[186] Of adventure in the wilderness of Yosemite

The trip to Yosemite National Park was one of the greatest adventures in my life. My description might sound cheesy but nevertheless, it is true.

It all started during the last few weeks in the spring semester while I was heading to the Graduate Library to do some revision on economics. On the way, I met Leman and he invited me to join me on a hiking trip in Yosemite. I accepted his invitation somewhat on the spot without much thinking. I guess when you have the money, you tend not to think how you are going to spend it.

Later, I influenced Epol to join me. As a result of my try, he decided to drop summer semester and fly down to California.

A week before the flight to Los Angeles, both Epol and I bought lots of camping stuff and in the end, spent more than a hundred buck. With the ticket to and fro LA, the total became something like USD400.

During the preparation period, a problem struck us. The backpacks that we ordered on the net failed to reach our hand on time. We were worried but the bags somehow arrived a few hours before our flight. Thus, we only started to pack up merely four hours before our plane left DTW airport. I managed to pack all the things up but saved the sleeping bag. The sleeping bag was a stubborn item and it took me some time to figure out how to force it into the backpack.

Fortunately, I managed to keep the time right on track and got on a cab with Leman and Epol for Detroit at around 1500 hours on July 1st.

The trip to the airport from Ann Arbor took about an hour and USD40. I as usual, didn’t sleep and stayed awake all the way to the airport.

By the time we reached the terminal, we had two more hours to burn. A good cushion for us but nonetheless, we decided to check in early. Leman bought his tickets from Northwest Airlines while we (that were Epol and I) had Continental’s. So, we went our separate way and decided to meet up at LAX.

All went well until I started to feel that bad luck loves me a lot. We had gotten our boarding passes and went straight for the check in gate. At the gate however, a woman in a stewardess’ uniform told us that our backpacks were too large for the on board compartment. By this time, I felt a little bit irritated since I had asked the person at the counter nicely “Could I just bring my backpack on board with me?” and she said yes. And now, the person at the gate said no. B-E-A-utiful.

Wanting no scene, I adhered to the person and went back to the counter to check in my 50 lbs backpack. Once the bag was checked in, I had only a small plastic bag as my hand luggage.

Confident that nothing wrong would come to me afterward, I walked straight to the security gate, the jinx of my life. See, I have never ever passed a security check successfully in the post 911-era. I was stopped at the security check at the Empire State Building, at the United Nations Building and now, at DTW. I was no doubt, at that time feeling very annoyed. Plus, I had to wait for nearly 15 minutes to be checked thoroughly by the police officer.

Moments later, I passed the security check and only to found out Epol trying to hold back a laughter in front of me. I checked my hand luggage to make sure that everything was there. To my surprise, I had my knife in the bag and it got through. I was checked thoroughly, yet the knife got through. Talk about security!

Nothing else unexpected happened and so, we boarded our plane and headed for IAH in Houston, Texas. Epol got the window seat while I was sandwiched in the middle. Other than that, everything went fine.

We reached Houston a few hours later and hopped onto another plane for LA. There was nothing worth mentioning on our flight to LA saved that I beat the computer more than five times in chess before I decided that the computer in the 747 was the dumber than a 16 bit Commodore computer. And lo, LA’s view during the evening from high above the sky was magnificent. The darkness suddenly succumbed to light as the city limit was approached slowly. It was as if God said “Let there be light, and there was light”. It was for this reason that I stayed awake throughout the journey. I suffered due to the lack of sleep but every second of the sight worth more than a million dollar.

We were airborne and the next moment, for the second time in my life, I landed at LAX airport.

It felt so good to be back on the ground after being cramped in the place for more than six hours. After a good stretching, Epol and I went to baggage claiming area only to be delighted to find Leman there. It didn’t take long for us to get our backpacks and followed the planned that was earlier laid out back in Ann Arbor.

We left LAX by bus in hope to reach the LA Union Station and guess what? Bad luck loves me. After awhile on the bus, we found out that there was actually no bus stopping at the Union Station. Just my luck.

We got off the bus at around midnight in the middle of concrete jungle. LA was dead and we were in the middle of nowhere with a 50 lbs bag on our back. We were lost and decided to ask for some direction. I came up to this one guy and asked for the way to Union Station. This guy gave us the direction to the ghetto.

Luckily, Leman didn’t trust him and went for a second opinion. The second guy finally gave the right direction but that bad news was, it was seven blocks away. I know that I had once walked something like 15 blocks in Manhattan in the middle of the night but with a huge ass backpack on my back, I don’t think I could handle a mugger in LA’s ghetto very well.

It wasn’t until a few minutes later that God smiled on us. We saw a cab and decided it’s better to burn twenty bucks on a cab rather than being mugged. While on the cab, the driver couldn’t seem to shut the hell up.

By the time we reached the Union Station, it was already the 2nd of July.

And by this time, I thought I had already broken up with bad luck but the luck couldn’t just accept the break all the sudden. Leman got a ticket for a 0100 train to Merced but Epol and I was told that the train was all booked up and the next available train was on 0400. With no choice, we had to take what was left for us to scour. And so, we had to sleep at the Union Station until 0400.

What a luck but wait, it will get *better* as the journey continues. Stay tune for __earth’s adventure in the wilderness of Yosemite.