06/21/11

Breakfast time!  Oh, I first had to crawl outta ma’ car again…and have 3 sips of cold coffee from the day before.  Seems to have become a habit though so now I’m trained not to drink all of my coffee…why don’t you buy a hotplate or propane mini stove, Amber?  Wha?  What would the fun in that be??!!  Come on now!  I just got trained!  Don’t go throwing luxuries at me!  Tssssssss. 

After a delicious breakfast burrito, I hiked to a waterfall (which was surrounded by wee lil’ screaming children….YEA!) and then to the lookout where I met two women.  They asked me if I was hiking alone.  Yea, sorry.  I know, I know, be careful, but have you seen all of these people on these trails??  I’m gonna be ok. Thanks.  One of them told me I should hike this other trail…and I’m sorry, but I didn’t write it down, so I done plum forgot what it was….hmmmm.  Anyway, her friend freaked out and said there was no way I should hike that alone!!!!  Literally looking me in the eye and basically begging me not to do it.  WHA?  Her friend asked her why and she said “it’s like 4 miles in the desolation and there are wild animals and she’ll get lost and no one will know!!!!!”  AH!  Lady!  Settle yourself!  I’m sure it will be fine (her friend agreed…-snarf- after giving her a “are you ok?” look).  So what does this Panda Pants do when someone says not to do something?  HA!  Yea.  I did it.  And the tiger scared the bajesus outta me and then I got so lost I had to gnaw my own arm off even though I’m a vegetarian and THEN!!!!  OMG!!!!!!  I found the beach and there were people there and I was so starved from being in the (ehem) field for like 4 months that I ATE them!!!!  Shhhhhhhhhh!!!!  They signed a waiver!  It’s ok!  The waivers are over here under this rock…come here…check for yourself…waaaaaaaaaaaaahahahaha!

Ok.  Really.  Um…Yea, it was a trek, but it was flat and led to the beach and back again and I saw…nope, I heard rustlings in the bushes at one point which may have been a bird.

I played on the beach (tssss, of course!) and I passed a woman about my age and she recognized me from the other trail.  She was all like, hey!  We just saw you on the other trail and I was all like, HEY!  Look at me, I’m awkward and will tell you I don’t remember, but HI! Again!!!!!!  Sheesh, Amber.  Come on now.  Try and censor your words sometimes maybe?

Time Unknown:

Drivin’ back North past Santa Cruz and I need to pop into Whole Foods to get a nice beer and a French Press for Krista Jean and Ray as a thank you present.  I did.  Krista wasn’t home still…(pout).

Time Unknown:

Some hotel in some such town.  Yea.  It’s a blur right now………nothing important happened other than sllllleeeeeep.

06/20/11

Today I leave Santa Cruz.  Sadly.  Krista’s already gone to work…so crushes through the brain for you, love! 

I’m driving South now…weird!  ‘Cause I missed Big Sur and one HAS to go to Big Sur if one is in California!!!  I drive up to this campsite because all the State Park ones are full and as I’m checking out the site some dudes drive slowly by in an suv and need to tell me that they like my tattoo…yea.  Thanks!  Hopefully you are leaving and will not be directly across from me for the rest of the night.  DOH! 

So I’m set up and decide to hike for two hours up the mountains and through the redwoods and also randomly fall while going downhill because I wasn’t paying any attention.  Right there, on both knees and they bled soooo bad.  Of course when you fall and you’re alone, ones immediate reaction is to look around to make sure no one saw you and then if all is clear bark a laugh out, THEN look down at the damage caused.  Aw, that ain’t bad, I’ll just dust it off a bit and then pour a bit of this water on it and……GOOOOOSSSH!!!  Oh, gosh.  That blood is not stoppin’.  So what’s nice about being a lady in the woods?  Some of us carry emergency stuffs for our lady bits with us at all times and when one doesn’t have band-aids?  One uses said item, and let me tell ya’, they work real nice!  Krista Jean had even taught me about the Sticky Monkey plant that has medicinal uses to heal you and will stick to you like a band-aid.  I looked!  There were none!  I really wanted to use it too.  (sigh)  I’m scabbed up real nice now.

Time Unknown:

Back to camp! 

Jezebel pulls up 2 sites down…with 3 hoops attached to the back of it.  Really???!!!  Come ON!!!  So this couple is from LA from a co-op and they are just in Big Sur for a few days.  Ok then, I can see that.  Jezebel probably could have made it from LA to Big Sur without any issues.  Tsssssss…showoffs. 

The camp manager popped by too and got all sorts of enthralled with my set-up in the back.  Like almost scary so…she wanted the whole story and how I figured out the containers and were they separated into specific uses (of course!!!!).  I guess they were reasonable questions?  Yea.

Then I met the woman camping next to me who is also from LA and on vacation with her dog.  She offered me some of her Port later on…

The couple to the right of me walked by and stopped and “heard that I was alone and traveling from Maine”.  Yep.  So ye’all are just going to randomly pass by all night and not actually hang out with me???!  What?  California, what are you??  In Tennessee, I couldn’t keep em’ away…

Later on I saw this couple crowded by the dumpsters with their faces all alight with the glory of phone power.  Yea, that was the portal of internet access (and they even gave me the password fo’ free!).  It was slow though, and Amber’s attention span is super short lately……………..

Sorry, what?

Oh.

I turned around and decided to get my “I’m a big girl and have been trying to make friends my whole life through all sorts of different schools” attitude on.  And it somehow felt just like that.  UGH.  I don’t want to be at the lunch table all alone again!  BLECH!  Alright.  GO!  I walked over and asked the chick from LA (who had Jezebel and the hoops) if she wanted to hoop.  I did that.  Alone.  Tssssssss, ‘course I did.  YEA!  We hooped for a bit and the couple next to them joked about it “dinner and a show, blah blah blah”, they were also from LA.  So we hooped together for about an hour chatting and such and then she stopped and needed to sit down.  Really?  Just get something to drink and come back.  Oh.  That kind of sit down.  Ok……..I’ll go……dammit.  Naw, I don’t need to sit, thanks.  It was nice.  Sort of.  Not genuine.  I think that’s what I’m missing most right now.  Genuine.  Love, smooshes, crushes, laughter, talking, realness.  Portland, Oregon, you better be real or I’ll kick your ass!!!!

06/19/11

UP!  So, now it’s time to make coffee for my hosts and do some laundry.  Oh, my laundry, not theirs…that would be weird!!

And we will now walk all day on the foot bridge, boardwalk, West Cliff and Imma gonna find a nice rock to sit on right by the ocean and call my dad to wish him happy Father’s Day.

2:30 pm:

EAT!  Las Palmas Taco Bar for a burrito and chips and Dos Equis!  Yummies.  And wander aimlessly back to Krista’s house—oh, they went out to have a picnic with family!  Sit in the backyard and write in the journal while trying to plot how to steal Huckleberry (her dog)…sssshhhhhh!!

Time Unknown:

Krista and Ray get home (the chicken was a-ok by the way, phew!) and we decide to go to the “downtown” area for Indian food.  The food was AMAZING!!!  And we all shared it which was crazy nice and bonding and now I’m just getting all smooshy and sentimental so anyway.  The guys working there?  Um…to say it nicely it was like we walked into their kitchen in their home and they were FORCED to serve us.  Really?  You’re just going to set that one dish of food on the table and then walk away without saying anything??!!  Nobody’s even sitting in that chair, dude!  AH!  Why ye’all being so mean??!!  Tsssssssss. 

Let’s go get ice cream!!!!!!!  Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!

And now it’s what 9?  And we’re so frackin’ tired! 

06/18/11

Imma gonna get to Santa Cruz as fast as I can now, so I’m going to take the 101.  It’s only a couple hours from here, so since I’m missing Big Sur in between, it ain’t no thang.  2 hours is NOTHING on a cross country trip!  It’s like looking at your partner at night and saying, oh!  We don’t have milk for coffee tomorrow or any more beer, I’m just going to walk up to the corner store and grab some, be right back.  That’s what 2 hours is.  A jolly jaunt to the corner store for milk and beer.

Um….did I just type “jolly jaunt”???  Wha? 

Now I’m going to have a tailgate party at Burger King with my veggie burger and teddy bear and panda bear!  GO!

1:30 pm:

SANTA CRUZ!!!!!!!  And the first person I meet is Ray (Krista’s husband) jogging with Huckleberry as I was texting Krista that I was there!  He popped in to drop off the dog and continue on his (crazy) 8 mile jog…GAH!  Ok.  I gotta dump my cooler, so I’m good.  And OH!  I get my own wee lil’ house to stay in??!!!  Wha??!!  With a bathroom?  I will not fall down.  I will not fall down.  Wow.

Oh my gosh and now KRISTA JEAN!  If you don’t know Krista, well, you are missing something very wonderful in your life!  So if you want to meet her, just holler and I’ll introduce you because one always needs a Krista Jean in their lives.  Mmmm hmmmm.  Yep.

We got coffee, ate dinner, walked about town, got a water taxi to drive us to who knows where!  There’s no berthing at the docks either, ok?  Unless you consult the dock officer or the boy scouts.  Be warned.  They’re serious in Santa Cruz.  Keep them babies off the docks!  HA! 

And now Krista and Ray have to go grocery shopping, so they drop me off at The Crepe Place to meet up with the one and only TYSON!!!  <3 

Holy crap.  When you’ve been alone…well…um…when I’VE been alone for more than 4 days, boy that really gets to you…or me!!  And having both of these amazing people around me re-booted this unicorn.  So, thank you.

We hung out alllllll night at this crepe place then headed back to Krista Jean’s for beers and cookin’!  Yea, I helped cooked chicken!  WHOA!  Well I didn’t actually help, I just said “BASTE!” every 10 minutes until it was 1 in the morning!  The chicken got cooked (and nicely basted) for the next day…it was Father’s Day, so it was important…in case you were wondering why we were cooking a whole chicken at night!  And the next morning?  Yea, that kitchen was clean and swept.  That’s how we roll.

1:00 am:

Sleep now?  With happiness.

06/17/11

And now?  I REALLY want to go to the Bunny Museum in Pasadena California!  Yes please!  Who wouldn’t right?  I mean Elijah Wood did a “commercial” for it!  That’s Frodo, by the way…

http://www.thebunnymuseum.com/

So I called, because that’s what yer a’posed ta’ do before showing up and the woman (yes, I spoke with Candace herself) told me that she had a slot open for a tour at 3pm.  Ugh.  No, that’s too late!  Wait…why?  Why don’t you just open your home up from blah blah to blah blah and let people stroll through?  That was the only time slot she had open though, so I thanked her and moved on.  Last thing before she hung up the phone?  “Have a hoppy day!”  (snarf) ohhhkay, that made it better, thanks crazy lady!

Legoland then?  Yes!  Oh……um……no…..that’s $70 just to get in.  DOH!  I’ll wait for that another time…wink wink.

Ok, so how about we just drive Coastal Route 1 then and see what happens?  Deal.

11:00 am:

BEACH!!!!  Holy lordah.  I didn’t realize how much I missed the ocean!!!  There it is all big and beautiful and sandy and sunny and…….crap.  Now I have to pull over since I’m all teary eyed again. 

Here’s the downlow about driving Rt. 1 through California.  I got on in the San Diego area, which means that, yea, at some point (which is now in the story) you have to get through Los Angeles.  So that’s um…not all that fun.  It’s about 2 blocks, then a traffic light, then 2 blocks and a traffic light…which seems to go on and on and on and in a standard, whew!  That’s a work out alright!  So if yer a’wantin’ to do the coastal trip, get on around the Malibu area, that way you’ll get a lil’ of the California/Orange Country (yea, I drove through 90210…iiiiiiieeeeeeeee!!!) feel and then BOOM!  You’re on the cliffs and looking out over the ocean!  I did get to eat at a vegetarian restaurant called the “Secret Spot” near Sunset Beach and it was deeeeeeeee-licious!

6:00 pm:

Out of the car and prancing in the ocean!  WOW!  Perfect.

8:00 pm:

I’m supposed to be in Santa Cruz at this point hanging out with Krista Jean and Tyson, but LA smacked my time all off, so here I am in Lipoma looking for gas, wine, and a motel.  Well the sign on the highway said they had lodging…hmmmmmm…I’m still 3 hours away from Santa Cruz and have been driving since 10 am.  Iza tuckered out!  The gas station was awesome.  And when you start evaluating gas stations and rest stops, you know you’ve been on the road for a bit!  I felt like I lived there!  The guy at the counter said “hey Jimmy/Bob/Mary” to everyone who walked in and then looked at me and said “hey, how are you doing, hon?”  Really???  Are you from Tennessee??!!  Gimmie!!!  I got my gas and wine and decided to drive a little further into the um…town?  Well, there ain’t no more town other than the gas station and a place called Rocky’s which was PACKED with jacked up trucks and dudes standing outside smoking and talking…I didn’t stop, no worries!  I pulled into the parking area of the house converted into a small restaurant, walked in and saw my MOM!  Naw, not really, but she might as well have been!  She looked up and said, hey hon, what can I get for you?  (sigh) a hug?  Yes?  I asked her about lodging and she shook her head and told me there was nothing like that in town.  I then asked if I could just sleep on her couch here in the waiting room.  HA!  Nope, ok.  Doesn’t hurt to try right?  Hey, I like your shirt, gimmie it.

9:00 pm:

San Luis Obispo (Krista Jean told me to stop here).  And I SO wanted to stay at the Madonna Inn!!!  Just look at those rooms!!!  AH!  It’s was $200 though and it was already 9…so (sigh) nope.

Motel 6?  Ohhhhkay.  Again.  Sleep now please.