If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...

[Griff Murphey]

But leave your OFMH (Old Fart Military Hat) at home. I wore my USS NEW ORLEANS LPH-11 hat with some USMC pins and DOC on it, thinking, yeah, I know it's a liberal town, but it ought to still be a Navy town. We rode Amtrak from Denver to SF; I got one comment that it was a cute hat, from a lady in Denver.

In SF we were there 3 days and I finally gave up and left mine off on day three, sensing I was out of style, and that day I finally sighted one similar hat on a Marine across the street, out of all those people. At the airport in the departure lounge back to Texas I had two people give the the standard "Thank you for your service"; guessing they were probably headed back to Texas...(yeah, granted; you do kind of ASK for it when you wear the OFMH, BUT it is also - in other geographic areas - a fun way to meet other vets).

In the departure lounge I had the pleasure of meeting a 100 year old Navy vet who survived the torpedoing of the CA USS CANBERRA, named for the Aussie CA sunk at Savo. On the plane a lady asked me if I was FROM New Orleans.

Did see one interesting street banner with the silhouette of a tricked - out AR and the bold proclamation "A UTERUS IS MORE HEAVILY REGULATED THAN AN ASSAULT RIFLE." Must be rough on California women not being allowed to have those! (They wouldn't lie, now would they?"

[Clark Howard]

San Francisco-One of my favorite cities, for about two days at a time. Regards, Clark

[barretcreek]

Hope you enjoyed the ride from Denver to Grand Junction. Chow was pretty good wasn't it? Took my mother for one last face to face with her sister in '12 and it was the only way to go.

[Griff Murphey]

Hope you enjoyed the ride from Denver to Grand Junction. Chow was pretty good wasn't it? Took my mother for one last face to face with her sister in '12 and it was the only way to go.

It's not quite like riding the train was when I was a kid but Amtrak does a decent job. We like the sleeper bedroom and of course your food is all included and it's pretty decent. The scenery from Denver west is spectacular and truth be told the vacation was built around the train ride which was the actual goal!

[Former Cav]

I've driven the old route from denver to Grand Junction years ago with my mother (chaperon) and my future wife (at that time...been married to her for 37 GREAT years). It was probably the most beautiful ride I have ever driven or seen in my lifetime.

[BlitzKrieg]

In 1969, San Fran was hardly military friendly, I had never been there until we landed there at the commercial airport from Panama. We had been sent to Jungle School at Ft. Sherman , Panama enroute to Viet Nam. We had been given commercial flight out of Panama to SF Calif, and upon arriving there, the military liaison NCO gave us bus tickets to Travis Air Base and a van ride to the bus station. We had a 8 hour wait till the next bus headed out to Travis where we'd connect with military air to Viet Nam. In those days, it was mandatory to travel in uniform and the seasonal uniform of the time was Khaki's. We got a lot of hard looks at the air port and upon arriving at the bus station. Here was 8 guys out of 82nd Airborne, jump boots , all Infantry and young studs. We did not "blend" in with the indigenous of those times in California !

So, we are left at the bus station, and make a command decision: Lets go find a bar and drink beer till the bus arrives in 8 hours. Off out of bus station we went , carrying A Bags over shoulders and bump into a corner bar a few blocks away and in we went. The place went silent upon our entry and we just saddled up at the bar and asked a huge bar tender for beer. This guy was Arnold Schwarzenegger in size and looking at us hard as heck as he asked: "What the hell are you doing here in uniform?" Well, being young and on my way to war, I just piped up : "We're heading to Viet Nam, got 8 hours to kill before the bus to Travis rolls out and here we are to drink until then".

The bartender walked off, and a moment later out of back room comes the bartender & three guys his size and they begin to empty the bar , lock the door and I'm thinking...there are 8 of us and 4 of them but we might be in a world of hurt. The bartender comes up to me and says: "You guys can't be roaming around this town in uniform, I've closed the bar, ordered some pizza, called over for some girls and the beer is on us. We're old Marines from WWII and we'll see you guys make that bus".

Well, it was a good time had by all. We got "poured" on the bus and made it to Travis for a World Airways Flight to Binh Hoa. Slept off the hang over on that flight but I got to say this: SF Calif may have gone to hell but I got a hunch there are some great Americans still around that town.

Those 4 old Marines from WWII sure took good care of us. God Bless'em for that. Yeah..and 5 of 8 of us did not come back so that night in SF Calif was "significant".

[JB White]

"Be sure to wear some flour in your hair" is the way we heard it.

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