All up the Seething Coast

    Sorry for the lapse in update friends, I have been traveling a lot, but I still feel like I could have squeezed one in and didn't. As a side effect this post might be kind of long, so buckle up.
    After I started walking out of McKinleyville, I grabbed a ride with a nice woman named Sharron who took me to Trinidad, telling me how I should be careful of people who pick me up that they might be crazies or something. I think its always funny how I am picked up by nice people who warn me against the bad people, yet have never been picked up by someone I would think is a bad person. It just seems mildly ironic to me. Anyways she took me a few miles to Trinidad, where I waited maybe 2 hours to get a ride from a young guy who said he would take me a few miles up the road, where he thought I could get a ride, and I agreed.

Not exactly hitch hiking central

    Turns out that the place he thought I could get a ride was really nowheresville, with a small rv park that was closed and a touristy little barn store that was also closed. So I thumbed on the side of the road, knowing that if a nice police officer drove by that I would probably get  ticket, and finally snagged a ride with a youngish couple going fishing who said they would take me to Klamath. A shortish ride that took us through some nice country, and froze my hand as I held on to my bag that we threw onto the wood piled in the back, sticking my hand through the tiny window on the back of the cab. Klamath wasn't so much a town as it was a stop, I bought some rammen from the gas-station/store and went back out to the road to try my luck. It was getting kind of late at this point, and my hopes of reaching civilizatoin that night were pretty dismal. But walking back into the gas station to go to the bathroom, I saw a girl about my age pumping gas who had an Oregon license plate. I asked her if she was heading back up to Oregon and she said yes, to which I asked her if I could have a ride which she thought about for a moment and then said "sure".

Hold bag, HOLD

    Bernadette is 25 and from Portland, and has awesome taste in music. We missed our exit early on which lead to a drive being longer than planned, so we jammed out, found some cool rocks on the beach and checked em out, saw an awesome sunset that my camera fails to do justice to, and just had a cool time on the drive. Bernadette offered to let me crash at her place, and when we got there about 1 she made some pasta for me. I am lucky to run into such nice people all the time.

Damn you camera, damn you

Bernadette on by the rocks

    So after everything Bernadette had said about Portland stitched together with other stories I had heard, I decided to try and see if I could stay for a while, maybe make some money. I left Bernadettes place after a nice sleep in, and took the bus to the nearest hostel to ask about there work trade program. Turns out that they don't have one, a quick internet search and some phone calls from the local Starbucks lead to the discovery that no hostels in Portland did work trade. Dreams shattered I walked down the road to a local card shop, and met some cool guys to play EDH with. I cooked some Raviolli in the stores microwave, and played some magic and had a nice time. I asked one of the guys playing if he would mind giving me a ride out of the city with him, to have a better chance to find a place to stay. His name was Jeff and along the way he offered me his basement for the night, which I gladly accepted. We played some more magic and jammed to some tunes and hit the sac. Jeff woke me up in the morning so he could give ma a ride to a bus stop or something before work. So I had him drop me off at a starbucks so I could try one more time to find somewhere to stay, but to no avail.

Ed and his one of a kind playmat

    This is where my penance for Hardcore modes on games comes in. I had decided I was tired of spending money on buses for once, so I challenged myself to see if I could make it across the entire breadth of Portland without paying any money, something I was pretty sure was going to be thoroughly difficult. This is also the beginning of the day of 8 rides, (Jeff included) so I will try to sum it up some. I walked a few miles to the nearest highway, sat in the grass and made some ramen for lunch, before I grabbed my first ride with Mario. Mario said he would take me to the next highway, and bought me a snickers and a powerade. At the next highway intersection I got a ride with a man who never told me his name, but was nice all the same and took me to the I-5 so I could get out of town. Unfortunatly for me, where he dropped me off was somewhere that was next to a river, so if I didn't want to break the law walking down the interstate, (which I didn't), then I would have to take a 3 mile detour around the river. My detour brought me to the next on ramp, where I met a nice pan handler named Darwin. I waited for a few hours with Darwin until a young guy stopped to give Darwin a smoke, he offered me one to and I told him I would rather have a ride. He said he could only take me a few exits and I said that was fine. So off we went, his name was Adam and he was just a little older than me.

That there be Washington.

where were going we don't need sidewalks

Nothing like trespassing in graveyards

    Adam dropped me off on the side of a highway that intersects with the interstate, with no real way to get to an on ramp. I ended up hopping over some walls, or as much as I could with my backpack, and walking a few miles through a historic military fort to the next on ramp. Right as I got there, another guy, looked about 35, had just started hitching there. I didn't think he was going to get a ride, due to him looking exactly like the kind of guy you don't pick up. There is no harder way I could think of to get a ride than to try to do it next to a hitch hiker like that, I settled down in the grass and took a nap. After a while he gave up and walked away, and I took a nearby spot with my better attitude.

Not exactly what I expected to find today

    I got a ride in 20 minutes. She was a nice lady who also didn't mention her name, and told me about how the republicans were gutting the government workers retirement and how they were all evil jackals, and dropped me off at a truck stop around Salmon Creek. I was successfully out of Portland and a good chunk into Washington now. I waited at the truck stop, intent on hitching until the light faded, until a truck pulling a trailer of garbage pulled over. I ran over to my new ride, who just hopped in the trailer to stomp down some garbage, seemingly oblivious to my presence. Confused I said "oh sorry, I thought you pulled over to pick me up".
    "Sorry bro, I didn't see you, where you going", after a short exchange he said he could take me all the way to Kelso, and to get in. It was 3 of us in the front seat of his truck with my back on my lap. The 2 other guys never told me there names, and didn't even seem to think I was there, as they went on with there conversations paying no mind to me. They dropped me off in Kelso and there was still some light left so I kept on keeping on. In less than an hour a truck drove by, stopped and backed up. David and Mandy were also as nice as they come. They were heading up to Rodchester to go to a Casino, which I must admit is turning into a real vice of mine. I said I would join them, David bought me some chicken for dinner, and we drove into the night, telling stories and such. We spent a good amount of time at the casino, I made about 2 dollars in the end, and David and Mandy lost all they spent on slots, I guess hitch hikers are only good luck for themselves. They dropped me off back by the interstate and David gave me a few bucks, I thanked them for everything and then they were gone.
    I left a local McDonalds to find a place to sleep and set up behind the dumpster enclosure behind a Quiznos that wouldn't open till 10, plenty of time for me to be out of there in the morning. Unfortunately right as I was taking off my shoes to go to bed, a Sheriff pulled around the building to work on some reports. I can't complain though, they were nice and didn't give me a ticket, one even told me of an old abandoned trailer park where I could set up for the night. I packed it all up again, and was on my way. I found the trailer park, but the sound of generators told me it was not as abandoned as previously thought. I set up for the night anyways and crashed.

Some guy in a tent: Public Enemy #1

    I woke up in the morning, and as I was getting out of my tent, a neighbor asked me "who the F*&% are you?". I apologized for my stay and told them I would be out of there in no time, which I was. Back to the highway in no time and picked up a ride in about an hour with a good guy named Brian. Brian ended up taking me to Tacoma, where he took me to station and said I could grab a train for just a few bucks, which he gave me. I thanked him and went inside, bought my ticket, and found out the train wasn't going to be there for a few hours. I ate lunch, checked out the nearby shops, and finished the Clout Atlas on my Kindle. The train showed up eventually, I caught some Z's on the ride, and soon we were in Seattle.
    Because I am tired of writing and I am worried that you reader are tired of reading I shall be super brief. After the ride I hung out at Starbucks trying to find a place to stay, ended up taking a bus out of downtown, had a nice guy give me food, took another bus, a local told me where to camp out, and I camped out for the night. The next morning I packed camp, walked over to my neighboring food bank for some food, and came to Mcdonalds to update my blog.

    I will try to keep this updated more often so that the posts aren't so long, and as always, stay tuned for BONUS PICTURES!!!!!!

Bonus Pictures:

They have to be careful about global warming

you know me and my love of clouds

A little bit of tent life for ya

The myth of the Unicorn Hitch Hiker

    Hey friends, well I stayed with Jim another night, and Saturday morning we drove together to Arcata, which is just north of Eureka. The drive was great, the roads are lined with redwoods and the hills are covered in trees. I tried to take some pictures but again the limits of my camera dampen the impact of the images.

Mountain road

Mighty Red Woods

    As we drove through the country side we stopped in a small town or two on the way, just to look around and once to grab food. While driving around we saw a handful of hitch hikers. I was pretty excited at this because besides a few off hand experiences, I hadn't seen any other hitch hikers. This sentiment is often repeated by people who pick me up, remarking "you don't really see any hitch hikers these days" with such frequency that I have started responding, "yea, not many of us left around these days". I was wondering if the last of us hitch hikers were some kind of lost unicorns of the American Spirit.
    Turns out there are still hitch hikers around, and they are all in northern California. As we drove up through Eureka, Arcata, and then McKinleyville the next day, we saw bunches of hitch hikers, of all ages and genders and beard types. Arcata had a plaza in the middle of town where I saw at least 15, they gathered there and hung out all night. I guess I am not as alone as I thought, but I now realize how unique I am.
    I have kept clean shaven pretty religiously these days, due to having a better chance getting rides if you don't have facial hair. Also among other things, I try not to smell bad, wear innocuous clothes, stand in open friendly areas, smile at drivers, wave at drives, and just try to be generally pleasant. Turns out that my fellow vagabonds do not commiserate with my philosophy of ride getting. I don't think I ever saw a guy without some facial hair, and most had long scraggly hair and dirty clothes. The ones I saw on the roads were just sitting behind their signs, not participating in the hitching at all. I also didn't see any of them in good hitch hiking spots, one group being less than 50 feet away from a spot that would have netted them much better results. 
    I am somewhat worried that getting rides in this area will be harder for me, due to the higher supply of hitch hikers, I am worried they will inflate the market. But I also know that among all the other hitch hikers, I have a destinguishing mannor that will help set me aside from the others. I will make sure to note how these conditions impact my ride getting.

Cool Eureka bar

    Me and Jim stayed a short time in Eureka, went to a bar and relaxed. We then drove just up the road to Arcata, where we walked the plaza, visited a bar, and a very cool bookstore where I browsed some crimethinc books. I decided I wouldn't get much out of buying them so I left empty handed. Jim ended up grabbing a motel and offered to let me crash there. We cleaned up and unwound a bit before we headed back down to the plaza to meet Jims friend Chuck. Chuck was a nice guy, and we all sat around shooting the shit for a few hours, and headed back to our respective domiciles. The next morning Jim drove me up to McKinleyville and dropped me off. The hitching was bad due to the lack of traffic, so I mozzied into town, checked out a thrift shop and a yard sale, grabbed some lunch, and sat down to update.

On the road in McKinleyville

    My plans seem to be heading north, I have been toying with the idea of going to Vancouver and Montana. I am pretty much the definition of Aimless Wanderer right now, so don't be surprised if my next update is from Vermont. 


 Wandering thoughts
 List of things I miss:
1. Video Games
2. Q Tips
3. Friends
4. Music
5. Thermostats
6. Magic the Gathering
7. Spendable Income
8. Q Tips

in no specific order

Ukiah

    After my last post I spent a few hours walking the streets of Santa Barbra. Very cool place, and I would defiantly want to go there again. I went into book stores and music stores, learned about a cool new band called the Front Bottoms (check them out please), and mostly just had a pleasant time doing some meandering.

beautiful Santa Barbara

    After a few hours I decided I had better be on my way, and grabbed a near bus, that took me to another bus, that took me to a highway that my first ride that morning had recommended would be a nice and faster drive than taking 101. I started thumbing in a place that seemed kind of iffy legally, so I was glad when I got picked up pretty quick. The gent who picked me up had a truck with a lot of wood flakes in the back, the kind you get if you had just emptied a bunch of logs out of it. He told me that this was because he was part of a Hot Shot crew, one of many that clears brush around a forest fire to lessen the fuel for the fire. Very cool guy, we talked about his job and he gave me a geography lesson about the mountains and the forest we were driving through. Unfortunatly he was only able to drive me a short way into the mountains where he dropped me off at a small intersection with a great view.

    I found myself in an odd situation for my location was terribly bad for hitch hiking but I was not really within walking distance of anywhere. The location I was at was a turn off to a small town, but was smack dab in the middle of a long stretch of road that also happened to be a hill. The sight distance was good for the drivers to see me, but they were going pretty fast, and had almost nowhere to pull over to pick me up. But I tried it anyways, having a bit of fun by standing on the guard rail and hitch hiking like a sentinel statue, my spirits high due to the amazing surroundings. A man in a jeep gave me a big thumbs up but didn't stop, only to return the other way a few minutes later to pick me up. Like my ride before, I can't quite remember his name, but he was a nice guy, and was going to a casino on the other side of the mountains for a bit of harmless gambling, and said he would take me a little ways after that. I told him to hell with it and lets both go to the casino which he gladly agreed to, it being a common belief that hitch hikers are good luck.
    Turns out I wasn't, and he didn't make very much money, I on the other hand made 30 on black jack (seems to be my game). But I was having fun at the tables, so when he said that he was ready to go, I told him I was going to stay a bit longer. I thanked him for the ride and he was off.
    After my short reuniting with my new vice, I flagged the hotel shuttle to the small town just NW of the casino called Solvang. I was dropped off at another hotel in the city and just started wandering. To my surprise, Solvang is a small dutch community that has a beautiful shopping area. I walked to a bakery and a nice woman bought me a loaf of onion cheese bread for dinner, I found a small bookstore where I bought a English to Spanish phrase book, hoping to work on my paltry excuse for Spanish, and visited various other shops.

    But it was getting dark so I was off to the bus stop to get out of town. The buses got me to the next town over, Beulton, where I was able to reconnect with the 101 free way. Well I had my dinner already so I didn't need to hurry of to make camp, so I figured I would see if I could catch a late nite ride. Within 20 minutes a van had pulled over, and a young woman with a thick accent said hop in. Samuel, Tony, and Susana were also hitch hikers who had rented a van for a day to make a long haul, they were going to Ukiah, and were happy to take me to San Fransisco. Samuel and Tony were both 24 and from Barcelona Spain, and Susana was 34 and from Mexico.  We had a great time talking and joking as the miles peeled away, although the language barrier left me out of many a conversation.

My view from the road

    We arrived in San Fransisco right around midnight, the city was SO much larger than I had remembered. It was really frightening to me, how was I going to find a place to sleep in this huge city, I needed a base of operations but it didn't look like it was going to happen. Samuel, seeing my uneasiness at getting dropped off, casually stated " you can always come with us to Ukiah" to which I said "sure". The car was by the day, so we ended up driving straight through the night, arriving in Ukiah at about 4:30, I was pretty tired but the guys found a place to sleep by a nearby lake. I set up my tent and crashed pretty quick. I would now like to remind my readers that all of what you just read took place in 1 day, or slightly over if you want to call it at midnight, but still, that is a lot of stuff to do in 1 day. When I say my days are dense, this is what I mean.
    I was woken up at about 6 to Samuel telling me that another person had warned him about the cops coming in the morning to oust campers and that we had to be on our way. So on about an hour of sleep we drove to a Coffee shop in the middle of Ukiah. We stayed there all morning, the guys catching up on some sleep, me preferring to use my computer while the internet getting was good. I posted some couchsurfing requests, checked out some maps, meandered on reddit and so on and so forth. Right around noon the guys were getting ready to take the car to the Hertz place across town, when I grabbed my backpack and said my goodbyes. Ukiah also had a very nice shopping district, full of colorful restaurants and stores, but more importantly it had a card shop just blocks away from the coffee shop. I walked into Swords and Boards to find it full of people, all playing magic. I introduced myself and soon we were playing and having a grand ol time. I won just about every game but the guys there were good guys and just looking to have fun, so not much begrudging. After a nice day of playing, I made my leave as the store closed, and walked a few miles down the road to a McDonalds that I knew was right by the highway, even though I wasn't planning on hitch hiking, being that it was so late.
    Right as I was about to pack up my computer, I noticed I had a new email. It was a reply from one of the couch surfing requests I had sent out. Jim said that I could stay at his place, and he gave me his number in the email. I called him up and told him where I was, and he said he would come by and pick me up in 5 minutes. Jim is an older guy, but as nice as they come, he took me to a local bar and I had an organic soda, we talked about my travels and politics, he told me about being a lawyer. We got back, I took a MUCH needed shower, and hit the sack like a ton of bricks.
    The next day I had pretty much to myself, I caught up on sleep, did some reading, surfed the web, and what not. Jim came home from lunch and invited me to a guys meeting he was going to that night, which I gladly accepted. When Jim got back that night, we headed out, and met Jims' friend Doug, who drove us to Willits. It was a meeting of guys who have all been to something called Sterling weekend, where men learn to become true men, and whatnot. Although I have to say after I heard some of it, it sounded less cultish than at first. The plan for the night was to help one of the members clear a tree that had fallen down on his property, and then have a small fire to sit around and have the meeting.
   

Caution: Men at work

Sharpening the chainsaw

    The clearing of the wood was hard work, and involved going up and down a pretty steep hill. I worked up a sweat pretty quick, but we didn't work to long, and soon it was dark and we were sitting around the fire. The meeting was pretty fun, me and the guys talked about stuff that was bothering us, we also just got a chance to go over stuff that was on our minds, I taught everybody how to play shut the box, and then we were done. I left with some good experiences and a box of delicious Asian pears that on of the members had brought.
    And now I am back at Jims house for another night. I don't know how long I will stay, or even where I am going after this, but I can figure all of that out tomorrow.




 Bonus Pictures

A global representation of how far I have traveled. VISIBLE FROM SPACE

Them dudes I met in Ventura, quack quack

The Big Blue

    So me and Jolie decided only to stay the night in Slab City, since she wanted to be back in LA earlier to take care of some stuff before her flight. So as we walked back to our camp, we got barked at by some dogs, an awesome view of the sunset, met our nearest neighbor Steve, who offered to drive us back to Niland in the morning, and went to bed. '

Can't beat that sunset

A quiet morning in Slab City

    As we were crashing a pretty epic windstorm came through and gave my tent a run for its money, and didn't let up until about 3 or 4 when we were finally able to get some real sleep. We were unexpectedly able to sleep in till 9 after which we packed up, said goodby to our neighbors, and rode with Steve out of Slab City, I vowed it would not be the last time I saw it.
    We ate breakfast in a small dinner called the Buckshot, a dirty place with prices that were to high. After breakfast and a quick wash up, we hit the road. A nice officer came to talk to us, asked if we were stranded. When we told him our story he said "you don't look like Slabbers", which I had to agree, we didn't. But he wasn't about to stop us, and a few minutes later we grabbed a ride with 2 young soldiers on there way to training.
    A quick ride and some pleasant talk later, we were back in Indio, with a day to kill before our bus left in the morning. A pretty boring day at that, spent mostly catching up on sleep in the local Mcdonalds. That night Jolie talked me into splitting a motel, and we took a couple of boring "not slab city" showers, and hit the hay.
    We got up and on the bus by 8:05, and it was a quiet bus and train back to LA. We went back to the Hollywood hostel, said hi to friends, got some lunch, watched an Anti Syrian war protest, I said my good byes to everyone there including Jolie, and was on my own again. The evening was spent on bus after bus, dropping me in northernmost LA. Although I had been in California for over a week now, this was my first time seeing the Ocean in years, it was awesome.

    After a short break on the beach, it being to late to catch any decent ride, I went to Vaugns to buy a can to make a stove so I could cook my dinner. My persistence of looking around for celebrities finally paid off.

Couldn't you just die with jealousy

    Out of my euphoria, I made my stove outside of a gas station, and walked slightly inland to find my final resting place for the night in a green belt. I kept quiet, not wanting to disturb my neighbors, made my dinner on my newly minted stove, and read a few chapters in my book before going to bed. My first cold night in days, I couldn't have slept better. Then I woke up to my beautiful view of the ocean.

That is the Ocean behind the building

    A few more bus rides got me further out of town, where I snagged a ride in an RV with a fellow who never mentioned his name. He took me to Oxnard, and on the way told me many a tale that I am pretty sure were lies, him being the pinnacle of many conspiracy and corporate maneuvers, such and such.It was odd that he didn't seem crazy at all, made it hard to deny his claims that you usually hear coming out of bums in parks, not guys in HUGE campers. Well he Dropped me of in central Oxnard and I was left on an on ramp to continue my journey.

    I was out there maybe an hour before a nice police man came and tole me somebody had called about a hitch hiker on the on ramp. He then kindly told me incorrectly about California hitchhiking law, told me I had misread signs up the road (that I later found out weren't there), and basically told me not to be caught again. I took the hint, walked across the street to eat some foods, and grabbed even more buses to north Ventura.
    It was getting dark, so I set out looking to find a place to sleep. An RV down an unlit road offered me a spot for a reasonable $45 dollars a night, since it seemed obvious that a spot of dirt on the ground should cost more than a motel. They then turned helpful and told me about a free RV park down the beach a few miles, and I decided to walk instead of pay to sleep.
    Walking along the beach in the dark, I saw a light burning off to the side on the beach, I was hoping to find some beach bums who could give me the skinny on the area, maybe let me cook my food on their fire. What I found instead were Zach, Chris, and Curtis. All 23 year old residents of Ventura, who were nothing but nice and fun to hang out with, they let me cook my food and we joked and talked for some time, they then invited me to a bar with them which I gladly accepted.
    We played a few games of pool, jammed out with the jukebox, and had a grand ol time. But it was getting late and they had to work in the morning, so they drove me back to the RV park, we exchanged numbers, and then they were gone. I set up camp quick and was out like a light bulb.
  

     In the morning a park ranger told me to move my rump, so I packed quick, hit the highway, and snagged a ride to Santa Barbra from a concert manager named Bob. Bob dropped me off in the middle of Santa Barbra with some helpful advice for getting up the coast, and here I am now, sitting in a star bucks typing. I hope to be in San Fransisco tonight, but I am not counting on it. Going up the coast is slow, and the roads are not logistically friendly for hitch hikers. But hey I am on the beach, in cool places with cool people, so I ain't complaining.

I know someone who would kick a small baby to be where I am right now

Bonus Pictures.

Should have gone and had my theatons read at the central church of Scientology.

Just Cruising around SB, too cool for school

Slab City

    Sorry for the gap in updates, been busy with other things, and by busy I mean didn't have internet. Working in the hostel was alright, nothing special but still not bad. Except that the hostel didn't have air conditioning, which was bad. It took me a few days to meet some new people, but they turned out to be pretty cool. On my third night, me and one of the girls I met name Jolie went with another guy, Nic, to see some records, go shopping and grab some food and such. We split up from Nic for a while, and I told Jolie about my plans to go to the Salton Sea, she thought it sounded awesome and decided asked to come along, which I gladly agreed to.
    That night a bunch of us snuck into a hotel pool for a dip. What we didn't know was that the pool was going to be the location of a crazy Hollywood party that night, which we were grandfathered into. I don't know anybody who has been to a party like this. Although we didn't see any celebrities (that we knew), there were a bunch of young people, dressed in thousand dollar outfits, getting drunk and acting crazy. Fun night.
    The next morning me and Jolie decided to leave to get a head start to the Salton Sea, since she has a flight to catch on Monday back in LA. We took the metro to the Amtrak station and bought our tickets, unfortunately I didn't check the times, and the train wouldn't leave for 5 hours, and wouldn't get us to our destination in Indio until 9:30. So we caught up on some sleep and ate at the train station, mostly just lounged around. Then a train ride and a bus ride took us to Indio. We walked into the Dennys right across the street because we were both really thirsty. After some bad service, we were on our way out, chatting with some dinners who were curious about our gear. One of the guys named Tio offered to give us a ride to the park we planned to sleep in for the night. The short drive around the corner turned into him driving us all the way to a Truck stop out side of Mecca.
    We thanked Tio for the ride, and set out to find a place to crash for the night. We ended up sleeping on the walkway next to a drive through of a Starbucks, it was a hot night and both of us were sleeping in my one man, so I didn't get very much sleep. The next morning we woke at about 6:30 to people driving up to get coffee, and the workers giving a strange look out the window. We packed quick, went into the truck stop to get some drinks and food, and to clean up in the bathroom, and we were off to the Salton sea.

The landscape out here is so diverse, you wouldn't expect it in the middle of the desert

    Our first ride was short, but a fun one for Jolie since both her and the drive spoke Chinese. He dropped us off at a little shop in the middle of nowhere, but still closer than we had started. Not even 20 minutes had passed until we got our next ride all the way to Niland. They were an older couple from Mexico, and spoke only Spanish, which they choose to speak quickly. My Spanish is not as amazing as it could be, and I limped through the conversations (which Jolie could take no part in, still learning English) till we got dropped off in Niland, not 5 miles from the Slab City. We ended up walking to Slab City, getting nice and warm (read hot) in the sun.

    We made it into the "city" around noon and we set up camp pretty quick. Then we introduced ourselves to our neighbors, Randy and Dave, a couple of nice guys who gave us some tips about the area, especially where to get a shower, and gave us some cold water (which I was about ready to prostitute myself for, as hot as I was). Then they offered to drive us to the shower, which we accepted.

This is the most amazing shower in the universe, any shower you have ever had has nothing on this shower, this shower will make you its bitch. 

    After some quick showers, and some fresh clothes, we snagged a ride back to camp, grabbed our computers, and walked in the heat to the internet cafe on the other side of town. Which is where we now sit, working on our respective projects (Jolie has a paper for school and I am working on my Resume). We will probably stay here until Sunday morning, and then head back to LA.


Random Road Thoughts.
    ITS HOT. I am getting tired of it being hot. Between the AC-less hostel, and the desert, I have had quite enough of being hot. Thankfully a storm is rolling in and will cool us off. I thought I would love Slab City, spending literally years waiting to see it, but honestly the unbearable heat had dampened the blow. Apparently this place is much more hip in the winter, when the snow birds come around and the climate is a little less Dante inspired. I think that if I don't get the cruise ship job, or if it is going to take a while before I leave, then I am going to go up to San Fran, or farther, as far as I have to go for things to cool off. Then when winter comes, I will return to this trailer paradise, and stay longer. Who knows what is in store for me.

Another road selfie.