Nov 15, 2005 Tuesday

I'm writing by the light of the full moon - easily as bright as the headlamp, which is rendered useless. It's warm still. or warm enough for me not to huddle in the sleeping bag yet. I'm camping at Lake Mendocino. It's $20 and I can hear the freeway, but it was here, it's not the KOA (the only other campground anywhere around) and I was tired. I was on the road at 9 this morning, starting above Port Orford, OR. It's 8pm. The coast was beautiful. There are a few places I would like to go back to: the Klamath area, the Port Orford area and the dunes.

There are other tent campers here. They're the first I've seen since the Grand Tetons in September.

I took a road today without knowing where it went - a narrow road with only intermittent pavement - along the coast through Redwoods National Park. Everyone else seems to know about this road, but I found it without a map. I have great satisfaction in that. I had no idea what to expect. I loved the sense of adventure from not knowing.



I'm finally at ease. with myself in this unemployed odyssey. with the road trip genre of travel. with driving and camping alone. I'm ready to go home but I'm not rushed. I'm ready to go back to work, but I'm not anxious. There are some things I have to do first, and then it will be time.

I have to pee. And then I think I'll stare at the moon until I fall asleep.