an untitled journey

Goleta

Awoke this morning to the sound of waves. I slept near the edge of the cliffs at the Santa Barbara Shores in Goleta under a canopy of trees. It was around 6am and it took until nearly 7am to pack up and walk to the 101 on-ramp nearby.

I think I was there for less than an hour when a 30-something hippie couple on bikes came up and spoke with me for a few minutes and told me to walk down about a quarter mile to where the 101 briefly turns into a state highway. I did so and was picked up by a girl a little younger than I. She was very friendly and drove me to Santa Maria while we discussed Supernatural.

From there I caught a ride from an older guy who drove me to Pismo Beach. We spoke about traveling and the coast and marijuana state laws. He dropped me off at an RV park and I stopped into the laundromat there to wash my clothes. A woman from Bend, Oregon lent me a towel and some soap and the code to the showers. I am now at the beach to enjoy the last few hours of the day.

Pismo to San Jose

Spent last night with a fellow traveler. It was her that I noticed the night before last; her site was more hidden than mine but I noticed her standing at dusk. I woke at 5:40am and we broke camp around 6:50am. Taking the bus along Grand Avenue, we parted a mile down the road. I caught a ride from a guy to San Luis Obisbo and from there I caught a bus for two dollars to Paso Robles. I waited for about 45 minutes before getting a ride to San Jose from an Algerian man who regularly made that commute.

It was about a 4 hour drive filled with discussions on politics and philosophy ending in his dropping me off near a train station in downtown San Jose. It was late in the afternoon and too late to try to get through San Francisco and so I walked the city until dusk, found a large park, and sat to read the night away.

San Jose to Santa Rosa

I left the brightly lit park around 4:30am to walk a bit and caught a train later in the morning into downtown San Francisco, connecting to a bus to Santa Rosa.

Santa Rosa to Arcata

Got a couple of rides into Willits. The lady who gave me a ride directly into town told me it was unlikely I'd find someone going all the way to Eureka that late in the day and offered her couch if I didn't find a ride (gave me her number). I tried for over an hour but hadn't any luck so I contacted her. Her name was T-- and had a 16 year old son who wanted to hitchhike down the coast after finishing high school. Ate dinner at her house and the next morning she gave me a ride to the bypass - it was built last year to redirect the 101 traffic around Willits.

A guy in a monster truck who looked like Wolverine gave me a ride into Laytonville, where I stopped by a food truck and got biscuits & gravy; there I met two women who had stopped on their way to work in a radio station in Garberville. While I waited there for a ride, a slightly crazed looking old guy talked to me about this and that, telling me he was 35. He didn't talk for long and got picked up before me. I waited another half hour before getting picked up from three people in a covered pickup packed to the brim; they gave me a lift into Arcata.

Arcata

I set up my tarp a couple of miles away underneath two trees and a giant stump. The storm didn't start until after dark, though. I haven't seen one like that in months. I was picked up by a woman named S-- who I met online; she had posted an ad on Craigslist for a volunteer to take care of her goats while she took part in a perch fishing competition.

Woke up at 6:30 this morning to feed the goats and chickens. The adult goats got straw and the babies got a bottle although one didn't drink theirs. I spent some time reading the second book in the All Souls trilogy over breakfast. S-- came back from perch fishing around noon and took me to a fish fry at the local elementary school - proceeds going to the fire department. After going back to the house, we cleaned out part of the sun room.

I joined her daughter & her boyfriend on a walk to the beach. We dug for sand crabs to use for bait while he fished.

A bit before we left, we saw a small sea lion who seemed exhausted. S/he managed to get back into the ocean after quite a long time of croaking and wriggling toward the water.