Santa Barbara & Northbound Riders

First — the great news — Pat is going to travel with me this whole summer (starting in July).   I’m so excited!

Anyway”¦ Adrian zoomed us home from Sequoia National Park on Sunday in record time.   After showering and posting my craigslist ride offer, I got right down to business on my remaining to-dos: go on a motorcycle ride (Adrian bought a “crotch rocket”) and hopefully a plane ride (A is working on hours for his commercial pilot ratings).

Santa Barbara is on the south-facing coast of southern California and is backed by some really beautiful mountains.

I pled my case and we ended up on a really fun, fast, corner-filled sunset motorcycle ride with amazing views of the coast and the valley on the other side of the mountains.

Definitely top five rides ever!   Then we pieced together dinner from our backpacking leftovers and ate and watched a movie with Pieter.   I never would have picked up Sherlock Holmes for myself, but it was actually pretty good!

Monday I had the house to myself while everyone was at work.   I dried out camping gear, managed and coordinated a plethora of interested craigslist riders, went on a gorgeous run down to the waterfront, walked around on the pier and up State Street (the fun commercial district), and got food for dinner.

I begged Adrian for a plane ride when he got off work, but I got shut down by poor weather conditions and his groggy, sinus-drug-addled brain.   My consolation prize was another motorcycle ride – this time to the neighboring municipality that is home to UCSB (University of California – Santa Barbara).   Then we went up to Pieter’s campus and on a tour of various Santa Barbara highlights (courthouse, mission, etc.)

I broke out the glass noodle salad I learned to make in Thailand for dinner, and we three musketeers finished off Sherlock Holmes complimented by a hefty, unnecessary, delightful rounds of beer and popcorn.   It was a great end to my visit!

The following morning, I needed to head back to Humboldt to see my CASA kid before she left on a three week vacation.   I am doing my best to see her as much as possible this summer.   Tuesday at 6 a.m. came earlier than imagined, but I made it to my first of five craigslist rider pick ups for the day on time.   Ariel was wonderful!   Next we picked up Andre, who was quite a character.   Not only did he fail to give me an apartment number for a multi-acre apartment complex, not only was he not awake when we called him for said detail, not only did he let me call him “Ty” (actually ”˜thank you’ at the end of his email vs. the signature that I mistook it for), not only did he have the nerve to attempt to demand that the whole day revolve around what time he “needed” to be to his destination, but he was also a thorough so-cal cultural stereotype.   He was so absurd that he was funny, but everything worked out great.   Ariel, Andre and I zipped from Santa Barbara to Berkeley in record time with a short stop in San Jose to meet a guy who, after heavy negotiating by Andre, was talked into another form of transport.

I traveled the Berkeley to Santa Rosa stretch on my own, but then picked up Aren.   Craigslist is, for the most part, totally wonderful.   However, as with any online, stranger-meeting endeavor, it’s advisable to exercise a bit of suspicion.   I knew Aren (Santa Rosa to Humboldt) would be wonderful, but wasn’t sold on Michael (Ukiah to Humboldt).   Therefore, no Aren would mean no Michael.   The whole situation was complicated by none of us having cell phones.   In the end, I waited around outside a house in Santa Rosa for a half hour, Aren showed up, Michael showed up, and we all had a great time chatting the whole way back to Humboldt.   It was a pretty killer day — I had conversation/entertainment for almost the whole drive, and people pitching in for gas ended up covering all fuel costs.   Top it all off with dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant with Adam, Chelsey and brother Ben and you couldn’t find a happier Jema.