Feeling a lot better this morning, slept really well at the Montgomery camping area. Slogged out the sandy path to the beach at dusk and took some pictures of spooky driftwood shelters.
After a breakfast of corned beef hash – no eggs, because I dind’t remember to pick any up – I worked on all the little things I’d been needing to mail: car insurance, LA street sweeping ticket ($45), notice to my old gardener that I don’t live there anymore, keys to the new people. Also hooked up the other battery charger, and tested the solar panel, which seems to be putting out juice but I hesitate to lop off the cable until I really need to – may end up using alligator clips until I can find a boat store and be sure they don’t have the connector end.
I made my way up the foggy coast through Mendocino; cruised Noyo harbor, and remembered this brewery as I was passing. At the gift shop I grabbed a variety of beverages, as well as a newsletter listing a load of breweries in N. Cal, Oregon and Washington. There’s a lot of them – I could spend weeks drinking my way from one to the next, if that was what I wanted to do (in a very small way, it is, but life intervenes). I refrained from buying a t-shirt; I’ve already got too many t-shirts as it is, and I’m sure there will be other temptations, especially if I visit one or more of the breweries listed.
Someday there will be t-shirts (as well as other clothing) that you can change the message at will, so you can have whatever logo you want, one day to the next, or change it every minute. Hopefully they won’t be full video for a while, that would be way too distracting.
Heading over through Ukiah to Artois this afternoon, bypassing Harbin hot springs; I’ve never been there but I hear about it often and if it’s not too far off my route I may take a look.
Am feeling a lot more peaceful this morning. Walking on the beach helped, as did a good night’s sleep, and a day or so away from the cellphone and the interent (I expect they’ll be back later today and I’ll manage to post this).
Aside from San Francisco, I’ve resisted the urge to do any shopping, especially of the tourist variety. Though I think my van does need a bunch of new stickers – when I was at the Vanagon place in SLO, they told me that the suspension always has a little bit of lean in it, and I added, “…to the left, like the owners?”
Mmph, yummy stout, #38. Also tried a Pranqster Belgian style ale; some Belgians taste great, others taste like ham, this was somewhere in the middle but was much better when combined with my burger with onions.
I’ve been listening to books on tape – just finished the “Number One Ladies Detective Agency” which was moderately entertaining but quite well-read, and now I’m on P.J. O’Rourke’s “Peace Kills”. They do make the miles pass, but at the same time I think they prevent me from thinking and distract me somewhat from enjoying the scenery. (shrug)