Ninth chapter

Looking for Neil Young in San Francisco

We have department stores and toilet paper

Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer

Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive

Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive.

Keep on rockin 'in the free world,

Neil Young

The time is at night and the gloomy bus rolls into San Francisco. The Greyhounds station is located just north of the bridge that leads across the bay to Oakland and just south of the financial district. It may be a short taxi ride to North Beach, where I have booked a room with a friend of Megan in Albuquerque. The friend is not home when I get to the yellow-painted beautiful wooden house, but she has notified me the code to the electric lock.

I easily find my beautiful room, wash and realize I am very hungry. After looking quickly into the computer, without any contact with Neil Young, I decide to take a quick walk to the Stinkin' Rose restaurant on Columbus Avenue. Their specialty is garlic and it goes well with the seafood dishes I'm longing for. The restaurant is deep and I almost end up in the furthest end. This does not prevent the service from being really fast. So fast I get the check before I have ordered a garlic dessert.

Then I take a walk into Chinatown, just to experience the atmosphere. Instead of the garlic dessert, I take a beer at a Café Trieste, another favorite place nearby, where staff sing every Saturday afternoon.

When I get back to my air bnb room to empty my bladder, Megan's friend has come home. She's called Angela and invites me to a glass of wine from Transylvania and a chat.

She surprises me at once by commenting on the world situation with a quote by Neil Young:

"It's gonna take a lotta love

To change the way things are. "

Megan has told Angela about my great interest in Neil Young and his music. So Angela has read and listened a bit before my arrival. Chances are small, but I cannot help asking Angela if she may know someone who knows Neil Young. No, she does not think so.

We sit up to 3 AM drinking wine and solving the world problems. Angela is a journalist and works from 12 to 9 PM this week. We agree to continue to solve all kinds of problems late tomorrow night. Angela is at the age of 60 and might have wise thoughts about aging. I promise to buy a couple of bottles of wine tomorrow.

When I go to bed, I think about my relationship with Neil Young. What has caused me to be so deep into his music for so many years?

I cannot sing or play. If I could play the guitar, I would like to play as Neil Young. It does not explain all the books I've read about him and all the hours I've surfed on all websites related to him. Critical people in my family claim that I have a little religious relationship with Neil Young, that I worship him as an idol. I do not really agree with that.

Could it just be that I like his music? No, there is something more that I have difficulty defining.

Of course, as a farmer, I like that he has been farming for many years.

I also like his way of making discs, fast, efficiently with the feeling primarily. Other musicians can keep on adjusting the sound for years before releasing their disc. Neil Young enters the studio at the farm with his music friends and plays every song a few times. Then he asks the friends what time felt best. Then he selects the recording with the best feeling to the disc, which often comes out quickly.

Neil Young also has characteristics that I may be critical of. Even though he has not injected, his drug use has been extensive. He has managed to keep it on a controlled level, where his work has not been disturbed. I have read that he was disturbed by Crosbys and Stills' more extensive abuse when they were touring together. This year, Neil Young announced that he would quit drugs on the advice of his doctor. That was a wise decision. As far as I can see on his latest albums, it has also not influenced creativity in any direction. But I have also read in an interview that he has started smoking again. That does not seem to be na wise decision. When he becomes paranoid of the drug, he chews on black pepper to cure the discomfort. A simple farmer like me thinks it would be better to refrain from both the drug and the black pepper.

Another side of Neil Young I have not always liked is his extreme interest in cars. For a while he has like 75 old cars in a barn, but then he did something good. He chose an old fuel-drinking beautiful monster of the Lincoln brand, dedicated experts around the world, and let new technology rebuild it for a much more fuel-efficient car. It costed him a lot, but he thinks the environment is worth sacrifice.

I would be excited to talk to him about his view of aging and especially about aging rock stars. John Lennon once said at the beginning of Beatle's heyday that he would never play rock roll after he was 30 years old.

When I wake up the next morning I wonder where I could find Neil Young. He has lived in a farm south of San Francisco for many years. I have understood that he would like to have his morning coffee in a cafe nearby. Before I left home, I had an idea hanging around the cafes in those areas and hoping he would appear.

During my trip, however, I have read that, after the divorce, he transferred the farm to his former wife. I have no idea where he can drink his morning coffee today. Yes, one thing I know. He does not go to Starbucks because they use genetically modified products. I may drive around in the nicest parts of San Francisco with a vanity hoping to bump into him.

On an entertainment website I found an article that he bought his girlfriend Daryl Hannah's ecological house in Malibu, so maybe I'll drive around there tomorrow. No, I will not. It's not outside San Francisco, but just 20 miles from Los Angeles. Too bad I had not read the article when I was there. But no, I do not want to be a stalker.

Now I'll take a walk down to the Golden Gate Bridge, over it and back. As I walk in that direction, I think of Neil Young and old age. Will he still play rock n roll when he is 75? When he's 80? Maybe even up to 85?

Will I be able to continue traveling on my own when I am 75? When I'm 85?

It is important to distinguish physical aging from the mental. It's quite possible to be really sick and still make fun and meaningful things, but it requires more will than it did before. Some of my friends are almost physically healthy high up in the age, but has ran out of guts and self-esteem.

As for Neil Young, I get the impression that he decided early not to be older than necessary. His attitude towards aging seems relaxed. The fact that he now lives with a younger woman does not seem to be a result of being an old lecher, but rather a result of a common environmental interest. And as she is a movie star, it can also be a common film interest that made them stuck to each other. Neil Young has lived with, and has a son with another movie star, the now-dead Carrie Snodgress, whom he sang about.

"I was watching

a movie with a friend.

I fell in love with the actress.

She was playing a part

that I could understand."

Now I'm walking on the Golden Gate Bridge. The wind is hard and the clouds come in and blow by my head. San Francisco is such a beautiful and pleasant city. The times I have been here before I have travelled from here with the feeling that here I would like to live in my old age. At the same time, I know that it has backsides to live in the United States. Here, there is no welfare like Sweden, not least for really old people, if I would be really old.

Now that I cross the bridge, I think about the noise. How many decibels could I measure here by the noice meter in my smart phone? The wind is colliding  in a loud way with the wires that holds up the bridge. The many SUVs that pass by with their roaring V8 engines sound worse than the wind. Why are they blowing their horns here on the bridge?

No, now I begin to sound like a grumpy old man again. How can I, as an old man, keep me away from whining when old age battles are combined with intimidating little adversities in existence?

It is important to decide. It's no shame being old. I have to fight until I die. "It's better to burn out than to fade away". I myself earnestly try to see life from the bright side and to live as many percent as possible. The wind from the ocean right now makes me feel very alive.

After going forth and back over the bridge, I continue to go down to Fisherman's Wharf and eat crab soup from a bread roll for lunch. I wonder if there are seals or sea lions lying and resting on the jetty. Once upon a time I saw sea elephants on the coastal road between San Francisco and Los Angeles. That was powerful.

Pleasantly satisfied, I accidently pass a bicycle rental company a few blocks from the bay. Should I rent a bike a day to take me anymore? Riding a bike does not seem a good idea in terms of the prostate, but I've really missed biking. But what the hell. It is better to burn than to fade away. Now I decide to rent a hybrid bike with 27 gears and hydraulic disc brakes for three hours and take a good bike ride. I bike across the Golden Gate Bridge to the small exclusive resort of Sausalito, where the houses are very expensive, but where I would not want to live. I pass the San Quentin prison which looks scary big and sad. I really would not want to live there either. Not having to be there for life is certainly something to rejoice. Even though I am strong against death penalty, I would probably try to hang in my cell in my cell rather than sit for more than half a life or more here.

I wonder if Neil Young bikes. In any case, I cannot remember that he has not sung anything about bike rides, but it is not too late.

When I have left the bike, I go up Columbus Avenue and find the Italian Homemade Company, which serves a delicious vegetarian ravioli. At the table next to me is a man in his 70's with a big hat. A less fanatical Neil Young fan could believe it is him, but I'm sure this is a look alike.

I buy a pair of bottles of red wine from Sicily and go to my room for a while at the computer before Angela comes home.

I have the time to skype with a grandchild as well. She gets very impressed when I turn the camera towards the houses on the other side of the street and the bay a little further away. She asks if he cannot follow next time I'm going here. I promise nothing. At my age, I cannot be sure it will be next time, although I like this city very much.

Then Angela turns up and tells me that she asked the entertainment editor if he has a clue about where Neil Young is spending his time right now. It turned out that the colleague is well informed and reveals that Neil Young is currently in Hawaii swimming. He is not supposed to be back until next week. So I have to be content reading the interviews I can find on internet.

We leave the topic Neil Young and instead continue to tell each other about our own expectations of old age. Angela's great sorrow is that she lives alone. She has a lot of friends, but no close friend whom she can show her fragile sides. Not that she is more fragile than others, but because we all get scared with rising age.

The great grief is overshadowed with a good margin of all the pleasures. She enjoys the good life. She has quite a lot of money, so she can eat and drink well. There are not many in this world, who live as well as she in a beautiful old wooden house overlooking the bay. Around here are many music venues, theaters and galleries. Angela reveals that she occasionally finds a sex partner for the night, and she hopes to continue to do so for many years.

Something she looks forward to when she stops working is to start travelling. She has not seen much of the world so far and has a lot of fun to look forward to.

She is a little sad, that she will not have eternal life as a result of her genes and memories being spread by children and grandchildren. I try to comfort her by telling her that I remember my grandparents, but I hardly spread my memories of them to my children and grandchildren. It is easy to exaggerate both the importance of memories and their ability to survive. It is more important that we have done good deeds than that we will be remembered.

Angela agrees.

Then she picks up a small box in a bookshelf. The box turns out to contain joints. Angela asks if I want one. I kindly say no thank you. I do not want to expose my old brain to mind-changing substances. In addition, I cannot smoke. I tried to smoke tobacco in my youth, but could never learn. I just coughed and coughed.

Angela wonders if I'm disturbed if she's smoking a bit. No, it's up to her if she wants to poison her senses. She is smoking half of the joint and saves the rest for tomorrow. I notice no difference in her way of thinking or talking. I take one more glass of red wine, and I do not feel affected either, but it is really good.

Before we go to bed Angela looks like she is thinking of something. What is it? She appeals to me that in the evaluation to Air bnb I should not mention that she was trying to invite me to drugs. I promise to keep quiet about it.

The next day I start by booking a train ticket to Portland the following day. I'm starting to look for a central and cheap room there, which is not easy. At first I think that which is fairly central is really expensive. Then I find an affordable room near the city center and near the university. I book it at once.

I say hi to Angela who works today until 9 PM and we agree to have a glass of wine or two together tonight too.

Today I have planned to stroll around the Mission area. Earlier, when I've been here in San Francisco, the Mission has been really sloppy, but for the past ten years, it has been gentrified in a way that made the artists, who had previously cheap studios here, protested. Now artists and junkies have been replaced by flashy art galleries, luxury restaurants, cozy cafes and bookstores.

It's just to admit. I like it better now.

I start in beautiful Dolores Park, where I find a cafe that promises divine vegetarian sandwiches. Even though I do not believe in any god I fall for the divine bread and I am not disappointed.

Then I walk around and discover mural painting of widely different qualities. The Mission is also known for stores with used furniture and clothes. I'm going into some to see if I can find any shirts that seem to have been used by Johnny Cash, black with embroidery on. Those I find are expensive and must be dry cleaned, so there will be no purchase. It may be good not only to buy new clothes but also to buy fewer used clothes as well. I who am so old may never need to buy any clothes, either new or used.

Now I am thinking of old age and death again. I do not want to. I may try to get hungry instead. Here in the Mission there are many Mexican restaurants, but I'm suddenly craving Ethiopian food. I'm taking a cup of coffee and looking for the wifi of the cafe to find an Ethiopian restaurant called Tadu, located just west of Union Square. I'm going there. It takes 45 minutes and I'm really not disappointed with the spicy pot that is served on some slightly sour pancakes, injera, which is also used instead of knife and fork.

As I walk from Tadu in the direction of North Beach, I think I recognize a lot of environments here – not just from previous visits here, but also from old movies like Bullit and those about Dirty Harry. The hills of the city give the traditional car chases some extra spices.

Now I'm thinking of a good side of getting old. In the past, I thought it was fun with car chases in movies. Nowadays, I only see it as a silly way of destroying the environment. It's nice to be a little wiser with the age.

Another advantage of getting old is that it gives a chance to make way with our old prejudices.

Close to the Mission is the Castro, the street and the area, which has traditionally been home to gay and other Hbtq people. I remember the first time I was here in San Francisco. On the bus from the airport I sat behind two young met who sat and kissed each other almost all the way. I was a little surprised, but not upset. Times are changing. Now I do not really understand why I was so surprised. And why would I be upset?

I think about how even my daddy, when he came up to a high age, was accustomed to the fact that people can love each other in different ways. He was proud to have made up with his prejudices at such a high age.

One reason I love San Francisco is that it's the city of love. One autumn when I was here I was advised to visit Castro Street to attend the Halloween celebration. I was a little skeptical of Halloween as a phenomenon, but still followed that advise. It became the best night of the trip. It was so amazingly fun with all the imaginatively dressed people, great artists and above all a friendlier atmosphere than I had ever experienced in a big city. Here all ages were met.

In this city there is a generosity and hospitality I hardly have experienced elsewhere.

We who have watched the movies about Dirty Harry have also seen the evil side of San Francisco, but it is just movies not reality.

To Angela's house, I bring two more bottles of wine and hope she will choose an extra glass of red wine tonight instead of drugs.

She does. Tonight we talk about what I think she should see when she goes to Europe. I tell her about beautiful cities like Barcelona, ​​Sarajevo and Siena, fun cities like Berlin, Rome and Dublin, beautiful islands such as Cyprus, Majorca and Sicily, adorable landscapes like Tuscany, Alsace and Öland. Angela says she is going to go to Europe even before retiring. I invite her to visit southern Sweden.

The following morning I get a hard long hug by Angela before she gets off to work. New guests are not coming today, so I can stay in the apartment for a while in the afternoon and enjoy the view.

My train does not leave until tonight to be in Portland tomorrow afternoon, but the train station is a good bit outside town. Then there will be one night sitting on the train and two catheter visits to the train's toilet. It does not feel like a big deal anymore. You can get used to most things.

From Kurt Andersson's Facebook 

Megan Reeves, Albuquerque

Kurt! I am glad you met my friend Angela in San Francisco. She says it have been very interesting talking to you. Sorry you did not get a chance to meet Neil Young, but I am sure you will survive. Maybe you could meet him when you come back for the elections in four years or when he is playing in Europe next time.

Natalie Miles, Albuquerque

Hi Kurt! Now I have talked to two of my friends in Portland, Bruce and Emma. Both of them the would like to have a coffee or a lunch with you. I will text you their phone numbers so that you could contact them when you get there. Have a good time in Portland. If you have any questions about what to see in Portland you could always text me.

Mary Jackson, Dallas

Hi! What are Swedish newspapers writing about the American election and Donald Trump now that some time has past?

I have met some people who admit that they voted for Trump, but now they regret that they did not stay at home on Election Day.

I do not think so many people will actually move to Canada or Europe the first year with Trump, but maybe in a year or two you could expect a new kind of refugees to Sweden.

Paul Jones, Dallas

Kurt! I understand that most of your friends on facebook speak Swedish. I realize that I am learning some Swedish by reading about your travels. But I guess you would be laughing out loud if you would hear me pronouncing the words. Jag tror att du skulle skratta högt om du hörde mitt svenska uttal.

Mia Turner, New Orleans

Hi Kurt! Tina and I are curious. What will be your next long journey when you come home from the United States? You said you had a bad conscience for flying so much that it is threatening the future of the world. But we have an idea. You said you want to go to Japan. We have found out that you could go there without flying. First you take a train from St Petersburg to Moscow. Then you take the Trans Siberian railway to Vladivostok. From there you could take a ferry to Japan. May Tina and I come too?

Sonny Smith, Memphis

Now I have got contact with one more of my children. She wrote on facebook that she is planning to go to Memphis and visit her father within the next month. I am so happy.

Robert Nelson, Kansas City

Hi Kurt, you told me that you are going to Seattle. When you get there you should visit a place called Café Racer. It is home to the Obama and the Racer sessions. In this case Obama stands for Official Bad Art Museum of Art. They have jazz every Sunday and rock and punk every Thursday to Saturday. I think you would like that.

Gisela Wagner, Berlin

Heute habe ich entschieden. Im nächsten Wahlen hier in Deutschland wähle ich Angela Merkel zum ersten Mal. Es ist wichtig, gegen die ausländerfeindliche einzurichten.

Facts about San Francisco

• San Francisco is located in the state of California. The capital of California is called Sacramento.

• San Francisco had 837,442 inhabitants in 2013. The San Francisco Bay Area, including Oakland, San José and Berkeley, had 7.65 million inhabitants.

• The University of San Francisco has about 10,000 students. University of California in Berkeley has about 38,000 students. Stanford University, a little south of San Francisco, has about 16,000 students.

• Silicon Valley at San Francisco Bay is a center for the world's IT industry, including giants like Apple.

Read more at www.sanfransisco.com