What do you do for four hours in King City, California? It's probably not a question you ask yourself often, but you're probably not the kind of person who would take public transit all the way from San Francisco to Los Angeles, relishing in each of 14 transfers.

You're also probably not Joe Eskenazi, a reporter for our sister paper S.F. Weekly, who did just that and even made a map.

Why exactly would Eskenazi undertake such a journey? We'll let him handle that one:

Just as the mountaineer George Mallory famously uttered “Because it's there” as his rationale for attempting Mount Everest, the notion of leaving the S.F.-L.A. route unchallenged ate away at me. I can't climb a mountain. But I can sit in a bus.

What follows is a story of fighting cocks, lingering pee smells, inebriated mechanics, and miles and miles of grapevines, brambles and pavement. It's a tale fit for Woody Guthrie. Follow along here: “In Transit: From S.F. to L.A. via Public Transportation.”

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