Cross lines

Managed to escape the 6 inch snow fall in the Sierra mountains that put paid to my hopes of seeing the Yosemite National park. The Yosemites are in the Rockies that run north south for most of California, about 100 miles inland from and paralell to the coastine. I woke up to 6 inches of snow plus the news that all the passes across the mountains (including my route into the park) were closed and would remain so for the foreseeable future. So I had to head 200 miles back down the valley to a lowish path across the highlands and back to LA and the coast. I was staying at 8500 feet, was driving a rear wheel car (shit in the snow) and had no snow chains. So when I awoke to see the car covered in snow I’ll admit to being a little worried for my route out. The first 30 miles or so did officially require snow chains, but I went for it anyway, figuring I’d risk it and get down to the valley before more snow came in, a wise decision as the news reported another 12 inches of snow on Saturday night.

The additional 400 miles driving were pretty tiring and I got to the edges of San Francisco on Saturday tired and ready for a pint. On my arrival I quickly worked out why the hotel I booked was half the price of the more central ones, primarily because the area I was staying in was a shit hole. This became clearer still when I went for a drink at Carlito’s bar, google map’s nearest bar, in fact the only nearby bar, though the fact that there no comments, in the usual way google maps helps you with places to visit, did make me wonder.

Nonetheless I popped down and I guess the reason for no comments is that it isn’t the sort of local you’d admit to using, given that it seemed to be a borderline brothel, full of Mexican’s drinking hard liquor and the bar staff cantily clad at best, and seemingly overly interested in shaking my hand. I don’t think that is all they wanted to shake, but one quick beer and I sloped off back to my motel, swearing next time I’d spend a bit more and make sure I wasn’t in the worst part of town.

The morning was spent doing some laundry and speaking to a couple of Filipinos who are quite numerous in this part of town. America does seem to have lots of racial groups in certain areas, probably a factor of migrants heading to neighbourhoods were they already have contacts. The exact same thing happens in London, for example the Korean community in New Malden who once settled, attracted many other Korean migrants. California is awash with Hispanics in particular and many fields I passed had Hispanic fruit pickers earning a few quid for the hard graft under a hot sun.

But the segregation of old is long gone, and I really put my put in it at the American football game I went to see, Oakland raiders vs Denver Broncos. The American football crowd is fairly mixed racially with plenty of black and Hispanic fans sat all around. Talking to the guy next to me after watching a punch up by some fans, and interested in the lack of fan segregation, I asked how come they don’t segregate at the football, like they do in England? He says that segregation isn’t allowed and I ask how come? It keeps everyone safer and whilst it would be nicer to all sit together, reality is people would fight if we didn’t have segregation. He then gave me a seriously funny look and stated that segregation was banned over 50 years ago and he couldn’t believe we still treated people like that in the UK! Realising the cross lines I quickly explained that I meant fan segregation not colour segregation as he had thought.

As for the football itself, well the fan base is fairly low end, not so dissimilar to a football crowd back home. The fans spend a lot of the time eating and drinking, but not so bad as a baseball crowd. The fans sort of jeer the opposition a lot and cheer the runs and throws of their own team. The big difference is the lack of songs, something football fans do better than any other fans in my humble opinion. “Let’s go Raiders let’s go” is not the most poetic of songs and I can’t see myself using it in a Literacy lesson as I once did “Scoucer Tommy” (Look it up if you don’t know the song – it’s quite deep in parts)

Anyhow, I was impressed with the American train system which is easy to use, cheap, reliable and comfortable. I managed to get a ticket at the stadium and my only complaint is the cost of food and beer at the stadium. So high in fact that the American tailgate party so popular at the baseball is evidently an American football thing too, though the cold weather has to impact on this as it gets colder.

Alcatraz booked for tomorrow and then I head off for the next leg of my adventure, to Peru to pick up the hippy / overland bus. Will be fun.