Any San Franciscan knows how frustrating Muni can be. Our public transportation system is seriously lacking some proper organization. Delays, packed buses and trains, waiting for ungodly amounts of time just to trek across a 49 square mile patch of land are all too common. But this post is not about how much Muni sucks because there's enough of that going around these days. Just check out
The N-Judah Chronicles and the recent cover story from SF Weekly,
Muni Death Sprial It's all well-researched, insightful stuff about how much Muni is failing San Francisco and how we need to fix it now. All stuff I totally agree with, but not necessarily things I want to get into on my blog.
Long ago I decided to not let Muni delays/failures ruin my day because that would just mean too many crappy days. I rely on Muni daily to get to work. We have our ups and downs. Lately a lot of downs; no electricity in the Sunset Tunnel, tracks stuck at Church and Duboce, a fatality at Castro station causing a system wide shutdown of LRVs, yikes!!! It can literally make you start screaming at crowded buses that pass you by and don't stop because they are too full. But again I digress.
I've decided to take the shitty situations that Muni gives me and turn them into adventures. With my trusty Cliq XT at my side, I have become the queen of alternate routes home. There is one great thing about Muni; it covers every fucking block of this city or close to it. If one bus is screwed up, you can usually find another way to your destination. Tuesday was the day the tracks at Church and Duboce got stuck in the direction of the J, so no Ns could go out of the tunnel. I got dumped off at Van Ness station only to find that the next 71, my favorite alternative home, was about 20 minutes off. I whipped out my trusty Cliq to find the nearest bus that would take me to the western side of the city. If I can get within 10 blocks of home my feet can take me the rest of the way. The 5-Fulton was coming up and only a few blocks away. I hoofed it over to McAllister and Gough in full rain gear (thank goodness it was no longer raining) just as the 5 pulled up. Perfect timing! The bus was pretty full, but moved along at a good speed. It was great to see parts of the city I rarely visit. Each neighborhood is just so cute and interesting in its own way. Plus the views from some of those hills are simply spectacular. I eventually made it all the way to 43rd Avenue, got off the bus and headed into the park near Chain of Lakes. I love Golden Gate Park, and the Chain of Lakes are an idyllic setting for water fowl of all kinds. I didn't see any birds on my way home, but it was still a beautiful walk. North Lake was perfect and serene.
Wildflowers were in bloom everywhere. As always some of the one million trees in the park were doing their best to look impressive.
I took some trails through the woods, witnessed some very blue post-rain skies,
and ended up right across the street from our block.
So even after being totally let down by Muni, I made it home and actually had a interesting adventure in the process.
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