The Long Road to a Christmas Surprise (Part 2)

Dedicated to my cousin Sean.  Sorry it took so long buddy.

I (Never) Saw the Sign
Standing on the State's side of the World's Most Crossed Border, I found myself thoroughly disappointed. Where in the heck was the sign welcoming me to the USA? Maybe I just missed the thing, but I never saw one anywhere. EVERY other border I crossed had a sign. I was so looking forward to that picture. 

Narrator (Deep voice, English accent, probably drinking brandy and smoking a pipe): "The weathered traveler, weary from his seemingly endless adventures in lands foreign, facing daring situations fraught with danger, seasoned by the many exotic spices of the travel life - like jasmine - now takes his last footsteps on foreign soil as he nears his last and final border.  You can nearly feel his excitement, his anticipation, the tingly little feeling in the tippy tops of his finger.  Just a few more steps now, across he goes, and just imagine the joy he feels staring up at that sign welcoming back into his home country, a place he has not been in nearly a year and a half..." 

Cue photo:  (scratchy record sound) Oh wait.

I guess I will just have to ask you to do the same as I have to do, and just use your imagination.

Coming Full Circle
Arriving in San Diego was not easy. I felt my first travel anxiety in over a year at my total inability and lack of knowledge about how to get things done.  My goal was simple enough, get to the neighborhood where I had friends working, find them, and ask if I could spend the night. What I had were a Church address where they worked, a home and work phone number (no cell), a poorly printed map from map quest and printed in Tijauna, and $15.  The problem, however, was that I didn't know where in the San Diego area the address was located, therefore no idea how to get there, and I hadn't talked to my friends in about a week (remember I was on bus after bus, night after night, and then hitchhiked Baja...not a lot of chances to find internet access to try and make a phone call).

How in the heck do I get where I need to go? Ok, first, call the friends and see if they can tell me.  I got two answering machines and quickly lost $2.50 to the pay-phones, a lot when all you have is $15 to try and find your friends somewhere in San Diego. The poorly printed map soon became the useless map, as no one could recognize the streets on it or what neighborhood it was in.  Internet cafes are pretty much a non-concept here in the States, at least for those with no computers with them, and thus printing searching the address and printing a better map, or trying to make a phone call via internet, were both no goes.  So it was down to the most basic but sometimes most important helper to the traveler, the gut feeling.  I thought I remembered in a conversation a while back that the Church my friends worked at was in Del Mar, a 45 minute drive from the U.S.-Mexico border. So I decided to jump on the trolley, and see what that brought me; sometimes that is all you can do.

Acting on the hunch payed off.  Three stops later I saw a trolley information center so I hopped off and talked to a very nice and under appreciated lady (based on how others treated her courteousness. Courtesy here is rare and nothing compared to Latin America, but this lady was a total exception and awesome!). She got me squared away by locating where I was going on a transit map based on the address I had (it was indeed in the Del Mar area), and gave me a map with all possible bus, trolley, and train routes to where I needed to go. Unfortunately, none passed closer than a few miles from the address I had, but I decided to keep on getting closer and see what that brought me.

I headed back north on the trolley before transfering to the Coaster train that heads all the way to LA. While explaining my situation to a conductor, a local from Del Mar overheard us and offered his cell phone to call. I tried again at my friends home, and, success! At 5:00 on a Friday afternoon, I asked my friends if I could stay over that night, and when their laughter (at their surprise, at my latiness...) subsided, they said yes. 20 minutes later I was in their car, ten more brought me to their home. 

Now here is a good story.  These friends I have been referring to are the very same friends, Leo and Taty, that I stayed with in Brazil. It was them that sent me off from their house in Brazil to start this adventure, and it was them that first welcomed me back to the States a year and a half later. How sweet is that?!?!

The Last Leg

I then began calling everyone I knew, hoping to find a friend, or a friend of a friend (or a friend of a friend of a...), that was heading north for the holidays. Now enter Ryan and Ginger, awesome friends and all around cool people, who upon hearing the surprise I had planned offered me a deal. If they could get in on it, then they would fly me from LA to San Francisco, their treat. Leo and Taty were going to LA the next day to pick up Leo's mom flying in from Brasil, and before I knew it, all the chips were lined up and I was on my way to San Francisco. How blessed I am by my friends!

Ryan and Ginger housed me for the couple days leading up to Christmas, and it was great to catch up and hang out. I also got some good time in with my old roomie, Jose, also living in Bay Area. On Christmas Eve around four o'clock, Ryan, Ginger, and myself headed off toward my grandparents house where my family waited unsuspectingly.  For the rest of the story, I give you my poorly made remake and tribute to the Christmas classic, The Night Before Christmas: 

The Night Before Christmas - The Remix
'Twas two weeks before Christmas, gone a year plus half,
I thought enough is enough, 'tis time to go back.
So I fixed up my backpack, hopped onto a bus,
En route to California, by Christmas or bust.

By bus, boat, thumb, plane, however I might,
Three thousand miles I went, in only 9 nights.
In the season of giving, my friends did shine bright,
And on the door step I was, on Christmas Eve night.

A phone call to the father, a little chit chat,
Can you give mom a message, and hurry at that?
Can she come get the door, and do as she's told,
Standing in front of the house, your son is quite cold.

Your kidding, your joking, that can't be right,
You are only in Baja, not here tonight!
Of course I'm not joking, come see for yourself,
Ding dong goes the doorbell! I rang it myself.

Shouts of surprise, and with the pounding of feet,
Come tearful smiling faces, quite eager to greet,
A lost vagabond son, recently arrived,
Fresh from the road, and adventures he's survived.

So all turned out well, much to everyone's delight,
We all quite enjoyed, this year's Christmas suprise,
Little remains to be told, but one last thing will I write,
Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.