Sometimes Everything Just Falls Into Place

Thursday, June 28, 2007 - Day 7

Distance Traveled - 32 miles

Overall, camping went well. I didn't get kicked out of my sweet little nook. Sleeping in the hammock mustn't have been too bad because I slept most of the night and felt refreshed in the morning. I went to bed just after 10:30. I was comfortable. At 2:30 I woke up with a cold back. That's where the hammock falls short of tent camping. It leaves plenty of space for drafts to circulate underneath, creating a cold sleeping surface. Everyone knows you can't get good sleep with a cold back. I guess it was fine sleeping on my side. After about 10 or 20 minutes I fell back asleep until 6:30, when it started to get light and traffic started to pick up on PCH. Went back to sleep and woke up for good around 8:30.

Packed up my stuff, walked to the restaurant next door, filled up the water bottles and washed my hands, walked across the street and ate a nice breakfast while watching the surfers down below. Not a bad way to start out a day.

I didn't really plan out the rest of the day too well. I needed to find a place to stay for the night, and my thought was to find a place on couchsurfing.com. Leaving at around 11:00 from the Ventura county line, I didn't find a place to get on the internet until Oxnard, which is about 20-25 miles. Man, fuck Starbucks and T-mobile. I thought for sure Starbucks had free internet. You gotta pay 10 bucks for a day's worth of access. I paid it, because it's hard to find internet when you don't know a town at all. Emailed 5 or 6 people, figuring that it was going to be rough finding a place. Six hours notice is not much time to expect a stranger to open up their house. I stayed optimistic.

By 4:30 or 5, when I pulled into Ventura, I hadn't heard from anyone. I got on the internet for a while at a Starbucks (I won't buy anything from them, though) and searched for other options - hostels, other hosts further down the road. Then it came down to looking for campgrounds. I didn't really want to camp another night, desperately in need of a shower and clean clothes. I guess that's the way shit goes down sometimes, though.

I decided to get some dinner, gind a grocery store to get some food for camping and head out to find a spot before dark. Downtown Ventura is pretty nice. It's small and quaint, but actually has practical shops and good restaurants. I spotted a place called Nature's Grill. Thought some healthy good would do me some good. So that's where it begins, deciding on this restaurant. I pulled up on my bike to scope out the specials. Looked good. There were two EMT's sitting outside at a table. They looked like bros to me. I parked my bike and headed in. On the way in, one of the EMTs said something to me. "This place is the bomb," or something like that. Feeling friendly, I asked them what was good and what they got. They weren't sure what they got. Funny. Then I took a chance and asked them if there were any hostels in the area, knowing that there weren't. They said no, then I asked about camp grounds. They told me of one or two, which I already knew about. So I went inside to get some food. Ordered, sat down, got on my computer to look up some stuff and type. A little while later one of the EMTs walks by and asks me where I was biking from. I told him my story then asked if he knew anyone who put up travelers for the night. He said the only person he knew that lived close was his aunt, and she had full family and such. I understood. Off he went.

After eating, the girl I ordered from came by and took my plate. She said she overheard that I was biking and asked me a few questions. I asked her if she knew anyone that could put me up for the night. "I don't normally do stuff like this, but I have a couch you could sleep on." No shit! That's how it goes. There are still good people in the world. With a little charm and conversation, things can work out sometimes.

So we arranged to meet at the bar across the street after she got off. There was a live band there - Led Zepplica. They were awesome. They actually sounded really good. The guitarist was perfect - kinda goofy looking with a ridiculous shirt, funky hair, and a goofy smile. He was good though. The drummer had a sweet mullet and muscle shirt. As the night matured and the drinks were flowing, the older ones began to loosen up and start to dance. Always entertaining, older women with recently-aquired confidence in their ability to move their bodies in a recognizable rhythm in sync with the music.

Tatiana (the kind soul) was so nice and let me take a shower and do my laundry. That was much needed considering I hadn't showered in three days and was wearing the same clothes I wore the day before. I'm sure I must have smelled great.

I really just can't get over how well things worked out for me. It was fate I chose that restaurant, fate that those EMT's talked to me, and fate, perhaps even that I sat where I did. It all weaves together in this elaborate set-up for what occurred. I look forward to more instances of this.

Thanks again, Tatiana. It is amazing what you did. It takes a lot of courage these days to take in a random stranger in such a hospitable way. Kudos to you for trusting me. I hope I can help you out someday.

Tomorrow it's on to Isla Vista, UCSB party town. Should be fun.

OTIS










Send Otis a comment

name:

email:

title:

message:


Comments

Long Lost Cousin

Jess

This is the best material I've read in a long long time. I think this trip you're doing is so cool. I can't wait to hear about future adventures. Good luck and stay safe!!


untitled

Teresa

Not cool insulting the guitarist for Led Zepplica. He is a great person and a good friend of mine. He would never speak ill of someone else.


re: untitled

Otis

Didn't even realize I insulted him. I thought he was great. I guess I'm not really sure what was insulting that I said. I never had a conversation with the guy, so I made no judgement about his characer. I just said he was goofy looking. I guess that could be taken as an insult. I consider myself to be goofy looking. Oh well, people take things how they will. No control over that.


Good Luck

Tatiana Kaiser

Thank you for proving that kindness pays off, you are right, it is hard to trust people these days but you had a kind face and i'm glad thing worked out! Thanks for all the great music and I hope you have a great rest of your journey and be safe! Good Luck and have fun!!