10/13/21
Today was a sad day as we had to say goodbye to another member of our traveling crew. We all had breakfast at the same burrito spot and then Molly said bye to Alex, Amos, and Nick. Molly and I then went to a Goodwill looking for Oregon shirts but had no luck. We then had to leave our separate ways and it was a hard hitting farewell. She is now heading to Colorado to visit some friends and traveling with her dad as well. Then he will fly back to Texas from Colorado and she will eventually make her way back home outside of Austin. I continued on my way to catch up with the rest of the group but made a detour to Crater Lake first. It was pretty chilly with the wind and snow but the view was beautiful. I then kept driving for another 5 hours when I finally made it to our stopping point in Eureka, CA. One of our friends from Swiftcurrent is from Eureka and she said that her parents love to host so we took them up on the offer. The house was a beautiful one with old architecture, since the father of our friend is an architect, and the food was amazing! We had homemade cookies as well and each had a comfortable place to sleep for the night.
10/14/21
Today we drove down from Eureka to Patrick's Point to explore the views and rocky beaches. They were recommended to us by our hosts from the night before and their recommendation was a good one. When we arrived at the point you could hear the seals barking from the rocks at the base of the cliffs. We then found a trail and were able to see them sitting on the rocks avoiding the waves from the ocean. We then left to find the Grove of the Ancients and to drive the Avenue of the Ancients, both were more recommendations from our hosts. The Grove of the Ancients was a super cool spot that looked exactly like the scenes from Endor in Star Wars Return of the Jedi! The trees were absolutely ginormous and the plants were beautiful. We kept flipping out about the size of the trees and there was even a pamphlet explaining the stories behind the biggest ones that were still standing and the one's that had fallen to the earth. We then took some time to prepare for our drive to our campsite for the evening while Nick made a video with timelapse on so that it looked like you were riding a speeder bike through the forest. The campsite was super close, being only 1.5 hours away, so we got there around 4:00 pm. We started a fire really early and made dinner early as well. We ended up having a fire going for close to 5 hours before heading to bed. We had been given permission to take firewood from our hosts house and we thought we had taken a lot but that 5 hour fire sure proved us wrong. We all got sleepy pretty early and then called it a night.
10/15/21
Today we left the campsite to drive 6.5 hours down highway 101 and highway 1 along the coast to San Francisco. Let's just say that those two highways are like Kentucky backroads on steroids. The speed limit would shift from 55 to 15 in one turn and the turn would change levels both up and down. We spent 40 miles winding through forests until we finally made it to the ocean and the road straightened out a little more. It was a spectacular sight to drive straight up to the cliffs along the West coast. Some of the turns didn't even have guard rails so we could have just driven off a cliff straight into the sea. A few hours into the coastal drive I saw a beach that had a few jeeps parked on it and I knew that Alex would probably want to drive on it so we pulled over to explore the area for a bit. She and Amos drove down the rough part of the path, since Nick and I could not make it in our vehicles, and then came back up to meet us for the continuation of the journey. We passed through many small port towns and smelled lots of seafood along the way. We got closer and closer to San Francisco until we drove through Robin Williams tunnel and when we popped out of the other side, BOOM, there was the Golden Gate bridge. We had some confusion in trying to figure out where to stop to take pictures but eventually coordinated a stopping place. After enjoying the view we decided not to pass through the city so that we could explore it tomorrow. We then went to dinner at an In-N-Out Burger so that Nick could try it for the first time. It was my second time trying it, having gone before with my dad when we visited San Diego, and I was very happily impressed! We then found the last campsite available at a campground 20 minutes north of San Francisco and we finally went to sleep after a very long day of travel.
10/16/21
Today we all me up at my van for breakfast and then took off to plan out our day. We stopped at McDonalds to grab some coffee and used the internet to map it all out. We decided to drive the super winding road on Lombard street which is famous in San Francisco, and then we would check out the Full House tv show house and the Mrs. Doubtfire house from the Robin Williams movie. It was crazy how steep the streets were and seeing the cars parked on those hills. I could have just lifted up once side of those cars and they would have gone tumbling down the hill. Driving through the neighborhoods was super easy and we were able to stop at both houses to see them in person. We then drove to the Twin Peaks city overlook which was a fun little spot. It was really crowded but still a cool view. By this point it was already 1:30 and we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us so we started back down to our cars, found a gas station, then drove through rush hour to get out of the city and start or way East towards Yosemite. We ended up arriving at the potential campsite entrance in the dark and found out that it was closed due to toxic algae. We soon discovered that all of the campground options that I had picked out were all closed due to the toxic algae. So we pulled over to figure out what to do and that is when I had a funny encounter with random person. We all pulled over in a line of cars and I was walking back and forth trying to get service to find a place to stay for the evening when I finally found an affordable hotel to go to. Amos said that he would pay for it, and since he was in the back of the line of cars I started walking towards the end of the line. I walked past the car that Nick and Alex were standing next to, because I thought it was Nick's car, and I continued to the car that was further away, still looking at my phone. I approached the window and started talking to whom I thought was Amos about the new plan when I looked up and realized that the person sitting in the driver seat was most definitely NOT Amos. I immediately apologized and said " I'm sorry I have the wrong car," then turned around and heard Alex, Amos, and Nick laughing. I laughed too because it was a strange evening but we eventually made it to the hotel and were able to get a room for the night. We all showered and then went to bed ready for the next day of exploring Yosemite.
10/17/21
Amos and I woke up early for some devotional time this morning. We each started out separately, I had a difficult message to leave for a friend, but once I was done leaving that message we met up in the breakfast area of the hotel and had a great conversation about life and where God is leading us at the moment. We then woke up Alex and Nick so that we could get going into Yosemite. We drove the 1.5 hours into the park and were immediately dazzled by the views of the cliffs. We drove to the visitor center to use the restroom and then hiked to the Lower Yosemite Falls. We then made our way back to the cars to drive up to Glacier Point, the best overlook of Yosemite, but stopped on our way out to admire El Capitan. We sat there for close to 30 minutes while I talked climbing with them and was able to point out the Dawn Wall route that Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgenson put on the wall. Only one other person has ever done the route and that was Adam Ondra in 2016. So that means only 3 people in the world have climbed the El Capitan wall using the Dawn Wall route. We soon made out way to Glacier Point where we soaked in the beautiful view of Half Dome and the valley below us. I hope someday to hike Half-Dome because it looked absolutely incredible and would be an amazing experience. We then started our trip further south to Paradise Island park, about 30 minutes outside of Fresno, CA. The campground had an amazing spot overlooking the nearby lake but we were surprised to find that the bathrooms were all locked. We had booked a site on Recreation.gov but no-one was there to check us in or unlock the bathrooms. If the bathrooms had been unlocked then it would have been perfect but you gotta deal with what life throws at you so we still enjoyed the evening with a campfire and then went off to bed.
10/18/21
Today was our final day waking up with Alex and Amos in our midst. The last of the Villain crew is now maintenance Nick and I. We had a slow morning for me to journal and for Nick to explore the lake next to our campsite. We then had the focus of getting food and supplies from Wal-Mart as well as finding a Michael Meyers Halloween II mask for Nick. He is a huge fan of the movie and so was his best-friend, who sadly passed away from cancer a few years ago. We ended up driving an hour along our route to a Party City where we finally found one in stock! It looked great and he was super excited to find it. We then continued to a grocery store to fill up our water jug and have some lunch. While we were eating in the parking lot, cooking on my backpacking stove and cooler, a very nice lady came up and offered to buy us food. I thanked her for her kindness and clarified that we weren't homeless but just road-tripping. She persisted, which was very kind of her, but I told her that we had already bought groceries for our trip and that we were good. It was funny to be considered as someone to buy food for but at the same time showed the great character of the woman to ask two full grown men, who were complete strangers, if she could buy food. We then continued on our 5 hour drive to Death Valley where we met up with Amos and Alex at our friend Ranger Nick's house. Ranger Nick was stationed in Glacier National Park and then transferred to Death Valley for the winter. He was only allowed to have two guests so maintenance Nick and I ate dinner there and then went to the Death Valley Inn back parking lot to stay the night in our cars. I was a little paranoid most of the night but no-one noticed us or said anything so we eventually got some sleep.
10/19/21
Today Nick and I took off exploring on our own, at least for the morning. We left the Death Valley Inn back parking lot and went to the Mesquite Sand Dunes. They were crazy cool! Especially since they had been used for filming in the Force Awakens movie! We hiked to the tallest sand dune, which was about 1.15 miles, and then sat on the top of it for a while. I ran down the sand dune to see what it was like and then tried climbing back up it. It was so steep that the sand was shifting where I was climbing and so every 3 steps was 1 step up. It took me about 10 minutes to get back up a 200 ft sand dune! We then started to feel the heat of the sun and decided to head back. We then took off to Mosaic Canyon which was a 3.4 mile hike through a rocky canyon with smooth and stubbled rock. It looked like where R2-D2 was wondering on Tatooine from A New Hope. We kept thinking that we were going to see some jawas or other Star Wars creatures. It was a lot of fun nerding out with Nick over it all and taking the time to explore. Nick started to feel pretty tired after the first mile, we both agreed it was from the exposure to the sun, so we turned back and made our way to the cars. We then drove back to Ranger Nick's house and met up with him for an afternoon exploration drive. We went down to Badwater Basin, the lowest place in North America, 282ft below sea-level, and then explored the salt flats that were there. I tried a lick of some salt on my fingers and boy was it strong. We then drove to Artist's Drive and got to see some colorful rock formations in Death Valley. It was a fun afternoon spent exploring the area and catching up with Nick. We then made it back to his house for dinner and had a quite restful night going to bed early and playing on maintenance Nick's oculus rift.
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