"Scruffy Young Man" has left the building!
 

This thread is begun at the request of some who were following my son's plans to enter Great Britain for a brief stay but without a continuing ticket on the first international leg of a planned trip around the world. He has now launched on his trip, and I'll be writing up what I can as it progresses, given that I'm getting the story secondhand.

This story begins in the San Francisco Bay Area.

This is the part where he travels cross-country to New York, where he has friends to stay with, before flying off to London.

To set the stage:

My one and only son Greg, age 21, is a very outgoing, personable young man who buys all his clothes at the thrift store, has grown some really mediocre dreadlocks, and has a short, scruffy beard (hence the "Scruffy Young Man"). He has been dreaming of a half-a-shoestring trip around the world for years. He's not thinking as high-class as hosteling; he's planning on couch-surfing his way around the world. There is a website for this! There are loads of people even in Africa, India and Nepal who are willing to put people up for free!

He finally got his ducks in a row, gave up his apartment, sold his stuff, and bought a one-way ticket for London. The die was cast. He set a date to leave - yesterday, September 27 - and arranged for his first "couch," in Portland, Oregon. He originally planned to hitchhike, but Mom being quite nervous about this, keeping in mind the long stretches of empty rural landscape in northern California and a son who, while not sheltered, hasn't hitchhiked before, bought him a Greyhound ticket for this first leg. A good friend who has traveled by thumb is meeting up with him in Portland for the next stretch, and I'll feel less nervous about that.

So last evening, after two days of trying to wrap up his affairs, think of everything else he might need, and get it all packed up in his new backpack, I drove him to the Greyhound station for a 9:15pm bus, for a 1:40pm arrival in Portland. He posed cooperatively, backpack aboard, holding his new ultra-lightweight guitar, while I snapped a photo of him in front of the station door. I made him promise to e-mail regularly and keep me posted and to take care of himself. We had a long hug goodbye, and then I left him because he wanted to write an entry in his new journal, and drove back home.

The phone range at 11pm. He was still at the bus station. He had somehow missed the loading time for the bus and has missed it. He was now going to take the bus at 1am and would be in Portland Monday at 6pm. I wished him well and we hung up.

The phone rang today at 2pm. Greg was in Sacramento. He didn't realize he had to change buses in Sacramento, so he'd stayed on the bus while it continued east. At some point he realized he wasn't going toward Portland any more, got off, and caught a bus back to Sacramento. He was now awaiting the next departure from Sacramento to Portland. In the meantime he had met some cool people who had directed him to a great cafe, and he was going rock-climbing at a branch of his rock-climbing gym at home, and he would be in Portland tomorrow morning (Tuesday).

So at this point, he's been "on the road" for 18 hours, with a bus ticket, and he's made it to ... Sacramento, about 100 miles from home!

Thanks for the new link Artsnletters.
As in the other post, will be following his adventures with keen interest. Best wishes to him on his travels. He's sure to come back a changed man.

M

Artsnletters, please keep us posted on SYM's adventures. I must admit I'm a bit concerned for him if he is having this much trouble just getting to Portland. I would imagine, however, he's taking all of this in stride and considering this just an addition to the great adventure. (My 17 year old son would think your son was "so cool" if he was reading this!) Good luck to you son (and to you!)

Oh, I'm sure that his travel skills will improve rapidly.

He could have WALKED from SF to Sacramento in 18 hours. His 'travel skills' will have to dramatically improve between Sacramento and Heathrow . . . . . .

This is too funny. I will be following this saga with interest.

Loving your report, at least he is figuring out what to do, and I'm sure he will eventually get to London, just might take a bit longer than planned.

TTT I've got to follow this one.

:-)

Add me to the followers list hoping he has a good sense of direction. BTW, couchsurfing for the younger set has become quite popular for obvious reasons & the added bennie is that one has immediate 'what-to-do-and-see advisors'

Agree I would be extremely concerned - since he can;t even get to a nearby city. Does he have serious attentin disorder or something else that prevents him focusing?

Really - if he can't get to Portland how will he ever make it aournd the world.

(And I'm not a worry wart. I generally think kids heading out on their own to help them fing their feeet and grow up is a great idea. Took stepdaughters to London and Paris when 14 and 11 and had no problem with them going off alone for the afternoon to do teen stuff. Went to europe myself at 19 - as have both the girls. But, none of us ever got lost seriously. Perhaps took a wrong turning on a street and had to backtack for a couple of minutes - but never missed transportation - or failed to make a stop or switch.)

He's going to have to be a lot ore alert and focused to avoid issues on this trip.

Remember...a journey of a thousand miles begins when Mom drops you at the bus station! Good luck to the Scruffman...he will no doubt have lots of adventures, and become very self-reliant. I will be looking in to see what unfolds. Best, Rouss

Now, if he were a she, the missing the bus & changing transport would never have happened - gals are just so much more 'street smart'!!LOL - It's all a great big adventure and learning curve for the young man. With his travels ahead at least he's going to have something to tell his grandkids oneday that might capture their attention!

The story reminds me of the way I travelled when I was half my current age. If you don't plan ahead, a lot goes wrong and you end up missing 90% of the things which people see who are a little more focussed. But on the other hand, you experience things you'd have missed if you had taken the correct bus and hadn't been stranded in Sacramento. If I look back at that time, I'm happy about the memories.

The only thing which is really different is phoning home. The curse of the cell phone. 20 years ago you went out of your parent's house and the next thing they heard of you was a post card 3 weeks later :-)

I definitely want to follow this. If he has trouble getting on a bus when he's already in the right bus station, it should be real fun in cities with multiple bus/train/air termini! I take it he has to be in New York by a particular date to catch the plane to Heathrow? (Llife must have been easier for parents back when kids kept in touch by postcard!)

Being a good son, back in those days I usually tried to send my parents a postcard every day, but since the cards often arrived out of order, they never knew if I was in France, Denmark, Switzerland or Italy, etc.

Well, artsnletter, no doubt your scruffy son was on the bus that stops at the Greyhound Depot in my city. It is too bad I didn't know as I could have had a talk with him to make sure he knew how to get to Portland, lol. But all is well it seems, well I hope so! What tales he will have to share with his future children years from now. And when his kids are driving him crazy you can share this tale of adventure with them. Payback is often a good thing!

Arts - thanks so much for posting. I too plan to try to keep up on his adventures.

The nice thing about the way he's traveling (other than the ticket to London) is that it usually doesn't really matter very much if he gets somewhere later than he originally planned. Or gets on the "wrong" bus and goes somewhere else altogether. ;-> That's the freedom of traveling without hotel reservations, onward tickets, etc.

I wish him a safe and wonderful journey. All the best to both of you.

He's traveled almost entirely by car or plane in the past - where there are usually no transfers, you just get in and turn up later at your destination. I don't think he'll make the same mistake again.

He does have ADD and in any event isn't a guy who's good at logistics. I think he will rely on me, at least for a while, to help with less expensive options for longer jaunts on public transportation. However, one of his goals for the trip is to become more self-reliant, and I imagine he'll figure it all out in the end.

Those of you who think he'll see such goofs as part of the adventure have it exactly right. When he called from Sacramento, he was quite happy, enjoying walking around the city (which he's never visited), talking to people. He doesn't have an itinerary so much as an idea of the stops he'd like along the way. When he ends up somewhere unexpected, I imagine he'll just see it as part of the adventure rather than a setback.

He has a ticket to London from NYC on October 26 and wants to spend a few days visiting his best friend in New York before flying out, so he's got about three weeks to get across the country, plus a few days extra if necessary.

I just think it's great he's figuring this out now when he's in the US rather than, say, India or Kenya.

BTW, he promised to find e-mail at least once a week and at least let me know where he is and which direction he's headed next. As others have noted, in the past this wouldn't have been possible! But in these days of the internet and Skype and cell phones, there are lots of low-cost options for transcontinental communication, even from the outer reaches.

He'll get the hang of it soon enough and if not...oh well. My nephew went around the world twice and just sort of played it all by ear. Had some very interesting experiences, stayed in some places quite awhile...not always on the up and up, but that wasn't my problem. It was a great experience for him. His last stop on his last trip was Zimbabwe when it all starting going to he**. He decided it was time to come home.