Mendocino, Gualala, Booneville, Jenner

No, the "writing a novel in 30 days" idea isn't dead. I'm not either, though the virus inside of me sure is trying.

On Saturday, I went on what may set a new world record for the longest first date, both in actual time and distance or a special "time AND distance" category. In the end, it was about 10 hours and I racked up an incredible 430 miles (interestingly, I had just over 1,000 miles at the start of the day after about 2 months of driving!). It also ended with what may be the world's longest "first date embrace." Ok, so it was a long hug, but I like to embellish a bit.

Setting out north with my intrepid firefighting companion, with no set destination in mind other than hitting the 128 and then crossing west on the 1, we braved wind, rain, and some impatient guy in an old 280 Z on the long and winding road (zoom zoom!). Seemingly well on our way to Oregon, we actually got just shy of Mendocino when a most fascinating beach caught our attention.

Stepping out and onto this beach, I felt transported millions of years into the past, back to a vision of the primordial soup that would serve as the incubator for life. Alas, I had no camera with me, but took many mental pictures.

The trip back to the trusty Bay Area was, though less awe-ful, rather interesting. You see, the 1 (aka PCH) zigs and zags pretty much through absolute nothingness. A strangely named town here, a strangely named town there, and endless miles in between. You might infer that gas became an issue. My gas gauge just about a millimeter above absolute zero, we decided to stop at a call box, not having any idea where we were and not having any signal on our cell phones, and it being dark and all. But little did we know that Call Box SN 0 1229 was just a box - you can't call with it at all. While wondering what to do given our predicament, two guys drove by and stopped. They offered us both encouragement to continue just south to a town named Jenner and also joints to calm our nerves. We graciously declined his second offer. "It's ok, I'm medicinal!" he said. How nice that medicinal marijuana advocates have given this man so much "medicinal" marijuana that he can offer to share it with two stranded strangers.

Still drug free, we decided to press our luck and drive down to Jenner. Turns out, it was only about a half mile away, and gas was, according to the bartender at the local swanky restaurant, just "300 meters" down the road. Crisis averted.

Now, as for that novel....