Lost, not quite…

There is a trail by a river right behind our apartments which I had explored in part on my numerous attempts to make it a habit to jog regularly. It is called the Guadalupe river. One fine Saturday morning, I and my roommate decided to cross over to the other side and follow the trail till its end. Though we did not accomplish that, we ended up walking for over two hours feasting our eyes on the river and the lush greenery alongside that reminded us of our hometowns nestled in the splendor of the western ghats in India.

After helping ourselves to some homemade food thanks to another roommate’s parents, we headed to San Francisco by means of public transport, having enough time on our hands. That took us close to three hours to reach the city, otherwise just an hour’s drive away. We abandoned our initial plan to visit the golden gate bridge and instead went to Land’s end, a beautiful park which gave us a view of the bridge anyway. It was hard to choose between the beach on one side and the hike on the right that promised some amazing views. Off we went to the beach to feel the ice cold waves on our feet that imparted to us an unexplained calm. I felt like an older person accompanying my roommate; she could not hide her happiness when the waves came chasing us. We then proceeded to the hike. We hoped to be able to finish the hike soon enough, but our tiredness due to the two-hour morning walk and the numerous steps we climbed down to and back up from some beaches and viewpoints on the way did not quite aid us. We were glad to reach the end of the trail and to realise that we did not have to walk back to reach a spot from where we could order an Uber to the nearest train station.

As ill luck would have it, try as I may, we were not able to book a ride owing to the lack of network coverage and my phone battery level dwindled from about 20% to 3%. My roommate’s phone was already dead. We had been walking around throughout this time, hoping I might get coverage somewhere near the beach. It was time to despair. What would we do if my phone died too! We were in a residential area and getting anywhere close to a bus or a train would need us to walk at least a couple of miles, but only if we knew which way to walk. My idea of stopping some strangers passing by and offering them cash for booking our ride did not seem to be a worthwhile one. Keeping that as our last option, I quickly made a call to the other roommate at home and she booked a ride for us. She was our saviour for the day. We heaved a sigh of relief as we got into the car which was already crowded with three people including the driver and I gave myself a pat on my back for my presence of mind, which I do not seem to be using much of these days. I am surprised I have some at all.

I might have already mentioned how people here have a flair for situational humor and practical jokes. The driver said we need to pick up one other person as we settled into our seats in the car. He laughed loudly as all of us looked at him, surprised and angry at the same time. The two French guys, our co-passengers steered the conversation to the living expenses and the crowd in the city of San Francisco which the driver who moved there a few months ago, touted as a land of opportunities. He said he had been offered jobs that he did not know existed. I got my two cents in too, satiating their curiosity about some mobile applications used here, extremely conscious that two attractive French dudes looked at me as they listened to me intently. The fact that they were working for TripAdvisor on something related to restaurant suggestions only added to their charm. They got off and we got to know our driver a little better. It was not without reason that I though he had a wonderful voice. He said he did voiceovers and was nice enough to narrate the first page of a book that he hoped to work on if he scored the deal when they made an audio book out of it. We were awed. The long ride came to an end soon and I quickly called my roommate who booked the ride to give him a compliment on the app. I had managed to charge my phone in the car.

We reminisced about the day on our way back, thinking about how dependent we are on gadgets and how it is only going to get worse in the future, how much ever we try to stay away. We reached home safe and sound all the same, having no choice but to walk home during the last leg of our trip. This makes me think twice about going on a long trip alone and technology-free, which I think is the only path to salvation in these modern times.