Road Trip: Part 1

I awoke thismorning from a dream that we were on this trip. I had been piloting the spaceship in its hyperspace jumps across the galaxy because Kat -- a gigantic spider from an alien world -- was not capable of doing so. A meteor startled me and I yelled and jumped into Kat, waking both of us. And I realized then that she was, in fact, a human girl, and we were in a hostel in San Francisco.

But let's begin at the beginning.

Day One: Roseburg to Redwoods.

We started off after a morning of scrambling about on Friday from Roseburg at noon. I drove us to Grant's Pass, 53 miles south (or about 1/16th of our total so far; I spend two weeks learning how to drive a stick for just this purpose.) From Grant's Pass we took 199 to Jedidiah Smith State Park in California.

The Redwoods: Holy Freaking Crap. There is this moment where you're driving into northern California, and its gorgeous and forested and you're like "Look at those gigantic fucking trees! Those must be the REDWOODS!" But then you keep going and then you're like: Oh. No, I was wrong. THOSE are the Redwoods.

I've taken pictures of course but I can't post them yet. When I do you'll understand.

In the Redwoods I drank a delicious Winter Ale and had the worst night's sleep ever due to a faulty arrangement of bedding in the tent.

Day 2: California.

Now I get it.

This was my second time in the state, the other being a (disastrous) week in LA in January. This time, though, we saw approximately 4.88 billion miles of the state, staying always on that great highway, 101. (We tried to take 1 at one point, but found it basically impassible save, perhaps, by mule.) In any case, here are my observations about California:

1. Everyone is pretty. I mean everyone. In all the shitty roadside towns, there aren't fat American people, there are pretty people. In the cities it's impossible to look directly at other human beings without being blinded.

2. Everything is pretty. Like. Everything. Last night after 300 hours of driving we crossed the (beautiful) Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. A fat orange moon was hovering over the city, which was one of those paintings of a million lights in the distance. The moon didn't even look like it does anywhere else. It was four times bigger than it should have been and it wasn't even round. This after a day beginning in the Redwoods, driving through the prettiest natural scenery ever.

3. Everything normal costs 15-30 dollars. Our car is in a garage until Monday for $50. Entering the city costs $15. I believe the latter is a cool tax. People in San Francisco are more fashionable than anywhere else in the universe. I think they assess each car and figure out how much the passengers will add to or detract from the cool of the city. We got lucky at 15 bucks. The pickup truck with Oklahoma plates ahead of us had to pay 400. I think the actresses behind us were given a bag of pot and hotel vouchers.

By the time we got here, after (literally) two hours of driving and wandering about the city, looking for a place to park our car (1.2 miles from our hostel, according to Google maps) (God Bless You, Google), we were both so exhausted we could do nothing but stumble into our room and pass out. But today is a new day, and the sun is out, and Kat is giving me impatient "Finish your fucking blog already I'm hungry" looks, so I'm going to go have breakfast and explore this town. Bye for now!