Day 2- I decided at 6am it was time to start the new day. I was somewhat reluctant as it was freezing cold out from under my blankets and almost nothing was open at this time of day, but I had been wide awake for several hours and I was egar to start making my way to san francisco.

As I drove out of the tiny neighborhood I had been afraid of at night I saw a school bus picking up children and people leaving early for work. I felt bad about my precious fears. This was a community of hard working people who wanted to live somewhere nice and quiet even if it meant a longer commute to work.

My car window’s were iced from the weather. I got to use my car’s front winsheild defroster for the first time. This was definatly the coldest night I ever spent in my car at 32 degrees. I knew from here on out things would only get warmer.
I pulled over at the “last stop gas station” to wipe the moisture from the rear of my car with a rag. I went inside to look around. This was the last place james dean stopped at before he died.

I went hear primarly because people had said  the surrounding town was extreemly creepy, which I did find to be true at least at night.

The gas station had a cool antuque car from the dust bowl days, a 50’s style resturant and several hundred jars of nuts and jams.

 

I set out on the road to san fransico. It turns out that some fiddling I had done to the car’s cruse control the night before had fixed it. I took a knife and bent some pins back into place and popped the button back in.
I happy crused down the highway. I felt like I had to stop at this long stretch of oil rigs to take it in. It was so bleak.

My next stop was the san luis reservoir. The origonal plan was to go to the campgrounds to sleep here yesterday. I decided to stop by to scope it out for next time. I really liked what I saw. Its gorious and full of exotic wildlife I had never seen before. I definatly want to go camping here some other time.

I saw a new bird. The spectacular Yellow billed magpie. They are playful and smart crows that are only found in a small area of california.
I switched highways at this point and went down the 152 instead of the 5 and I am so glad I did. The 152 was spectaular. Drifting down the steep curving mountain pass was one of the greatest rides of my life. It deserves my highest praise: it was worthy of comparison to Mr.Toad’s wild ride.

The view at this time of year was wonderful. Rolling green hils, cows and sheep grasing the bright green grass from the recet rain, all the trees were pink with blossoms of spring and bright yellow poppies rose out of the ground painting a pastel landscape wherever I looked.

I was almost in san fransico. I said goodbye to the wonderland that is the 152 highway and hello to the accumulation of traffic as I drove up north.

When I reached san fransico the trafic became so congested it looked like something out of a dystopian novel. The street was massive, 6 lanes devided by train tracks. Each inch of space filled with cars bumper to bumper as we slowly worked out way into the city. The side of the road was filled with parked cars. Hundreds of cars parked one after another on the street lined up further than the eye could see as we slowly inched forward. The houses were painted chaoticly, each one a different bright color than the last, all of them on stilts to acomidate a gurae underneath. All of this comicly built upon rolling hills. The streets drifting up and down so as if it felt like I was riding the worlds slowest rollercoaster. One street was so steep as I reached the top I realized I was pointed so high up I couldn’t see anything below me but clouds and the sky. I held my breath as I dropped down, and tried to remind myself that they wouldn’t build a street steeper than what was safe for a car to handle.
I crossed threw golden gate park with my car. It blew my mind. I had seen nothing like it. Here in the middle of this dencely overcrowed city was a forest, overcrowed and stuffed not with people but tall trees and bush height plant life. The extreem conrast left me so stupified I momentarly lost myself in the woods at a stop light and the car behind me had to “remind me” the light was green and to keep moving forward.

As I truend in to reach my friend’s house I saw the crowds and traffic that seemed unending to desperce. I was left alone and it was peaceful. I rolled down my windows to enjoy the breeze.

 

The house I’d be staying at was an old antice from back when san fransico was origonally founded. It has a large back lot with enough room for me to park my car.

I was welcomed in and given a tour my by friend tanya. The house is 3 stories tall and overflowing with priceless antiqes. Masterpices of craftmanship from long ago.

Tanya pressed a hidden pannel in the dining room and pointed to me as a hidden door swung open- look! A secret bathroom. There are a couple secrets like this hidden through the house. I won’t say where but I found a smaller hidden door that leads to box full of solid silver diningwear. Hidden in the recesses of the walls. This house is so awesome.
It was 2pm at this point. Tanya and I sat down to plan out all the adventures we would go on while I was here .I had already made a map of everything that had intrested in me in the city and we cordinated what time’s to go, what we needed to buy tickets in advance for, ect. When we finished I took a cold shower and we went out to the back lot behind the hose for dinner. I pulled out all my cooking supises, set up my foldout table and we sat together in the cold as I first boiled a pot of alpine punch david’s tea for us to drink and then set to work cooking dinner on my cast iron stove. I regretfully had left my pot lid at home so I asked tanya to bring something in from the house to cover the food in the cast iron pot so it would cook faster. she came out with something that looked like it was cast in a forge 100 years ago. Ok. I was going to have to get used to that.

We had some food I had pre cooked and packed with me to warm- purple jewled yams roasted in garlic butter, artichoke and aspirigus roasted in soup from a stew of elk I had made previously and some grass fed beef.

The tea and the meal itself were great and the warmth of the good food was appreciated as it was unusually cold outside.

After that, we played some video games together and then tucked into bed at 9pm. I decided to prioritize sleep over my journal and started writing in the morning.
Tanya’s mother elenore helped me find a nice spot by the window where I could sit in a old rocking chair and write about my day. And here I am now.

I had the first good nights sleep in a long time. I slept until 3 in the morning, saw my friend cesar who lives in hawaii had just messaged me and we talked on the phone about our lifes for a hour and then I drifted back to sleep till 10am. That’s all to report for day 2. Thank you for reading! I’m heading out for a day of adventure now.