My next stop traveling up the coast of California was Santa Cruz. Normally there’s no place downtown to park overnight, but luckily for me, due to construction, I was able to park there.
My first day out exploring I stumbled upon a craft show. The street was lined with vendors selling beautiful art, and they were all so friendly. At the end of the row, I walked up to a booth with maps of the city, and as I was looking a guy named Leo came up and started talking to me. I asked him what was worth seeing, and he said he could show me around. He spent the whole day walking around town with me, showing me the shops and everything there was to see: book stores, an apothecary, crystal shops, toy stores, almost every kind of store you could imagine, and we explored them all.
He took me to a tea shop where we sat at a small outdoor table amongst plants. They brought us black tea in a bowl, which at first I thought was silly, having never been served tea from a bowl before, but I loved it.
As the evening died down and we were running out of things to do, we passed the movie theater and figured we might as well try to sneak in. It was way easier than we thought it would be. You could purchase tickets online, and there was nobody to check that you had done that, so we just walked in. The first theater we went into already had a movie playing. I watched in horror as a man in a little boat sank, he died and then the movie ended. I was glad we only saw the last ten minutes and not the whole thing. We decided to try the next theater, and that one was showing previews, which was promising. We sat in the back, but a couple came up and told us we were in their seats. We moved to the front row, and luckily for us, they ended up being the only free seats in the whole theater. The movie was “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3.” Neither of us had seen the first two, but we both enjoyed it, and it was a great way to end the night.
The next day I decided to go check out the beach scene. The first section of beach I came to was a dog beach, Sophie’s favorite. It was at the bottom of a cliff with stairs that went down to the sand. Sophie loved running around and playing with the other dogs. She was having so much fun that I ended up spending most of the day there. Maggie took the opportunity to nap all day.
While I was there, I met a guy who told me about a comedy show at a bar that night. I decided to go check it out, and discovered it was in a small Irish bar. There weren’t many people at the show, and some of the comedians were more cringy than funny, but it was still fun. Afterwards I hung out there chatting with the comedians till the bar closed. Once it closed the town was dead. It seemed like the city shuts down around 11. I decided to wander around, and found a group of Dirty Kids (a name used for train hopping traveling folk) hanging out on the street. I sat and visited with them for a while, and then continued on and met a guy who also lives in a short bus. He showed me around his bus, and we hung out for a bit before I went back home for the night.
I spent the next few days enjoying the city and the dog beach. One of my favorite things about this city was the small-town feeling it had. Everyone was so friendly, and everyone seemed to know each other.
Alongside the ocean there was a long stretch of sidewalk with lots to look at. At one part there were about 20 sailboats off in the distance that I enjoyed watching for a bit. Closer to shore there were surfers and I was astounded to see some of them throw their boards off a cliff, then jumped in behind them, far into the ocean below.
Another part of the beach had nothing but surfers, some experienced and others just learning. I would love to learn to surf someday, and could picture myself spending a summer here, doing just that. At the end of the sidewalk there was an amusement park, which looked like fun, but was far too expensive for me, so I just relaxed on the beach some more.
After Santa Cruz, it was time for me to move onto the next place: San Francisco. I parked right by the Golden Gate Bridge, which was huge and beautiful. It was also red, which I had not expected, thinking it would have been golden in color.
The bridge was also surrounded by old forts from the Civil War. I hadn’t even realized California had been involved in that war, but the military protected the Bay Area because much of the Union government’s funding was supported by gold from California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains that was shipped through the Bay. All parts of the forts were open for exploration. I walked around with the pups exploring the whole area, and every surface of the fort walls were covered in colorful graffiti.
The next day, the dogs and I walked along the numerous trails that twisted through the grassy oceanside, after which my friend Barklee, who I had met in my home-town a few years back, came to pick me up. He was now living here and said he would show me around. He picked me up in his Tesla; I had never been in one before. It amazed me as it drove itself around the city, which was also a little scary.
First Barklee took me to an overlook where you could see the entire city. I’d had no clue just how big it really was. After that he showed me around. We looked at all the buildings and bought cookies at a tiny little store and ate them in a park.
I liked the looks of this city because it seemed to have more character than most. Other than one small section with sky scrapers, the rest was all smaller buildings painted in many different, bright colors.
That night I joined him and his friends to go see “The Little Mermaid” in a movie theater. It had those cushy, luxurious seats that reclined. The movie was good, and I loved all the bright colors, although I’m not a fan of the story line. What kind of girl gives up her entire life for some man she just met? But I digress.
The next day I had the task of finding someone to work on my brakes. They had started making sketchy grinding noises. After multiple calls, I was finally able to find a shop that would take my bus. Most of the places said it was too big and heavy for them to handle. I dropped off my bus thinking everything was good and walked my dogs around Pacifica, the little beach town south of San Francisco where the shop was.
After a couple hours I got a phone call, and it turned out the bolts on three of my tires were seized up and they wouldn’t be able to do the job, which seemed ridiculous to me since shouldn’t a mechanic be able to handle seized bolts? When I went to pick it up, they also told me that it was unsafe to drive and legally they couldn’t let me drive it. So they drove it off their lot and parked it on the side of the road. I was back where I started.
I called more shops, explaining the situation, and found someone who could get it in the next day. I double checked that they knew it was a bus, which they said would be no issue. The next day when I arrived and they saw it, they changed their minds. It was quite discouraging to have to begin the process all over again, but I started calling every shop in the area trying to find someone to change the brakes. Eventually I found a shop who said they could do it that day. I dropped it off once again while taking the dogs to a small, nearby dog park. I left Thomas the cat in the bus hoping no one would notice.
Luckily for me they were able to get the tires off and replace what needed replacing. It took hours but I didn’t mind because I was relieved and grateful to have it fixed. When they handed me my keys, they chuckled and told me my bus was their biggest headache of the week.
After my brakes were fixed, I had plans to meet back up with Barklee. He and his friends were having a house party, then going to some fancy club. Luckily I had just bought a cute outfit from a thrift store. At the house party we played beer pong until it was time to go, and Barklee and I won every match.
At the club we had our own table in a small roped off section. They brought bottles and juice to the table with cups where we made our own drinks. There were two sections of the club with different types of music. One was house music while the other played top hits. It was nice to be out dancing again, and although I’ve been to a few clubs before, I had never experienced one that fancy. It was fun, but I also felt a little out of place.
I enjoyed my stay in San Francisco, but it was time for me to leave because I was growing tired of big cities and crowds. I needed to escape back to nature. So there I was, back on the road again.
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