Nowhereland

At about 7:00 tonight I found myself exactly where I was 5 or 6 miles earlier. These roads out of Watsonville all go nowhere, but there are no signs telling you they're gonna end until you're at the fucking end of them. So after walking up and down huge, steep hills for 2 hours, only to end up where I'd began, I decided to walk up onto the freeway. That way at least I knew I'd get somegoddamnwhere. So I start walking up the freeway and there's another huge hill. Didn't matter; I ascended the hill at a pace about 1.5 times my normal pace. Someone even yelled 'All right' out the window at me. Close to a mile up the road, through a PA from behind I heard, "Turn around and walk this way." It was CHP. He was cool. I ended up getting a ride at least 5 miles up the road. Shit, man, I'm gonna go hike the Grand Canyon from rim to rim when I'm done with this, but I'm not gonna carry all this
extra weight. After everything I'm putting myself through with Aimless, the Grand Canyon will be nothing.

Around the bay

I found a nice place to sleep last night, 2-3 miles north of Marina, in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately I put the tent on uneven ground and it was really cold from midnight to sunrise, so I didn't sleep well. About 31 miles from Santa Cruz, I started walking that way ASAP. About a mile up the road I passed a Dole plant, where some trucks were parked out front. I walked up to 2 truckers and asked if they thought anyone might need a lumper. They said no, but I talked to them for a while. Mike M. gave me $3 for some food, then I was on my way. Aunt Carolyn (of Sacramento) called me a couple miles up the road. I mistakenly told her I was near Watsonville; I was actually near Castroville. Then Rafael gave me a ride 10+ miles to downtown Watsonville. He speaks almost no English, but he gave me $5 and said I could ride a bus to Santa Cruz for $3. Instead I bought 1 lb of tortilla chips &
2 8-pks of Hershey Special Dark chocolate bars (buy 1 get 1 free) for $3.78. About 14 miles to SC.