We’ve been going back and forth with someone who contacted us on Craig’s list about the possibility of staying on some land nearby. We finally had the opportunity to go out there, and came back with that high we’ve felt over and over on this journey.

It was the most spectacular home… perched on a mountain top (if we survive the white knuckled pulling the trailer up it drive!!), with the most amazing view of the Ocean/Santa Cruz mountains, stunning gardens, huge fenced in space for dogs to run/hang out, avocado trees, art studio, animals… Oh my GOD… i could wax poetic.

The deal is that we’d take care of the goats, sheep and a few rescue cats an hour or so a day, in exchange for our spot on the mountain top. (well it’s not a DONE deal, but we are getting there). Catch? what’s the catch you ask? Well other than the afore mentioned white knuckled drive up the hill, and the uncertianty of me being able to actually park the trailer on the chosen site.. we will have to use an outhouse instead of the trailer, as there is no sewer…  not much of a downside now is it? (well least not for these hearty gals!).

collective crossing of fingers please from our internets please?

Something akin to a lunch bag let down leaving the daily travel adventure behind us.

We found a place to park our butts for the winter, so will move over to it on Friday. It’s not the feed the goats in exchange for a mountain top trailer site we were working on… we are still hoping that one will pan out, but it’s the next best thing.

One of the benefits of it, besides the fact it’s near Deb’s daughter’s place, is that it has a fenced in yard. The dogs are going to be soooo happy. 

Here’s a sad little picture of max tied up and trying his best to fit into murphy’s bed. Which he’s managed to steal, as Murphy in the meantime, probably all tangled up on his cord, waiting to be untangled for the 55th time that day!

The new spot is right across the street from the Henry Cowell Redwood park, which has tonnes of trails to hike… so they should be happy little doggie campers.

The only issue with that park is they have to be on leash, so it’s pure torture for poor ol max, who loves to run after squirrels in the woods.

We have a lead on two other possible hikes nearby which would allow a run, so will check those out asap… as max especially is getting antsy for a run!

Off to visit deb’s sister, neice and brother in law tonight, share a meal. We’ve had some lovely visits since being here, are totally enjoying being close to family. Everyone’s getting use to squishing around the small space!

I’m missing mine lately, but booked damien to come for a week in a couple of weeks, so that feels wonderful. Can’t wait to show him around, take him for a tour of the Pacific Coastal Highway, San Francisco… we might need more than a week!

We’ve enjoyed visits with family, stopping to smell the roses, not driving all day… all good.

We went to a great spiritual sitting last night, where one of the messages was “be still.  listen”. It reminded me of the journey we just took.

I’m not a big road trip girl. In the past, what i need on trips like that is entertainment. Music, talking books, radio, talking. Deb and i have taken a few trips together, and somehow they flow in silence.

None the less, as an ever prepared girlscout pre trip, i packed the ipod with entertaining stuff. Because pre this trip i went on my own road trip in BBF#1 and 2’s SUV with Sirus radio and felt THAT’s Totally What We need to Cross a Country.

Somehow this road trip didn’t include any of that… it was about silence, listening, awareness, and it came without words, it came naturally. It was lovely.

Fact. In all of the 8,000 km we did we only put the radio on once through texas as we felt we needed that “country” experience… we lasted all of half an hour. And one afternoon as i drove i put the ipod on for maybe one hour.

So, in 8,000 km we just were in our own zones individually, and also collectivly.

• Joe: read 3 volumes of Twighlight series, slept, bonded and amused the dogs. Kept us amused and entertained with movie trivia and more
• Kim: worked, skyped with work/friends, drove, backseat drove, meditated and looked out the window.
• Deb: Drove, meditated, and navigated us through this journey of ours.

It was an amazing  journey of silence. Each in our own way we absorbed the landscape internal and external.

We are sussing out a few options for a more permanent spot. One exciting possibility of perhaps planting ourselves on a property in the hills around here, in exchange for taking care of some goats, sheep and ferrel rescue cats…. the past farmer in me flying high with that idea!

We’ve had a lovely visit with deb’s family over the past two days, joe’s been pounding the getting work pavement, and we are all and all settling ourselves in for the winter.

It feels strange to not have to get going in the morning, get more miles under our belt. Feels surreal that we actually drove from the east to west coast in the past month. Almost like it was a dream.

A picture of us taken by our next door neighbor back in april, as we headed out on our adventure:

A picture of us taken while hiking in NM….. do we look as different as we feel?

It’s a challenging drive with a truck and trailer. There were many times where i felt i needed to be over the middle line, as the rock face on the right side of the vehicles seemed likely to scrape up on our precious airstream.. poor deb, she kept saying stay in your lane, stay in your lane! Think it’s the first back seat driving she’s done on the trip!

It wasn’t a scary tough, just keep focused tough! The challenges it provided, were totally compensated by the view. It was spectacular… winding all along the coast, sometimes down near the ocean, sometimes perched high above. We ohhhed and awwwwedfor 3 or more hours. Well more accurately, deb and joe ohhed and awwed, i kept my eyes on the road in front, with the occasional backward glance on a straightaway!

We stumbled on a great cafe halfway, so our ohhh’s and awwww’s were enhanced by a double espresso and danish, and of course we had to take the typical shot of airstream along side of ocean view!

We hit Santa Cruz around 3 pm on a huge high. Big high-5’s all around, journey just about done. UHH… not so fast

We took off at our exit, as we were heading up into the redwood’s closer to where deb’s daughter lives in Felton… charming little mountain town. We’d done the drive last year in a little tiny GEO, so though we both remember it as being curvy, we never remembered it to be the scariest little piece of road known to man or beast… or airstream trailer.

Not only was it brutally curvaceous, it was narrow as narrow could be. Huge trees right beside you, on steep sided chasms, and drivers who were all so use to it they wanted to fly along it, and damn anyone in their way!  About half way along i could see we had an issue inside the trailer, so found a spot to stop and fix.

We’ve been over 7000 miles, and somehow this last sprint killed the cabinet with all the dishes… thank god they didn’t all spill! We threw all the contents into the bathtub, threw a few towels in for protection, took deep breaths all around and we hopped back onto the last two miles.

It was only 4 miles, but it just about killed me, i was shaking like a leaf by the time we landed!

The kicker was that the three campgrounds we had on our list, were all in a row, and all had driveways that you could only access coming from the other way… naturally!

So we went along to the entrance of the Henry Cowell National Forest, pleaded with the lady at the gate to let us turn around, and managed to enter the campground. Deb and i had absolute fits of giggles imagining not liking camp ground one or two and having to plead with the woman 3 times to turn around.

Fortunately campground one was a keeper, and here we sit, safety under the Redwoods, in a fairy ring. Home sweet home for a couple of days.

Had a lovely visit over pizza and wine with deb’s daughter, boyfriend, and two kitties, was great to see them, look forward to much more of this.

Short post today, will expand tomorrow. We are here, we have arrived at our final destination for a bit. It was one of the most spectacular days of driving, up the Pacific Coastal Highway.

It was also combined with one of the scariest 4 miles of driving we’ve done. The last 4 miles of the trip.

My hands were shaking on the wheel, i thought i was going to stop and have a hissy fit in the middle of it! But we survived it, we are happily parked under the redwoods, by a stream, minutes away from deb’s daughter, joe’s sister… we have ARRIVED.

• It was deemed deb’s favorite drive (well the Pacific Coastal Highway part!)
• Kim’s #2 best drive… my #1 being the Turquoise Trail in New Mexico
• Joe’s #2.. his #1 being the salt river canyon in NM.

details to follow!

We had a great couple of days in the high dessert town of Acton, visiting a friend Sandra and her two cutie patootie sons, wacky zack, and max (and their 5, count them dogs!).

It was an amazing visit for so many reasons, and it was an amazing visit for one reason, Sandra!

For me it was an opportunity to reconnect. Sandra and i go back maybe 5 - 6 years. She brought me one of my first big clients, and with her support and helped we create a kick ass site for said client that opened up a million doors for me.  In those years that followed, she’s been a friend, mentor and all around amazing person in my life.

For deb and joe it was an opportunity to meet her. Deb had already talked to her a bunch of times work related, but had never met her. Joe and sandra decided they had been seperated at birth, as they had all things geeky/tv/movie in common.

It was a great hit of family. The kids fell immediatly in love with joe… following him about like little duckies. He’s a big kid, and spent hours with them playing, not sure who enjoyed it more!

It was a great hit of LUXURY! Real beds to sleep in, beds in ROOMS! Rooms with bathrooms attached… telling ya L.U.X.U.R.Y. Even a hot tub out under the full moon!

Cooking in a kitchen!

Hiking up some very funky rocks nearby. Seeing some of the sights of Acton, including a wildfire burn area.

Sadly we left yesterday morning, to head onward to our final destination. Santa Cruz. We took a scenic route along the Ventura Highway, which was lovely. The icing on the cake of yesterday’s drive was seeing our first sighting of the Pacific ocean.

We stayed at a campground in Morro Bay, right on the water. Since again had camera challenges, here’s a reasonable facimile of what it looks like here. We had a lovely sunset walk with the pooches last night, went out this am to watch the surfers and have coffee. Wow, california girls!

Deb was off with Joe to visit her mom, and brother/family, and i stayed back to catch up on work, and putz about the trailer. (psst don’t tell them but after how many days of 24/7… i miss them!).

The afternoon was smattered with various people checking in, which were lovely breaks in the day.

I skype it up with shaddup larry, soft touch (the motley crew), had a long conversation on the phone with a friend (weekend minutes!), emailed another, blogged it up, facebooked (yes, it is a verb now)… and otherwise touched base with those people we’ve brought into our lives.

Sitting here a million miles away, and to feel so connected…. You have to be in awe of that thing we call our internet! 

Our own world of internets have been able to follow along every step of the way, enjoying this journey of ours. And at the same time making us feel very much connected as we float.

We’ve been able to share moments, adventures, and even real time. As we were flying through New Mexico, i was on skype with a very dear friend. I knew she’d so love what we were driving through, so i made a skype video call turned the computer to face the New Mexico landscape out our front window as we drove… now that’s connectivity!

This week’s best internet moment came with a video skype hello from BBF#1 and #2. They were hanging out having cocktail hour in their airstream in ont, and we were hanging out just arrived from the day’s journey. Was lovely to see their gorgeous faces!

As i sit under the nearly full moon, waiting on deb and joe to come home…. i wonder if one day we could find that same connectivity with those who’ve we’ve lost.

Every step of the way i think of my dad, and my uncle peter… two people that have shaped, and been a dear part of my own life. Two people who i know would have totally loved to have been able to follow along. Both adventurers in their own right. But mostly both big supportive fans of me… so both in different ways would have absolutly gotten this airstream dream of mine.

I know for deb, and joe they can well imagine dad/grandpa following along too. He another man of adventure, one who also would have loved to be in the trailer with us. A man who loved the galaxy, the great wide country called USA, the idea of his daughter and his grandson together on this voyage. They each have a version of what this trip has meant, and he would have totally been able to relate to both.

i know in my heart they are along, just wish we could “otherworldbook” them or something??… maybe one day… who knows?

She lives in a retirement community so we got the grand tour around the place. Part of the tour included the pool room, so we stopped and had a game or two.

I’m personally not a pool shark, so was content to sit and chat with mom, while deb and joe played. Joe mostly controlled the game, with carefully planned moves and strategy… only to be blown away at the end by a brilliant show of deb-ly finesse.  Joe wasn’t ready to leave a looser  give up, so i volunteered to try give it a shot.

I SMOKED him!

Well there were comments from the peanut gallery that would dispute that.

I mean the shots i made, banking the ball off three or 4 edges before it flew into the side pocket, bouncing the ball up an over my opponents to get to mine. Moves of sheer brilliance, I tell ya!

 Somehow the peanut gallery was under the impression that shots didn’t really count unless you announced before hand which ball, which pocket. pftttt Why the heck would you announce your shot??? Totally spoils the element of surprise, doncha think?

The final peanut gallery comment came as we were walking home. Joe said in a very understated way “maybe we’ll have to get you your own pool queue so you can practice, cause all mom’s ex-gf’s could play pool”

“whatever”

Starting to get closer and closer to our final destination for the winter, hard to believe we crossed this huge country in our little airstream. wow, it’s been quite the trip, those life time adventures to be sure.

We’re all still getting along, which is an amazing feat considering we are cooped up in the truck all day, and in the trailer the rest of the time. The past few nights have been the first where we can even sit out and eat, so confined spaces have been the order of the day!

We’ve all figured out how to get our own space with the limits. Joe usually chills with earphones on with his laptop, often times trying to block out the traumatic events of the day. Water squirting all over him as he disconnects the hose, or worse, weird pit stops at abandoned gas stations in the middle of nowhere, listening to me backseat drive… you know just your road trip, trailer kind of trama!

Deb’s usually sitting there on the table with him, pouring over her computer and the Rand McNally Atlas (otherwise know as our GPS) planning our next day’s trip and stopping point. (she got a break tonight as we are staying a few days as her mom lives near here).

And me, standing over by the bed area, blogging, working, catching up with friends  otherwise immersed in my own virtual world.

Doing pretty darn well this motley crew i have to say!

Well except for the dogs. Tonight they are relegated to their “truck beds”. The past few days, we’ve all been suffering from time zone change, including them. Which has meant one of them (who shall remain nameless except to say he’s the smaller of the two) paces about the trailer with his little clicky claws around 4 am….grrrrr

So we say good night, our loyal followers along the journey, still a few miles to go, but the trip is all over by the fat lady singing… or some such metaphor?

I leave you with a night time shot of our lovely, cozy abode, she’s done us well our Alice.