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March 2, 2011
Petaluma or Bust
I couldn't figure out how to get my motorcycle from Petaluma to SF today. Everyone I asked freaked out. "A ride to Petaluma? Are you insane?" Like I'd asked them for a ride to Eureaka or Mendocino. But, no, apparently Petaluma (38 miles north of SF) was too far. I tried renting a truck from a business in San Francisco, but it was $35 a day, plus $0.79 a mile, so it was going to be about $100, plus they closed at 5:30 p.m. and then I'd have to leave the truck outside on the street at my own risk, overnight, plus pay another $10 sucker fee, and no insurance was offered.
So, driving a cargo truck with a 16' box up to Petaluma just to get a bike, buying tie downs, loading the bike, driving back to San Francisco, parking the truck on the street...none of it really made any sense. Too much liability, IMHO.
Finally, I decided to just go stand on the side of the Golden Gate bridge and stick my thumb out. So I made up a sign that said "PETALUMA", parked on the south end of the Golden Gate bridge, and stood by the side of the US 101 with my sign waiting to get picked up. I waited and waited but no one stopped. I made another sign that said "I WON'T KILL YOU" and held that one out for a while, but nothing worked and after about an hour or so, it was cold and dark when a cab pulled up.
"Dude...how much for a ride to Petaluma?" I asked.
Eventually we agreed on a price of $140. I put some money in the meter for my rental car at the bridge parking lot.
This got me to Petaluma without a car so I could turn around and drive the bike back, but didn't inconvenience anyone that I knew in San Francisco, and I didn't have to drive a moving van the size of an 18-wheeler across the Golden Gate Bridge, or leave it parked, uninsured, in the Mission district overnight.
The beauty of this was that I didn't inconvenience any of my geographically-challenged 'friends' in San Francisco. Somehow, it makes sense for them to ski in Wyoming and fly to L.A. to get their hair done, but driving to Petaluma is just full-on insane.
By the time we got to Petaluma, it was cold and dark, so I got the bike and drove straight to a K-mart. Found some gloves in a discount bin and picked out a pair for $1.08. I had brought an extra shirt and t-shirt, as I knew I'd be cold, so I put on all of the additional clothes and gloves in the K-mart parking lot and headed South along the Redwood Highway.
Back in SF, I went straight to a bar called "Tortilla Heights" to meet my geographically challenged friends and tried to explain to them that "Tortilla Heights" was a play on words, after Steinbeck's book "Tortilla Flats", but this was all on deaf ears of course.
After drinks, back to the flat on Russian Hill in a light rain. Then a taxi back to my rental car at the GG bridge. Then drove to airport and refilled the rental car along the way at $4.00 a gallon. Then to the airport where I dropped off the rental car 2 days early. I saved some money by doing this. Somewhere between $60 - $100, I think.
Budget Car Rental assured me that they had no copy of my contract, which prompted me to lament to them that I was stupid enough to have returned the car at all. If they have no record of me taking possession of the car, I should have sold it on eBay. Of course, this only confused them further.
The airport train back to the main terminal, where I caught a cab back into the city and now safely back at the flat on Russian Hill. I'm out of the rental car business now. It doesn't matter to me whether I work here for a week or a year, renting cars is for suckers. Renting cars in San Francisco is for fools.
And when I'm through with the project in SF, I'm driving this bike down to Panama. Now if only I can convince them to stop paying me to come in every Monday, I can get on with my life.
Posted by Rob Kiser on March 2, 2011 at 12:50 AM
Comments
That sounds like one of my trips to pick up Hallye from Charleston, her stuff, her car, moving her apt around, getting a moving truck, 1 way rentals, cabs from the airport, private cabs vs sharing... It is all so complicated that you practically need a Phd to figure it out. Can't believe you didn't get picked up on the Golden Gate! I thought CA was where anything goes!
Posted by: Rowdy Girl on March 2, 2011 at 6:25 AM
Yeah, this sort of surprised me also. But keep in mind, the hippies don't drive cars. They're all stoned and living outdoors in the panhandle of Golden Gate Park. So, the people that were passing me were all yuppies heading up to points north, up around the Marin County headlands.
So, these people weren't interested in picking up a guy in Mountain Khakis with a sign that says "I WON'T KILL YOU" apparently. Who knew?
Posted by: Rob Kiser 
on March 2, 2011 at 8:50 AM
Hi Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Tarundeep Singh on June 28, 2017 at 9:41 AM