On top of that, the festivities and the cold weather reminded me of the small town that I spent most of my childhood in. It was a good night.