Further After Easter:

Further After Easter:

Stardate: 04.11.2010:

So, I was caught up to Friday the 9th... James C. left us to return to Modesto, leaving Susanne, Nick, and Me at the Starbucks at the Linda Mar Shopping Center, we hung out there most of the afternoon, and into the early evening, doing some writing, checking email, and so forth. Susanne went searching for Art shows and such in the area when she was online and discovered the Chavez Arts Center just up the road was opening their annual “Arts on Fire” exhibit and contest, including a forty minute belly dancing performance, fire dancers, BBQ, Dessert, beer, wine, and so forth.

Seems like Fridays are the Days for Art on this trip because the week before was the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. I'm not complaining, there was a bunch of cool art on display, and the belly dancers were impressive—also the fire dancers, call me Captain Obvious. Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures of the Art, although above you have a flaming guitar sculpture made of welded steel and gears and such (it moved), a couple of huge paintings that look like satellite maps, and the file of belly dancers coming out before the show.

Anyways, after all was said and done we enjoyed ourselves and so did everyone else I saw or talked to. We left as things were winding down about nine and walked back down to the beach, putting us at a paltry three or four miles for the day.

When we got to the beach it was already dark and we (again) didn't know what the tides were going to be like except that one guy we talked to who also had a big backpack and camped out locally told us that the “[...] water comes up pretty high there, I sleep up on the hill.” We followed the upper part of the beach for a bit and finally pitched the tent under a couple cypress trees between the edge of the sand and the bike path. Susanne cooked a rice mushroom and chilli curry for dinner that we ate with chips and the mussel shell spoons she collected for us at the beach in Montera. That rice was frigging GOOD, and we talked and ate candy and drank coffee afterwards and slept until we woke and did not get hassled...excellent 1st night in town.

Saturday we spent most of the day at Starbucks then hiked up the hill and set up camp in a mountainous county park at the top of Linda Mar Blvd. We saw several deer on our way in, and camped in a place where they were obviously in the habit of sleeping in because of circles of flattened grass. Had a nice evening, ate, smoked, talked, drank coffee, Susanne and Nick fell assleep, then I got out this computer and played Free Cell Solitaire until the battery died.

Yesterday morning Susanne got up early and went for a hike—I was sensable and kept sleeping till she got back, and Nick woke up somewhere in between. When she got back, it had begun to rain a bit, and we made coffee (tea for Susanne).

We were getting ready to make some grits for breakfast when we heard a thundering engine and a County Park Ranger showed up to kick us out. He took our IDs, ran our names, and told us to break camp while he was waiting to hear back. Then he asked us who wanted to take responsibility as the leader of our little band. Since I figured this meant that he only felt like writing one ticket, I replied “I'll take it.”

By that time he had mellowed in his behavior towards us, commenting that we had packed up fast , clean, and thanking us for picking up our trash. We took turns saying stuff like “Pack it in—pack it out.” and other such true platitudes. Then he had us throw our packs into the back of his truck and climb into the backseat so he could escort us out of the park. That saved us a mile worth of walking, and saved him the worry that instead of hiking out we would simply dissappear into some other crevice in the landscape that was better hidden.

It was not until he dropped us off back at the road, in a steady drizzle, that he gave us our Ids back and told us we were welcome to come back when we could follow the rules. “No hard feelings, there is nothing personal about this, I'm just doing my job.”

I asked him if he had ever tried to backpack the coast and pay for camping every night, he said “It's getting pretty tough these days.”

I said, “Well, don't worry, we'll stay out of your park for today, but like you're doing your job, I'm just doing mine. What's an unemployed English teacher supposed to do for fun anyways?”

He said, “Yeah, it's rough out there.”

We walked away.

Back down the hill to Starbucks by about noon where we stayed until almost five waiting for a good break in the rain. Then we decided to head back South a little way on the 1 and try to find a good camp in the State preserve on the edge of town. Found one, but only after a disasterous detour through a poison oak infested hillside (my bad). Susanne was not happy as she is violently allergic to the evil shit, I was not happy, and I don't think Nick was either though it can be hgard to tell with Nick sometimes he is so generally quiet it is exceptional when he starts chattering, but it does happen.

Instead of camping, we hiked back down to the beach bathrooms, washed our feet, lower legs, and shoes off thouroughly with soap and cold water, then headed over to the laundrymat by the Starbucks. There we washed and dried all dirty clothes and shoes (which needed to be done anyhow) to get rid of potential poison oak contamination. By the time we finished it was well after nine and we decided to repair to the Denny's, get coffee and food, and wait out the rainy night. So we did. We all ate a ton, drank coffee, talked, Susanne read some, and so did I. Nick balanced coins, forks, spoons and so on to create artistic arrangements, I started this post and played some more free cell, Nick slept sitting up for a while. Then, at a little after five we moved back over here to Starbucks. Today, Monday, we are planning to get into San Francisco. Susanne is trying to get a hold of some people she knows who have a couple of Hostel like rooms, and we are hoping to stay there tonight. The place does not open till 9:30, so then we will find out what the deal is and decide on an appropriate course of action.