The Road Goes On Forever

Other forgotten items:

Lighting
Handle for the borrowed camp pot (which hopefully wasn't permanently hidden by the cleaners)

We wound up bringing too much food. I was expecting to be hungrier after long days on the road, so the prepackaged foil pouches were too large. I think next time we don't assemble them in advance.

Turns out, we stole someone's campsite that first night. He came by after we'd gotten mostly set up and started cooking, showing us his paperwork. I guess he thought leaving a single camp chair behind would have been enough for people to know he was coming back. Instead, he's now down a camp chair and had to find a new spot.

There have been a lot of double takes with the car, but no actual comments to me. I'm getting better at packing it, nesting things together. I'm also packing faster, which is very useful for tomorrow, as that will be our longest driving day so far. We'll see how long we can stick with PCH. This is definitely the car for it, as I can actually use most of the passing zones as long as there isn't  oncoming traffic. It'll really come down to road work and how many people decide they don't want to use a turnout to let me by, and then they proceed to speed through the residential areas. Still, they are better than the one person so far with wheels in my lane when I came around a blind corner. I've been slowing down for all of them, and that time, it really paid off.

Sunday night, we successfully found our campsite, but it had no cellphone coverage. Neither Verizon, T-Mobile, or carriers they work with for roaming coverage gave us anything, in spite of finding some sort of Verizon facility about 20 minutes down the road. We had a quiet night and played checkers before bed. Tonight, we're power impaired, so I'm not dealing with pictures. I think that waits until we get home.

Sunday night was our most challenging camping experience. While not raining, there was a lot of wind. We went through our entire newspaper supply and probably 40 matches before we had a working campfire. Good thing too, since by that time, our only food option would likely have been Denny's in Petaluma, assuming we got a network connection to let us know that was an option.

Yesterday, we stopped at the drive through Sequoia. We didn't try driving through because my car has serious hips, and everyone there would have had a great laugh if I got stuck in the tree. Today was the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, which Moira was very excited for until she found out it was more aimed at teenagers. Still, she found a carnival game prize she liked, so that made for a good experience. We also met up with an old friend from Caltech who lives in Santa Cruz, which was nice. We went out to dinner, which meant no dealing with a campfire tonight, no cooking, less unpacking, and much appreciated break before tomorrow's long drive. I'd try to watch the race, but my tablet claims the Tivo is offline, so that will just have to wait.

Moira has been doing very well on the trip. Yes, there's a lot of time with her tablet, but we've had some good discussions, she's getting better with directions, and she has fun texting Shannon when circumstances permit. I'm really impressed with how patient she is with everything, especially when we've had challenges. After a discussion about speed limits, she has been nagging me from time to time about how fast we are going, but that's mostly when she hasn't noticed the sign saying we can speed up again. I know my mother will wind this hilarious as I did the same thing to her when I was a kid.