One Girl’s 6000 Mile Road Trip Across America. The Final Chapter…

One Girl’s 6000 Mile Road Trip Across America. The Final Chapter…

End of the Road

I took Route 66 all the way to Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood – where the road officially ends.

Considered to be the heart of L.A., West Hollywood is home of the famous Sunset Strip which includes legendary music venues such as The Roxy Theater and Viper Room; famous restaurants such as RivaBella, Chi Lin and Pink Taco; and popular bars and clubs such as Sur Lounge, The Abbey and Skybar.

There were no celebrity sightings in L.A. even though I spent two-days window shopping on Rodeo Drive, hiking through the Hollywood Hills and walking on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.

After L.A., I drove along the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco – the last stop of my two month trip.

The night I checked into the Hotel Mark Twain was especially cold. When I stepped out of my car and dashed across the street to the hotel, I felt the harshness of the wind that the city is famous for.

But the hotel – a boutique property that has been around since 1928 – was filled with warmth, charm and a touch of celebrity. Aside from the fact that it was named after one of the most talented writers of the 19th century – quotations from his works are scattered throughout the property’s hallways and lobby – it also includes a room where Billie Holiday resided back in 1949 and is featured on the ‘World’s Most Famous Hotel Rooms’ list on msn.com.

The hotel is located in the heart of San Francisco and is walking distance to Union Square and various shops and restaurants such as Caffe Roma, Z. Cioccolato, Trattoria Pinocchio and Cinecitta.

The hotel also has its own specialty restaurant called Fish & Farm which offers organic produce and sustainably farmed and harvested meat and seafood. In fact, the savory food in San Francisco reminded me of the various flavours and dishes I tried in the South.

And just like the other cities that I visited, San Francisco is influenced by various cultures. This can be seen in the architecture on Nob Hill that was built during the time of the Gold Rush and the reign of the Railroad Barons, and also in its fishing and sailing livelihood found at Fisherman’s Wharf, a tourist hot spot with countless souvenir shops, restaurants and charters such as Adventure Cat that takes guests on a tour around the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito and Alcatraz Island.

I actually had the chance to take a walking audio tour through Alcatraz and explore the warden’s office, the rec yard and the cells that were occupied by some of the country’s most notorious criminals such as Al Capone and Robert “The Birdman” Stroud.

I was sitting in the former lunch room of the prison when I heard the last words of the audio tour:

“I was locked up for 15 years and during all this time I never had no visits, no letters, no nothing. I was watching the cars whizzing by and the people walking – everything was moving too fast and I didn’t know how to move with it. I remember how envious I was of these people because they all had a destination, they were all going someplace and I didn’t know where I was going…and I was scared to death.”

This was said by a former inmate who was released and sent back into the city when Alcatraz ceased operations back in 1963.

It was at this moment that I had a revelation: I always felt that there was something missing in my life, like everyone had a plan and a clear goal except for me.
For a long time I put off many things in my life and left my thoughts unsorted because I didn’t know how to deal with them.

I realized that it was necessary to take this journey at this point in my life and it was something that I needed to do on my own.

I felt a sense of completeness.

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One Girl’s 6000 Mile Road Trip Across America. The Final Chapter…