Nashville Tenn, you've done good (Day one, Night 2)

After a fantastic stay in the hostel only interrupted by the drunk people arriving from downtown at many hours of the night, I woke up fresh to attack Nashville Tennessee. A 30 minute walk downtown brought me to the Bridgestone Arena where I went to pick up my tickets.

But disaster struck.
I don't know why, but it was only on the walk that I thought something fishy was going on. The tickets never did come up on my visa and no confirmation had been sent. I panicked, but tried to convince myself all was good. It wasn't. The man behind the desk confirmed my horrors, my tickets had not been processed and I was without admission to the game.
Luckily it's the Nashville Predators though and they still had tickets available, at the same price too. Sure I wasn't two rows behind the bench, but I was 5 rows from the ice on the penalty box side. Chalk one up for hockey in none hockey markets. And for those wondering, yes I do have confirmation for the other game.
So, tickets in hand I decided it was time to hit up something to eat. I ventured into Nashville's "Most Famous Burger Joint" (not sure who decided that) and ordered a Sandwich.
I then stepped outside to take in Downtown Nashville, what every downtown should be:

Lined side to side with Bars and live music. Fantastic, good for them.
There is also a park in downtown Nashville, or more likely, a "park". It was really just some grass by the river, but I went to see that because I had 5 hours to kill. The river was confusingly flooded. I mean sure it is spring but there isn't that much snow in these parts. Oh well. Also have no idea what that Red thing is. Though, I believe they call it Art.

Next stop was the stadium of the Tennessee Titans

And from the other side of the river you could grab some beautiful pictures from Downtown. The tallest building with the two towers is called the batman building because it resembles the one in the movie. The black one next to it is the R2D2 building for obvious reasions

And with just a bit of time to kill before the game ... well, when in Rome.

I'll do a whole other post for the game itself, off to the airport for now though.

Howdy from Nashville Tennessee, Night One

The day that started in Raleigh involved a full 12 hours of bus riding right into Nashville, and in all honesty it wasn't awful.
North Carolina is absolutely beautiful. Some of the nicest forests I have ever driven by, I didn't get any nice pictures from the bus unfortunately, but you could google it if you don't believe me.
Raleigh itself was pretty great too, although I didn't get to see any of it. I did find my favorite commercial of all time though, mostly because it stars my favorite childhood character. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV369kpV4h0

Boarded the bus at 10 AM and, for the first time since the train, sat alone! It was great, absolutely fantastic. I remained alone for most of the trek, all the way to Knoxville Tennessee, which as most of you know is the birth place of Johnny Knoxville, the star of the "Jackass" series.
The next portion of the trip though was a full bus and I sat next to a man who was heading home to his family in Little Rock, who got hit (I was going to write Rocked, but I think that is bad taste) by the massive tornado there Friday. We actually drove through some of the remains, but unfortunately missed all of it.
Once in Nashville I did the walk, originally going the wrong way, from the station to the hostel where I will be staying the next two days. Pretty cool place I must say, I'll grab some pictures tomorrow I suppose. It is all about music though and my presence being related to a sporting event is quite confusing to some of the other guests. The fact that I support the Predators and live in Canada is also quite baffling. I was hoping that maybe, at least in Nashville, would my preds love be accepted. But I guess not. Hopefully tomorrow at the game it will be. On a last note, I can't wait to eat real food. I had a continental breakfast this morning where I devoured three bagels and two Bananas, but tomorrow I shall eat like a king.

NYC, DC Pics

Just the pictures:

This one is Just for Phil, and all other Artists that are following.

New York, New York to DC, DC

Arrived in New York at 8 30 and the city is just alive, it really is unbelievable how much that city is moving all the time. So walked from Penn station to Grand central just to find out that my bus was not leaving from there. On the way I saw what looked like an Amazing Indian buffet, I was hungry and planning on going back for it but the bus station, Port Authority, was pretty far away from it.
Got screwed over a bit with my bus pass, but oh well, what are you going to do. I bought that and went back for a walk. I just don't know what to do in New York. It's overwhelming when you don't have plans, so being in CS I popped a squat in Time Square after for a while and used their free wireless service to go online. Good experience. Overall enjoyable, but was happy to leave after 5 hours.

Now. The bus ride leaving New York at 130 AM and Arriving at 5:55 AM. Awful experience. Made me consider completely abandoning the premise of my trip. It was full, and full of sketchy people. And the bus station at 1 am is sketchy on it's own. I was happy to sleep through the majority of it until everyone in the bus started yelling. The driver went the wrong way, missed out turn off, started heading to Baltimore. COME ON. So the passengers are guiding him, it's hopeless. We finally arrive in Washington, an hour late, but we aren't done yet.
Apon arrival a police officer boards the bus and says "I do declare there has been a robbery on this bus I do declare"(paraphrased). He went on to say that no one would leave the bus until it was sorted out. Everyone pretty much knew who it was, sketchy women next to the guy in the front seat, stole all his stuff when he went to the bathroom. So she is removed from the bus, they find his money but not his credit card. I wasn't going to report this because I know mother will be freaking out but two things need to be said: I have now been told 3 times that the East is the worst place for bussing, and nothing at all has gone wrong on the other two trips. All will be good.

Now Washington was cool. I did a lot of walking, saw all that was to be seen and then left on the bus for Richmond and then Raleigh. Raleigh is beautiful, I love it, but I didn't get to go out and see much, I hit the bed, took off the clothes I had been wearing for the day and just collapsed. They actually had one of the hockey games on tv, which was surprising yet fantastic. I'll post pictures later, the Wifi I am stealing is no where near powerful enough to process it. I leave Raleigh for Nashville in about an hour where I will arrive late and then stay for the hockey game.

Best of luck.

Montreal to New York Part 2

This is barely a post, but after Albany the train continued for another two hours to it's final destination. Here is the (delayed) play by play.

Part Two:

6:18 This guy five seats a head is just blasting some music it's awful, completely ruining my Wire experience.

6:28 The river and view is now on my side with a beautiful mountain backdrop. I will try to grab some picks.

6:35 Every old town tries to screw people into visiting it by claiming to be “historic” when actually they are just too poor or lazy to maintain it.

7:16 Finished season one of The Wire. Gaze out the window for a bit. Type this up. Okay, on to season two.

8:16 It's dark out now, Scheduled to arrive in New York in 15 minutes. Get me off this train. Out.

Montreal to New York Part 1

So the Amtrak Website boasts that the Train from Montreal to New York was ranked by National Geographics top ten most scenic Train rides in the world. I have completely drawn blanks with my Google Foo to find any validity to these claims. For the benefit of both yours and my experience, I have attempted to live blog the events. Knock yourselves out.

Montreal – New York (Departs 9:30AM : Arrives 8:30 PM

9:10 Board Train, give guy my passport when he asked for my ticket. Get lipped for holding up the line. Spill eleven cents on the floor. Get further harassed. Board train in tears.

9:20 Some pretty cool cats in my cart, one guy is from Australia. He is okay, lent me a pen. One woman said she wanted to see Washington DC so I told her of the 1:30 AM bus I planned on taking to get there. She looked at me like I was an idiot for only spending 5 hours in New York and/or taking a 1:30 bus. We aren't talking anymore

9:30 Start Moving. Conductor is pretty funny. No wifi on the train. So the live blogging isn't exactly live. Work with it.

9:45 … This thing really doesn't go fast.

10:15 Ugly Farm lands. Muddyness. Industrial. Can only get better from here.

10:25 An hour in, not into the US yet. Feel like this apparent rating is dubious. 

10:26 We just passed a day care and all the kids came running and were jumping and celebrating for us. Perhaps they know just how beautiful this train ride will be? Maybe they are excited for me to see all this. Feeling much more optimistic than just a minute ago.

10:48 The train has stopped in the middle of the road with eager traffic on either side waiting to cross. I don't know why, I think he's just being and ass.

12:26 We just barely got out of the way of the cars before stopping for an hour and forty minutes for customs. That was a whole story on it's own. They kicked one guy off the train and didn't think my trip was very conceivable. Alas, we are off again.

12:28 “We are 22 minutes late because of the customs procedures but that is time we should be able to make up later in the ride” … so you mean usually the train can go faster … you just choose not to go at a higher speed? Good on ya.

1:03: Mr. Seat Checker, why are you wearing your sun glasses inside the train?

1:40 Time to take on my first bag of trail mix 

2:35 Okay so the view has started to pickup. We are now riding alongside what I think is the Hudson Bay with the beautiful view on one side and nothing but cliffs on the other. Guess what side I am on …

I did manage to snag a seat at the other end for a bit and grab a few photos.

3:52 The river and the mountains get repetitive after three hours. So I am watching the wire, only interrupting it to report on this awful smell that has overwhelmed the train. It's like Saint John but better. Perhaps a good place for this train to start making up some of it's lost time?

4:40 Eleven hours is a long train ride. Four left. We just passed a prison. Might have been Guantanamo Bay, not sure though.

4:40 Also, I have dug into my second bag of Trail Mix, fear not I didn't finish the first one, just time for a switchup. Okay, time for another episode of the Wire.

5:03 We are so far behind schedule it's disgusting, we were supposed to arrive here at 3:30. Good thing I wasn't planning anything extravagant in New York

[Pic 1]

6:01 I haven't seen one nice thing in an hour and a half. We are back on track though which is surprising. Very surprising. That being said the train is gunnin' er right now. I'm quite impressed.

One day

Here it is ladies and gents. The moment you've all some of you have been waiting for. The schedule. Again, this is a guideline. I will try to follow it closely but I might lengthen or shorten stays or go off track. I am not going to worry about it. There are three solid dates that I need to hit though:

1. April 17th, Playoff game in Nashville
2. April 22nd, Playoff Game in Anaheim
3. May 1st, Flight home from Calgary

If I can get those three things done, then I'm set.

Before I show the schedule, here are a couple of stats:

Total time spent away on trip: 18 days, 10 Hours

Total time spent on a bus: 6  Days, 6 Hours, 30 Minutes

Number of States Stepped in: 14 (+4 provinces)

Number of extra states only bussed in: 3

So, without further "ado":
Montreal to New York, to Richmond, to Atlanta, to Nashville, to Dallas, to Las Cruces, to Flagstaff, to Phoenix, to Anaheim, to St George (Utah), to Salt Lake City, to Boise (Idaho), to Portland, to Coquitilam, to Banff, to Calgary.
Notable Transfers, being interesting places where I Get to leave my bus prison, include, in geographic order: Raleigh, Memphis, El Paso, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, Santa Anna,  Seattle, Vancouver.


On a map:

It's set! As of 12 30 AM tonight

That's right folks, I have set my trip. The route, although only a guideline, has been anticipated. The bus schedule determined, the activities planned, and the bus rides anticipated as painful. I have managed to keep it ... not dreadful? There were times where I found myself saying "Oh wow, great, that will only be a 13 hour bus ride, that will be nice." followed by immediate self loathing.
I leave Wednesday morning at 6 AM for Montreal, where I will spend the day amongst friends, trying to gather my spirits for what has been a much criticized trip idea. Some of my closest allies believe I am a lunatic. I have been told "Only you Ray, Only you", "You're crazy!", "That's Ridiculous". A lot of people are critical of my going alone, that it will be torturous solitude for much too long. I think I will benefit from the period of self discovery. I have plans for the bus, including the first two seasons of One Tree Hill and the full series of the Wire. So that should last me to Nashville. I think it is clear that people read lists more than long paragraphs. So I will leave you with this for tonight, since it's like 1 in the morning. I plan on releasing my travel plan in the morning, but I will keep my schedule pretty much to myself in case the blog takes off and people start plotting a mass robbery against me.
So, until tomorrow young ones.

My girlfriend kindly reminded me before going to bed tonight that it would be my last good sleep for a long time. It is the very depressing truth.

...

Oh, and I am still not going to the Pacific Ocean. You want the pacific Ocean? Google Image it. 

Drastic Change

Okay this is the second official opening of the blog. I didn't release it when I wanted to but now I am quite happy about that fact. Since you are all just joining me now you can either ignore or acknowledge all that is posted below. It is but a Canadian prelude to what is no longer a Canadian bus trip. The idea hasn't changed, I am still spending an eternity on a bus. I am just going to be much souther than Canada.

The USA Greyhound has a deal that is all you can bus in 15 days for 340 dollars, or 240 dollars if you have a hosteling pass. So I bought one of them and started planning the trip.

Thus, the country has been decided. I am still off to Montreal for a day to see some friends, and it is the easiest access to the US (by bus). So I will be up there on the 14th. Then I will leave and do a trip that will attempt to focus mostly on hiking. Right now it looks as follows, but as always, is destined for complete change.

Montreal > New York > Washington DC > Columbus > Nashville > Dallas > Flagstaff > Las Vegas > St. George (Utah) > Sacramento > Portland > Vancouver > Banff > Calgary (Fly home)

Or, on a map: