The next place I remember on this wonderful trip was a place in Wyoming called Cheyenne, this was a real western town as seen on films and even had the tomb of Buffalo Bill in the town, we stayed there for about an hour or so and were able to stretch our legs and see a little of the town.
After leaving Cheyenne we went through Utah and across the Great Salt Lakes, these were a wilderness but I remember groups of hill-billies standing hear the track and waving, on of the American travellers told us it was the custom to throw newspapers out to them - which we did, when I thought about it, it made sense to give them newspapers as they were miles from anywhere and if they had no wireless they wouldn't know what was going on in the world. We stayed a while in Salt Lake City which looked a beautiful place, it was founded by Mormons and I think I was a little surprised at seeing such a modern city after the desert-like lakes and mountains.
From Salt Lake City we headed for California and although I was still enjoying the journey I was looking forward to seeing San Francisco, it was now late August and the weather was wonderful. We arrived in San Francisco in mid-afternoon and as we took our hand luggage off the train we found out that some passengers had stuck Roosevelt stickers on the cases., the American elections were due and I believe Roosevelt was running for the third term. I also discovered that my kit-bag containing most of my clothes were missing and the porter said it hadn't been put on the train when we changed in Chicago, so my first job was to put in a claim to Southern Pacific railways for my kit.
We reported to the British Consul in San Francisco and were introduced to the Naval Liaison Officer and he suggested we should stay in the sea-mens mission at Fishermans Wharf. We explained that we had no money left and he gave us ten dollars each casual payment and he said he would give us four and a half dollars a day subsistence while we were in San Francisco (a dollar in those days was worth twenty five pence nowadays). So the five of us Lothians went to Fishermans Wharf and booked in, the fee was fifty cents a night for a bunk bed and waffles and coffee in the morning (cook your own), that seemed OK, the place was clean and we were all together. As we talked to the American servicemen who were staying there they told us that if we were going to stay there any length of time we should go to the G.I job bureau and get fixed up with a job- this we said we would do the next day. We went out on the night to look at San Francisco and I found it the most exciting place I had ever been to. Sitting in a cafe having a meal an old chap came up to us and introduced himself, he cam from Leeds in the UK and had been out there about forty years, he asked us all about the old country and told us there was a place nearby that we could get a drink (the California state laws said no-one could buy a drink unless they were twenty one years old). We went round to the place appropriately called "The Pub" which was run by an English couple, they made us very welcome and we met a lot of expatriates, a good night was had by one and all.
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