Day 78: is it all over?

I awoke next to Tian for the last time in what will probably be a very long time. Ishaq was sleeping on the floor. I had set an alarm for 6:25am to wake everyone up at 6:30am and hurry them out of the house by 7am. It was 6:15am. As of early yesterday, there were only seven of us here.

I thought for a moment about not waking anyone up at all, so they would miss their flights and today wouldn’t be possibly the last day I see some of them. But I shooed away these delusions and got to waking people up. The next hour was spent packing, repacking and getting ready. We repacked the car to fit 3 passengers and Ishaq’s bike and at 7:30am Tian, Sarah and Ishaq were sent off to a friend’s apartment or the airport. And then there were four.

Charles did the driving. Joseph, Ruth and me stayed to pack up all the other Spokes belongings and tidy up a bit. Once the car returned we did some reorganising and ultimately all four of us were able to squeeze in. Ruth was dropped off at her sister’s. (The only reason I survived this goodbye is because she is returning to Boston, so I instead said seeya, seeya.) And then there were three.

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Now, Joseph should have mentioned this in a previous blog that might or might not be published yet, but we are performing a private delivery of Spokes belongings to Cambridge. And Charles is going to Seattle to his family, so the three of us are taking two days to drive up there.

Which brings us to the new format of these blogs and today’s agenda:

San Francisco, CA to Humbug Mountain State Park, OR

426 mi

Charles took the morning driving shift. We left San Francisco and I wondered if I would ever find myself there again. It’s plausable that that would happen. But also completely realistic that it wouldn’t.

The beginning of the drive we talked, running on adrenaline from the logistics and goodbyes. But the tired caught up to us. Joseph dosed off. And Charles also caught his eyes becoming heavy. So they swapped and Joseph continued the driving, powered by a gas station milkshake. We made a very important stop by the Bill Cypher statue. For those who are not Gravity Falls fans, after the show ended there was a treasure hunt for this statue depicting the main villain who (spoilers!!!) by the end was petrified into this statue.

Then we checked out Humbolt Redwoods State Park and the huge trees. It was pretty crazy. The trees really were quite big. The scenery from the road was also really cool. It looked like how in my head big, old forests are drawn in children’s books. Sometimes it would feel like we might hit one of the huge trees on the side of the road, they were almost like walls.

Then we found an awesome beach on the side of the road and touched the Pacific ocean. The vastness seeped into my already overflowing mind, shoved everything else out of the way and had a calming effect. There was only us and the big blue nothingness.

Continuing North we went through the Redwoods National Park. We didn’t have quite as much time to spend here, but we stopped to see some more big trees. It was a blast!

By this point the sun was setting and we had succesfully failed to get to our campsite during daylight. We caught some of the last sun rays at another beautiful beach. And then drove the last stretch in the darkness, got some 12 inch subs for dinner, somehow found our campsite in the dark, tried to quietly set up camp, saw a bunch of stars and went to sleep.