on the road to santa cruz.

well, here i am. i have made it to santa cruz california. really, not that big of a deal, but this is my first scheduled stop.

i headed south out of sacto on highway 160, mostly because i was having trouble finding i-5 and the map said that 160 would get me to i-5 eventually. it was a nice drive, right along the sacramento river. eventually there were signs to get to i-5 and i took the first one. i probably should have stayed on the smaller highway longer, but oh well.

i was on i-5 headed towards san francisco, and i wanted to avoid it altogether...well, maybe i wanted to see it over the horizon and then just turn away. i didnt ever see it. the expressway system around the bay area is the most congested and thick i have ever seen. maybe until i get to la. but there are layers on layers of downtown bypass expressways, and of course i got a bit lost. and i was running out of gas at the time.

eventually i righted myself and found state highway 17 south to santa cruz and when i got here i just drove around a bit to see what was there. and i realized that i had been to SC before and it took me a very long time to remember when.

at first i thought it was with the clowns, who i caught a ride south with at some point, the year or reason i dont remember. but that is where my friend happy the clown came from.

anyway, i remembered it was from when steve and i rode our bikes south, we came to a spot in SC looking for food not bombs, and i dont think they ever showed so we rode back out to the coast where our camp was.

the boardwalk

so, that was all i had ever done here, so i drove around and went to the boardwalk. the boardwalk looks like fun, and i think i will spend the 17 bucks tomorrow for a five hour pass to ride the rides. there are some roller coasters and bumper cars, etc. i might just skip it, but if i plan to be here a couple of day i gotta fill my time somehow.

after the boardwalk i called bradley. i havent talked to him for years and i was nervous. but it was okay. he was at lunch and is going to call me when he gets done with work. then i dont know. maybe dinner, maybe partying. we are in a college town.

but so far santa cruz is nice. i am sitting at a bar and having some drinks. i didnt really get a good look for where to park for the night, maybe bradley can help with that. i have put some more photos up on the flickr page, so view them there!