Day One - The Send Off, June 24

Carol Costa picked me up in the Canal at 4:30 sharp and we headed off for the Berkeley send off at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall on Cedar and Bonita. Going across the Richmond Bridge is where it really sunk in that I was on a journey of a lifetime, a trip into history.

The typical bay fog had swept in through the Golden Gate and lapped up to the East Bay Hills and the wind whipped the Bay into a canvas of whitecaps producing a steady pattern. If it wasn't for the wind, the day would have been blistering hot.

We entered the usual traffic jam on 80 heading south, so just past Bay Meadows we exited onto Gillman St. and forged our way west. After a number of miss turns and a little backtracking we stumbled to our destination. The brightly painted caravan bus told us we arrived.

Carol spotted a ten minute parking spot right next the the Hall and Bus, so we pulled in and unloaded my three bags of gear. Carol headed in to see who was there and I headed over to the bus to greet my fellow caravanistas and load my gear.

Approaching the bus, I meet Woody first, a young shaggy haired recent Humbolt State grad from Arcata. He quickly told me " I parallel parked 3 times today." I thought to myself 'how quaint a country boy learning to parallel park in the urban jungle.' My smart ass internal sarcasim quikly turned humble when I found out he was our bus driver and that he had parallel parked our caravanista 40 foot school bus three times on the skinny East Bay side streets. Much repect for this young bus drivin' lad.

After I meet the other three caravanistas and inspected the vehicle that would carry us thousands of miles I headed into the Hall. While setting up the room and putting out the food I met many of the other core members of the Cuban solidarity network.

To pass time until the event stated, I strolled outside. I was startled to see Wendy T with a grin from ear to ear flying by the Hall on a Dahon folding bike, the bike Bill H had just purchased from Trips for Kids to send with me to Cuba.

I jokingly shouted out for the police to arrest this woman who was stealing my Cuban get-around wheels. Turning around I quickly caught a glance of Bill H and Louise Y coming down the street behind Wendy. We greeted with hugs and Bill complained about spraining his back when he lifted the bike onto the roof rack. What a memory of my Cuba trip to have.

Wendy demanded I ride the bike, so after a quick seat post adjustment I headed down the street with everyones approval. Moments later John R arrived with his ever present camera and proceeded to take some shots of me posing with "'Bill's" bike next to the brightly painted caravanista bus. Of course I obliged him. A chance at stardom I never pass up...