me, the wind, & the sweet hills of tennessee: 2013

so i pushed up out of idaho with a heavy heart and made my way to mt rainier through western washington. it took amazing mental strength not to stop at cabela's flagship store, but i knew the money in my pocket was better spent on food and gas so i pushed on. it was already cold and dark when i set up camp in the national forest outside the park;it was colder and darker when i woke up way too early at 4am with a burn ban on and no warmth in sight. none of this helped my mood at all so i deemed it necessary to push on to the coast as soon as possible to restart this leg of the journey on a better foot; who can remain in a sour mood at the beach, right? well i possibly could pull that off hahaha but not so this time thankfully.........i came down off the mountain without ever seeing it, the fog was way too pervasive on the western side of the divide. i came down through the columbia river gorge and landed fittingly at cape disappointment. now i don't know what the hell lewis and clark's problem was when they named the place, but it was absolutely gorgeous; waikiki beach there is one of my favorite beaches on this trip, it was like a movie set with cliffs reaching right down to the sea with a cool little lighthouse perched on top. i set up camp on a fog-shrouded lake and drove back into town to gorge on seafood. somehow after dinner and drinks i stumbled into a dragshow in this tiny town; mood shift in full upswing at this point, most fun i've had in a sleepy little beach town......so i dug this place so much i didn't see any reason not to stick around a while and was just about to pay for another night when i received a text msg from a friend in cali wanting to hook up and hit the road for a while. so i put my money back in my pocket, tore down camp and hit the road again with a plan to meet up somewhere halfway down the coast of oregon. after a slow meandering drive down the coast and another camp on the beach we met up and thus began a whirlwind tour of coastline, hot springs & national forests/parks in cali and oregon. suislaw, rogue river/siskyou, tolawa dunes, six rivers, redwoods, harbin h.s., mendocino, lassen volcanic, mt shasta and crater lake/umpqua h.s. area. killer time, killer sights.....................so after he peeled off i stuck around umpqua hot springs soakin for a few more days then hit the coast again with only a vague plan to head south and see a friend in carmel. after a full day of seeing sites missed first time through, i pulled over near sundown to ask about campgrounds near the beach and lucked out by meeting a local delivery guy who told me several places to stay right on the beach but if i was feeling adventurous and had time was told to check out a little known area called the lost coast with a blm campground right at the beach. i was and i did, so i began the long drive into the area. heading for the little town of petrolia, i came into the area from just south of eureka, through the gorgeous victorian era town of ferndale. now on the map the drive was only 30 miles but the roads were so bad it looked like jamaica or deep appalachia; it took me 1hr and a half to drive the 30 miles of janky roads into the place but damn if that aint how this place has managed to keep it's isolated charm. so undeveloped you would never think it was california coast(in fact it is the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in the continental u.s.), ranch land or wilderness stretching right down to the sand, it looked like wyoming on one side of the car and and norcal on the other. so the place i would want to spend the apocalypse. very cool drive into the small lil one store/one bar town of petrolia (pop. 300); i followed another janky road out of the town to the dead end at mattole beach and the campground. i wound up staying at this awesome beach for 6 days; meeting, swapping stories, swimming in lagoons & partying with such awesome folks over the course of the first 4 days that it left a pall of melancholy over the place after they all went home after labor day. so after another 2 days i packed up camp and headed south, pointed at carmel & big sur........after a lovely evening of talk, drinks and food i headed out to see big sur. breakfast on the deck at nepenthe, many splendid beaches and dropping way too much money at the henry miller memorial library and bookstore i headed up into the los padres national forest and then on to northern california to stay with a friend for what turned into a really long stay. partying at the steampunk festival, surviving a 3.1 earthquake with 3 goddesses on a mountain and watching meteors every night with my bros, it could fill an entire blog in and of itself; the events all blur together and the time went way fast....... next thing i know i'm back on the road and heading with another friend down the coast again for a few days and a night of wandering the streets of san fran with old friends, but in the back of my mind, after many many days of living in a tent, my own soft warm bed was calling me. after peeling off from my friend i tried to take my time to see a few more things, and managed to unhurriedly see death valley but the closer i got to i-40 the more i longed to jam the car down that road and get home. i had one more stop to make, to see an old friend in flagstaff and to see the grand canyon; which was an awesome time, but as soon as that was done the wandering part of my time on the road was apparently over because all i had in mind was getting back to my home. the rest of the trip is a blur, i just jammed the car on through the last remaining states. i don't think i've ever been happier to see memphis in my life...