So remember when i told you that every time i hang out with alexis for the first time after its been a while that i always have some sort of epiphany? or it always marks the start of a new chapter? well it happened. I mean, i think it’s been building up to this point in general when i moved to Joshua tree, but SF really solidifies it.

The road trip was nice up to Humboldt. We left for Arcata/Eureka saturday after a rental car challenge – apparently you need a major cc or airline itinerary to rent a car from a lot of places vs just a debit card – and i needed to get out of the city so badly that as soon as we got into the rental car I was like, so happy!

It was sunny and warm and beautiful and we had good tunes and we set out and made a stop in my fave lil town in marin county called Mill Valley and went to their awesome market.

and got there 5-6 hours later and met her one friend ariana and got some drinks and food and got really tired by midnight and just wanted to go to sleep soon. So we went to this area called Manila to set up a tent on the beach.

so the parking lot was in front of a building with a mens and womens room and a couple of water fountains.. It’s 1am and there’s this fat man in a hoodie near a minivan and we’re all like, wtf? we stay put and wait and he goes into the mens room for a bit. then comes out and stands near the minivan again. we didnt want to unpack and head out to the beach bc we are girls and we didnt want him to like, follow us, cuz you know.

so we left, drove to the other end of the island and we started to be followed by a cop car and then he gave up and turned around – so did we and we went back to the fat man area with our knives out and he was still there and he was in the bathroom (light was on) so we did donuts in the parking lot and tried to intimidate him out but he didnt come out.

So we go down the road a bit then come back and hes gone so we are like whew…start unpacking then this car comes, its 1:30 am and this older woman gets out and goes into the mens room and we are like omg wtf bbq?

whatever i guess they were doing some drug deal. she left and we headed out and we were so tired. set up a one pole 2 person tent in the dunes and slept but i kept smelling the sprouted bread and cheese i had in the bag next to my face and in a couple of hours after body temp went down from the extreme hike in the darkness to get out there, it started to get really really cold. like, 35 degrees. we both dreamt of warm things and i slept with a beanie and two hoods on my head, a shirt, a hoodie, a flannel and a jacket and draped my bag over me over the blanket. alexis was like this blanket cocoon. it was seriously hard to sleep. i kept picturing the scene in star wars where they cut open the tauntaun and sleep inside to stay warm. Ben… Ben… Degobah…