Road Trip Diary Day 15

Geez, 8:15am blasts in like it's 6am when you're in a car for 11 hours the previous day. There was no way I wanted to get up and wet myself (as in, take a shower or maybe pee on myself because I was too bleary-eyed to find the toilet) at that unGodly hour and be back on the road by nine. But that was the way it had to be. Jaimie had to be in Laytonville by noon for her camping thingy.

I forced myself into the shower, packed up my pack (which wasn't much since I hadn't unpacked), we ate some shitty food at the free continental breakfast and we spent 10 minutes trying to find the Starbucks that was right under our noses. But once we had the coffee we were golden. I was really happy that we were driving during the day...I had been bummed on Day 14 when the drive from Reno to Yuba City was in the dead of night. I hadn't driven that route before but I have the feeling it was/is stunningly beautiful.

I had also never driven Yuba City to Laytonville. The biggest surprise was when we hit Clearlake. I had no idea there was a lake that huge in Northern California. We were on the 20 and followed one side of the lake through several towns for over 45 minutes...

It went on and on. We may have seen two boats on the water. At 11ish am on the Friday of the Memorial Day weekend. I so wanted to go water skiing.

We made it to the camp about a half hour later than Jaimie thought she should be there but all was well. Here she is walking in with all her gear...

I helped her set up her tent and then took off for a couple of days of alone time...with Pumpkin. It started with the drive back to Mill Valley. Another two and a half hours behind the wheel.

This is the 101 highway between the small towns of Laytonville and Willits....

Really beautiful with lots and lots of trees. I love roads like this. And it's a good thing, because I had to drive it twice that day. I was 45 miles south when I got a call from Jaimie that she had left her all-important sun hat in the car. She said she had chased the car all the way to the one lane bridge as I was leaving in property but I didn't see her. I felt really bad that I was so oblivious, so I turned around and went back with her hat.

I made to Mill Valley around 8pm and immediately went into a vegetative state. I could finally sleep when I wanted, as much as I wanted. I could be online or offline. I could watch TV or a movie or listen to music. Loud or soft. Ahh, heaven.

I initially took this picture to show the Friday holiday traffic heading north out of the Bay Area. It was a lot heavier than it looks here. But I'm posting it anyway because I love the way I managed to bend the road as if it's the curvature of the Earth. It was taken at 7:15pm, one week ago.


Miles traveled: 390

Time in car: 11 hours

Went to sleep: I didn't check or care...I had nowhere to go the following day.

Happy Friday.