Date: 2011-06-24
From: (88) Nothing Day

To: (89) China Town Bus
Miles today: 0.0

Today the three of us woke up and ate at the Chinese Buffet again. Our trail appetites are beginning to leave us, and we did not consume the massive amount that we had previously. After food Bud Heavy drove us into New York City, which was packed with traffic since it was a Friday. While sitting in the back seat of his car, I looked out of the windows as we went through Times Square. It looked completely different in the daylight. Unable to find where he thought the bus stop was, Bud Heavy dropped me off on the sidewalk of Canal Street in China Town. I strapped my poles onto my pack as quickly as I could, flicked off Bud Heavy and Cactus Jack with both fingers (cause they were hopelessly stuck in traffic), and started walking downtown (wearing my hiking gear, fedora, and a big dumb smile on my face) looking for some of China Town¢s notoriously cheap bus stations. With some help from my phone¢s GPS and my dad and Tee back home, I was able to locate a section of street with several china town bus companies, some of them heading to Maryland. I was shocked when I looked through the window of one business and saw ¢Hagerstown, MD¢ written on it. As big as New York City is, and as big as the rest of the world is, and as long as the trail is, and all the millions of people all around me, I had stumbled upon a bus station on a random street in China Town that would take me within a 15 minute drive of my house. Shockingly, home was only 4 hours away! (¢¦and 50 bucks¢¦)I went inside, and my excitement was quickly shot down when the Chinese woman behind the desk told me that she could not sell me a ticket, and that I would have to wait until 4 to buy one. I left to explore, and soon found that I was in a rough neighborhood, as my surroundings became more degrading the farther I walked, some streets nearly deserted despite how crowded everywhere else was. When I returned to the run-down bus stop, all of the scary low life looking people who had been inside it previously were gone, and a new person was working the desk. I went to him and bought a ticket, then decided to take another walk through the lower end of Manhattan. I went in the opposite direction this time, which was still kind of rough looking, but seeing as I was twice the size of the average Asian, I was not concerned. (Much like bears on the trail that are after my food, if someone tries to mug me then I will yell and throw rocks at them until they run away.)Eventually I found a three story McDonalds. I went in and climbed the stairs, which felt like going up some kind of urban mountain. It was the largest McDonalds I have ever been in, and I doubt I will live long enough to see one that equals it in size (God bless America). I ordered some food, and then turned back.Upon my triumphant and much anticipated return to the hole-in-the-wall bus stop, I parked myself inside on a seat near a wall outlet and charged up my phone for the 4 hour ride home. Technology has given me the gift of internet, texting, and video games wherever I go, and I intended to utilize this. It is interesting how in the woods I can sit on a log for an hour staring at trees and mud and still feel content, but in society I always feel the need to be entertained. When the bus arrived I boarded it with several other sketchy characters (in all fairness, I probably looked the sketchiest) and headed home. It was night, and I spent my time texting tons of pictures to my mom, listening to ¢Into the Wild¢ on audio book, avoiding the creepy guy who kept looking under everyone¢s seat for something, and telling the woman in the seat beside me some of my adventures while hiking the trail (much to her amazement).