I lost mine today when my third audio book finished. This one was Ken Follet's World Without End, and it was 14 hours long on 12 CDs, read by the wonderful John Lee. It finished while I was driving along the coast, and I felt like I had lost a friend. Not a dear friend like Stella, of course, but John Lee's voice had become soothing to me, like the presence of another person in the car... a person who, admittedly, only wanted to tell me the story of the prosperous town of Kingsbridge, set in 14th-century England.
My first idea as to how to ameliorate the newfound silence within my little car was to turn on the radio... but, silly me, radio waves don't reach the middle of nowhere. For the first time, I experienced the feeling of utter bewilderment that comes from pressing "scan" and watching the digital numbers race by, never stopping, for minutes on end. So, to pass the time, I had conversations with Stella about where we were going. She, too, was not very entertaining, since there were no turns coming up.
It wasn't always like this. In fact, just yesterday I was touring wineries in Napa! What a blast. I had chosen some good ones from my research, and one even gave me a free tasting. I've never been able to understand how people can talk so seriously about something as inconsequential as wine, but the landscape was so beautiful that even I got a bit caught up in the whole culture of it. Here's a picture of some of the vines at the Robert Mondavi winery:
After that, it was all wilderness. My next stop was Point Reyes Station, which is a natural reserve that juts out into the Pacific. The hostel where I stayed was six miles away from "civilization," if the tiny town of Point Reyes counts as such. But, as usual, the views were spectacular:
Here I am coexisiting with nature quite peaceably:
I really loved this hostel. Unlike most of the other hostels I've stayed at, which have been populated by international students, here the guests were of all different ages and just seemed to be outdoorsy types. This bumper sticker caught my eye:
In case you don't have superhero eyes, it says: "It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber." My mom has a T-shirt with that same message on it from the early 80s when we lived in Germany and she worked at a school on an air force base! I wonder if the owners of this minivan lived at that base, or if merchandise with this message is now in mass production? Anyway, sleeping in a bunkbed in the wilderness, I was reminded of the good ole days at Camp Calumet Lutheran, and really got into the whole middle-of-the-woods mood.
I woke up early this morning because I knew I had a lot of driving to do to get to Mendocino (where I am now). Here's the coast just north of Point Reyes at 7:30am:
Once I got to Mendocino, I was able to buy another audio book (thank GOODNESS!), so I am all set for the drive to Eureka tomorrow. I might try to get all the way to the Redwood Forest, because I am so excited about exploring it. And no, not just because it's referenced in "This Land is My Land."
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