Katy Perry's California Girls is no joke. These people over here have me feeling like Casper, and Mother Nature is no supporting party. My first two nights on the West Coast were spent in Joshua Tree National Park where I woke up to snow flakes...in the desert...
I blame my dad, really. He's on the phone telling me how California is always sunny and 70 degrees with rain only one every 365 days. Well dad, it's been 50 degrees as a high with rain the past two days. Nonetheless, despite the cool weather, cool people are never too far away. When a young woman pulled into my campground as the sun disappeared over the orange mountains, I knew she would be arriving to a full site. Vanya was travelling with her two Chihuahuas in a 1998 van that she also fixed up herself. As we talked over the yipping of her pups, I offered her a spot on my campsite where our two vans, Vicki and Honey, slept peacefully beneath massive boulders spotted with Joshua Trees. Though we awoke to the bitter cold, I learned over a cup of acai tea that Vanya is originally from Bulgaria. She came to America as a nanny for a movie star (her contract does not allow her to say who) in Las Angeles where she met her photographer husband. The newlyweds drove to Alaska where eventually the marriage deteriorated, leaving Vanya to drive her pickup truck and tiny trailer to the East Coast on a whim.
She applied to Towson University's nursing school on the deadline, and the rest is history. Vanya now works as a nurse in Las Vegas but takes a couple weeks at a time to travel in Vicki the Van with her tiny dogs to neighboring areas where she meets friends to go canyoneering. It seems that some people are just born to live extravagant tales whereas others can put themselves in the eye of a storm and find only raindrops.
After my chilly National Park nights, two wonderful family friends, Lee and Jim, invited me to stay with them in sun kissed San Diego. I had the privilege of waking up to a view overlooking the mountains and the Pacific every morning, Eyore made friends with Sherman, a talkative Main Coon, and Lee and Jim showed me the surrounding unique surf cities. When I dipped my toes in the Pacific, life felt surreal. I've driven as far west as I could possibly go in our country; I had to pinch myself from this obvious dream. Needless to say, I've been on Apartments.com trying to figure out how I can sell my soul to the devil in exchange for a studio apartment.
I've fallen in love with California where every topography known to man seems to converge in one magnificent mystique. And I haven't even driven half way up the state. Post San Diego, I stayed in Cleveland National Forest where I met a group of people who acted as if they were in their 20s, but the lines on their faces told a different story. I'm pretty sure they were all living in a shifting rotation of campgrounds year-round surrounded by hand-rolled cigarettes and campfires.
Now, I've made it to my friend Lauren's house, right outside of LA. Our first night of wine, cake, and cable TV will be hard to beat, but we intend to try as we venture downtown for some music and tapas tonight.
P.S. Dad, it's still raining.
