![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.wtgdevin.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/051013-139.jpg\" "\\"Moab.")
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Danny wanted to go to Chile because he’s kind of from there (he’s actually from nowhere, which is what you’re supposed to say if a gang member asks you where you’re from), and, as he put it, \u201cThings were too perfect back home, so I left.\u201d Dave had to go to Ecuador to stop the marriage of his girlfriend to her Ecuadorian ex-boyfriend so he could get a green card. Because this situation wasn’t simple enough, the very first night I put the two up at the museum (my house), Dave gets an email from a girl saying that she has chlamydia, and hey, you should get yourself checked out. Cue a super frustrated and regretful Dave and planned parenthood the next morning.<\/p>\n
\n Turns out Dave was fine, so we went camping in Big Sur well before the fires started (1 week), where we saw a bobcat, slept under the stars, got stung by my ancient enemies the mosquitoes, and almost got bitten by a rattlesnake (Danny – \u201cWow, they actually have rattles on their tales! I thought that was just a myth!). But after a week of tooling around the bay area, Dave flew to Ecuador, and Danny and I were a little restless, so we decided to hitchhike to Seattle. Why Seattle? I had promised some friends there that I would go visit them, and as for Danny, he was trying to catch up with a circus that was traveling back to Boston so he wouldn’t have to hitchhike back across the country. That’s right, a circus.<\/p>\n Circus Folk Unite!<\/a><\/p>\n \n Danny and I set out on Friday the 13th<\/sup> with peanut butter, water, sleeping bags, and a tarp. We were originally taking I-5 north, but I-5 in the summer is really hot. So we cut west to the coast. Upon the telling of this story, some people stop me and say, \u201cWow, isn’t hitchhiking dangerous?\u201d Well, yes. I felt like Danny and I were going to die a good 75% of the time, which was compounded by the fact that people kept telling use we were going to die. We were in Petaluma, and we asked this guy how to get to the road to Bodega Bay, to which he replied, \u201cYou guys are walking? You guys are going to die.\u201d Then he turned to a young couple who were walking down the street and said, \u201cHey, these guys are walking to Bodega Bay,\u201d and the young couple looked at us and said, \u201cOh, you guys are gonna die. You’re dead.\u201d What the hell. Optimistic people in Petaluma. So we started walking to Bodega Bay, and around mile 2 a car drove by and a kid yelled out the window at us, \u201cYou’re going to die!\u201d Only the car he was in was going really fast, so it was more like \u201cYOU’RE . . . Going . . . to . . . die!\u201d all echoey and whatnot. We kept walking. The sun was going down, and we began seeing the bodies of dead animals in various stages of decay on the side of the road \u2013 rat, crow, cat, and I joke not, sheep. We made it about 10 miles before we pitched tarp in a grass-filled ditch near the Coast Guard Training Academy and passed out until dawn.<\/p>\n \n We spent the next few days inching up the coast about 10 miles at a time. We slept in state parks, ate a burrito a day, and met lots of \u201cstreet people\u201d, as Danny calls them. One night we got driven to a state park by a burly police officer. \u201cYep, I’m about all the law there is between here and Crescent City,\u201d she said. Side note \u2013 if you don’t want to be arrested for vagrancy, make sure you’ve got an ID and some cash on you.<\/p>\n \n We eventually got tired of moving 100 miles a day and the sun coming out at 5pm, so we cut back to I-5. On the way we camped in the coast range near the Trinity River. Because I’m addicted to rivers and waterfalls we went hiking, and as we were walking down the trail we ran into an earthquake fissure. Just imagine many enormous trees torn from the ground with their roots exposed and covered in mud, and a hillside split open into a cliff down to some rapids and you’ll get the picture. So we start down the earthquake fissure to get a better look at the river, which is about 150 ft below us. I jump into the middle of the fissure onto what appears to be solid ground, but no, quicksand. Surprise! My legs have disappeared up to my knees. I look up at Danny and say, \u201cI really . . . shouldn’t . . . struggle.\u201d So I get out of that stuff, and ask Danny if he thinks we should risk climbing down the rest of the way to the river. Danny looks down at the jagged rocks, and says completely straight-faced and bare-chested, \u201cI feel no fear.\u201d So we hike down to the river, which is beautiful and awesome, and even more so because we find a 5 year-old sealed bottle of St. Pauli Girl, which we drink riverside as the sun goes over the hills.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n