i got back to houston on sunday night. but before i discuss that, i must mention a little friday/saturday side trip i took to one of california's coastal communities: fort bragg.
not to be confused with the military base of the same name in north carolina, fort bragg is a small town that can be found four hours west of chico. although only 106.1 miles from the chico motel i stayed at, one finds themselves in fort bragg after several hours of winding one lane roads through mountainous areas and a thick forest known as mendocino national forest. now, because i am from texas, and used to national forests being a somewhat barricaded area a la the sequoias and yosemite, which are technically national parks, i was met with some very strange looks and rolled eyes when i asked a group of people native to "the bragg," "how far is the mendocino national forest?" they thought i was retarded, because, unbeknownst to me, i drove through the frikkin' forest to get to fort bragg. hell, i didn't know! i was assuming that should the stupid forest manifest itself in front of me, that i would be greeted with a huge sign or placard stating, YOU ARE HERE: THE MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST. BE KIND TO WOODLAND CREATURES. PS. HOPEFULLY YOU DON'T GET CAR SICK OR SCARED OF POTENTIALLY DRIVING OFF CLIFFS!
seriously, i thought there would be more pride in or publicizing of the forest. maybe there wasn't, because, you know, yosemite and the sequoias take up all the glory.
anyway, so the purpose of my trip was to visit my friend jodi, who was not only one of my classmates once (conservation), but also one of my students when i TAed the exhibit installation class for the maidu exhibit. her birthday was on april 4th, so, after meeting dr. schaefer, who suggested it would be good to visit jodi (and also echoed jodi's sentiment that "the coast is lovely this time of year") that afternoon for lunch, i thought i would drive the 106.1 miles to see her. being from texas, where everyone drives about 10 miles over the speed limit, i thought the trip was doable. 106.1 miles divided by 77 miles an hour...i assumed i would be in fort bragg in a little over two hours. yeah right! it wasn't until i got to CA-20 that i realized i might have my next birthday before i got to fort bragg.
now, four hours...in my mind, that's like houston to san antonio, and you're pretty much driving anywhere between 77 and 80 the whole time. keeping that in mind, i guess the drive wouldn't have been so bad if the roads weren't ONE LANE to share with semis filled with safeway products, bulldozers, and grandmas driving cadillacs. oh, and a portion of 20 right after you get to some hills off of I-5, well, it's under construction or something, so that slows you down too. the snail's pace speed limit and the twisty roads don't help much either. if i hadn't already sworn up and down to jodi that i was going to see her on her birthday (and if i hadn't hyped up my gift to her...a dvd that, it turns out, she'd already seen!!!), i would have just said, "oh, how scenic. that's nice," then taken a few pictures of the hills, turned the car around, and headed back to chico. some friend i am, huh?
well, as i drove through lucerne (the switzerland of america! no joke, that's what the welcome sign read), the thermometer in the car started to dip down. when i left chico, it was about 74 degrees (it warmed up about 20 degrees throughout the days i spent in chico. i landed in california and it was 51. when i left for houston, it was about 73). well, due to, i guess, the proximity to the water, the temperature started dropping. when i hit the town of willits (gateway to the redwoods, and 33 miles to fort bragg), the thermometer read 59. in fort bragg, it read 47. i usually love cold weather, but only when i'm prepared for it. when i prance around god knows where in 47 degree weather with chilling winds and only a hoodie for warmth, i hate it.
the road from willits to fort bragg was hell. my palms were so sweaty by the time i discovered fort bragg, because i was gripping the steering wheel so hard, due to my fear on the mountains that i was going to drive off a cliff, or be rammed into by oncoming traffic. and, to make matters worse, i didn't so much as care about getting into a car accident than i did about getting into a wreck while driving a rental car. oh yeah, but i was to blame for any accrued accidents, because, yet again, i engaged in dangerous activity...there i was, scared of driving the rental car off a cliff, yet taking pictures of the forest and road with my digital camera and cell phone. you see, despite being terrified of the drive, i practically sacrificed my life to capture and fit the beauty of the forest into a picture frame. example:
anyway, fort bragg is nice. it reminded me of galveston, only the water was more beautiful, as it was blue and not the dumping ground for the mississippi river, and there seemed to be more to the local culture. you know, artisans and such who are into creating a local scene, rather than integrating starbucks and mcdonald's into the happening places to be.
luckily, jodi didn't have to work, so, as soon as i got to town, she and her family invited me to an italian dinner at a place called d'aurellio's. it was nice, but it seemed a bit strange for a portuguese woman to be running an "authentic" italian restaurant. whatever. the food was good, and the portions were BIG.
after dinner, jodi and her dad wanted to peruse some local art galleries during an event called "first friday," which is locally known as the first friday of the new season when the galleries change their featured works. i liked the stuff. none of it seemed smug, insane, or unaffordable. one of the reasons why i don't go on similar outings in houston, is because you walk into a local gallery, look at photos or reproductions of works by local artists, and you discover that the one piece you like is $1000!!! how in the hell am i supposed to support the local houstonian art scene when i have to pay $1000 for something that is either the size of a pinhead, or not even the real piece? and all those starving artist sales and shit i see commercials for on tv...all that stuff looks like i could go to garden ridge or michael's to buy. $1000. ridiculous and so unjustified. very unreasonable.
by the time jodi, her dad (who i adore, by the way...he seems like a humble, modest man, who is content with his life. he doesn't complain about anything. he was such a kind person, who you can tell has led an interesting life.), and myself got back to her house (oh, jodi lives with her parents and sister again), it was about 10pm, and, according to her mom, "time for jodi to go out." lovely. i knew that it was her birthday and all, but i honestly was under the impression that her birthday would be celebrated with dinner with her family. that's how it happens at my house. but no. jodi wanted to go out. to a pub. and a bar. ugh. she asked me if i wanted to stay at her house, and i told her i did. i wasn't kidding. i wanted to stay home with her parents and watch dateline NBC on tv, lay on the couch, and sleep. i wanted to be an old person! after driving four hours and facing the bitter cold of the coast, i was exhausted. but, i think she thought i was being cute, because plans were made for her friend alison to come over and hatch a saturday night birthday plan. apparently, they'd been celebrating jodi's borthday all week, and, being the last day of the week, they wanted to savor all 24 hours of jodi's actual birth day. they decided to head over to a pub called patterson's, and another bar called dick's.
while jodi and i waited for alison, we colored one of those velvet kiddie pictures of dora the explorer dressed like a pirate, proclaiming "explore the high seas!" in both english and spanish. i should have taken a picture of it. anyway, alison showed up about an hour later, and there was some debate as to who should drive everyone. i was involuntarily assigned designated driver status, but being exhausted, on texas time, and unfamiliar with the area, i did not want to be responsible for driving around drunk people in the dead of night (why did it seem like there were no lights in fort bragg?). i'm so selfish and horrible. in my exhaustion and being forced to go out, i didn't care if i lived or died, or if anyone else did for that matter. but really, i hate when the local californians make the visiting texan drive. my roommates in chico did it, and, it appeared that jodi and alison were fond of that game too.
alison didn't seem too pissed to have to drive...i'm not sure if it's because she wanted to get going and get her drink on, or if she really did prefer to drive. well, before hitting the pub, the car had to swing by dave's house to pick up dave, who looked like a nice, young version of kevin smith, although, i don't know if the tape at the bridge of his glasses was an emo fashion statement, or really holding his glasses together. not that it looked bad. i actually didn't realize there was black duct tape on his glasses until three hours into the night. anyway, the first place we stopped at after picking up dave was patterson's pub in mendocino, which, i guess is the town right next to fort bragg.
patterson's is a pretty cool little place. really nice on the outside, and, in addition to the bar, had popcorn, a water cooler, and free internet on the inside. i guess they take care of sober people there too. the place was about to close (12am), so jodi, dave, and alison just made last call. they bought drinks, and we settled down under a moose head that adorned the wall. i left my camera in the rental car, so the only photo i have here is from the internet:
anyway, it was a cool pub, because it was in a house. i was impressed, because i haven't seen anything like that in houston before. two guys named cort, and something else, came in right when the pub was shutting down. they knew jodi and her posse, and sat down next to our table. they asked what everyone's plans were for the night, and i desperately tried to send everyone vibes to say, "nothing. just heading home after this." i thought my plan was working when cort said, "dick's is dead." sweet! back to jodi's house!
nope. wrong! after finishing their alcohol, and saying bye to cort plus one, who were headed home, we did go to dick's. and it wasn't dead.
(photo from the internet...when i saw dick's for the first time, it was pitch dark outside)
for some reason, despite the cold, we spent the first 15 minutes standing outside watching some man both verbally abuse and praise his bull mastiff. dave smoked. a drunk guy acted like a third grader with jodi, and wanted to know why she wasn't wearing her "swoncho" (apparently, they knew each other). alison bummed a cigarette off of a man who then offered me a "cowboy killer" too. i was just freezing and tried to make small talk and not seem like a killjoy.
thankfully, alison got cold, and i followed her inside. jodi and dave followed. they ordered alcohol again, and we sat at a table, watching the "local color." after some chit chat, dave announced that he needed to get to an atm. since dick's didn't operate with a tab system, dave needed cash. everyone got up, and jodi told me to come along on their "errand." if only the fort bragg definition of errand meant "going to the post office." hell no. it meant "find a bench outside to smoke weed." yep, my second encounter with californians and their drugs.
alison pulled out an altoid tin, and from the tin came a compacted ziploc bag with herb in it. fun. jodi's contribution to this event was a pipe. yay! alison packed the pipe, lit it, took a hit, then passed it to jodi, who then passed it to dave, who then passed it to me. i was freezing, had my hands stuffed into the pocket of my hoodie, and didn't even reach for the pipe to pass to alison, who was sitting next to me, when i said, "i'm good, thanks." i just wanted them to find this damn atm so we could go inside. i wasn't pissed that they were doing drugs behind the bar. i wasn't even pissed that they lied to me and called their drug use and errand. i was just pissed that i was freezing and now had to spend at least the next 15-30 minutes outside on some random street in downtown mendocino. we weren't even hiding! luckily, the wind made it hard for the smoke to draw attention to us.
after taking two hits each, everyone considered their need for recreational drugs fulfilled, and they started walking to an atm, whereever it was. i followed, but then we passed a place called the kelly house (a historic home). jodi exclaimed that only i would appreciate the home as a museum studies person interested in cultural heritage preservation and collection, so she told dave and alison to go to the atm while she gave me a tour of the house. jodi proceeded to go on a rather amusing rant about the significance of the place, their cold storage facility, and why she might never be able to leave her roots. it was another side to her i thought i would never see. she was clearly stoned, but i completely understood what she meant about the house and her county. luckily, dave and alison came back 15 minutes later, because i honestly thought that in her drug-induced stupor, jodi was going to break into the place, and i would then have an arrest on my permanent record.
once we stepped foot back into dick's, jodi and alison went to the bathroom and pulled me in. they then laughed and giggled about how the marijuana was really strong. their eyes were bloodshot, and alison took out a bottle of what can only be described as windex out of her tiny purse, and proceeded to douse herself to rid her body and clothes of the scent of pot. apparently, her parents would kill her if they smelled anything other than cigarettes in the car.
alison got a bottle of water from the bar, and we went outside again, so she could sober up. i guess their high was dissipating, because all of a sudden they seemed depressed. dave went out for a smoke, and a line of four children (seriously, they couldn't have been older than 13) tried to get into the back door of the bar. it was funny, because they were trying to be smooth by greeting us a good evening and everything. they didn't get in. to make small talk, i started telling everyone about an episode of "it's always sunny in philadelphia," where the bar owners on the show discover that everyone at their bar is underage, with a fake id. my retelling of the episode got a laugh out of alison and jodi, but i'm not sure if they were still high or what.
the bartender then came out of the back door, saw me, and said, "i know everyone here, but i don't know you. are you 21? i'm only asking, because the cops just drove past." i nodded and handed him my id, which i'd had in my hoodie pocket since patterson's. he was impressed with my preparedness, but then said, "wow...don't worry. i'm 33." i'm still not entirely sure what that meant.
well, about half an hour of us freezing outside, alison said she would rather chit chat over a chocolate milkshake at denny's than freeze her ass off in the back of dick's, so we decided to leave. all of a sudden, jodi realized that she had the breakfast shift at the restaurant where she works, so she would have to bow out of the prolonged festivities. alison asked me if i was going to go to jodi's house or go to denny's with her and dave. i was flattered by their politeness to include me in their outing without jodi, but i said i would go with jodi. with jodi and i out of the game, dave decided that he too was going to head home. so, alison dropped all of us off.
at jodi's house, she made the couch up for me, and i happily went to sleep in some borrowed pajamas.
the next morning, jodi left for work, but told me she would be back by 11am. i was in and out of sleep after she left, and honestly didn't know how to act at her house with just her parents and sister. they're so nice, but i didn't want to be a burden, so i waited for everyone to leave to attend to their respective obligations before i got out from under the covers and took a shower. after the shower, i folded the blankets jodi let me use, wrote a thank you card to her parents, and prepared to leave. although i was going to wait for jodi to return to her house, i had plans to leave fort bragg by noon, so i could make it back to chico by 4pm. i still had to meet with my thesis formatter and pick up stuff from trader joe's and the university bookstore to give to my mom and brother as gifts.
when jodi returned, she had breakfast from the restaurant and made me some tea. i'm always impressed by jodi's ability to make tea. it seems so simple: boil water, pour water, add tea bag, but when she follows those directions, the tea comes out like it's gourmet or something. anyway, i sipped the tea and read her father's sports illustrated while she took a shower. her mother and father returned home from coaching a t-ball game, and i was able to talk to them for a bit. before i left, jodi wanted to show me some fort bragg nature, so she drove me to a spot where we walked along a trail that ran along the cliff of a beach, and then we followed another trail to the pygmy forest.
i have always felt somewhat of a connection to trees, so i took a lot of pictures of real trees that i felt i would never see again, since they are somewhat absent from my life in houston. i also discovered the black and white function on my camera, so became obsessed with finding my inner ansel adams, and took pictures of trees and vegetation along the trail. i saw my first banana slug too.
unfortunately, jodi got lost leaving the pygmy forest, which wasn't as interesting to see as it was to hear about (which is why i don't have pictures of it), so i ended up leaving fort bragg at around 315pm. by the time i got to chico, it was 7pm. but jodi told me that she appreciated my visiting her. i did enjoy the hike we took, and i am actually still sore from it. the trees were beautiful. i had a horrible drive to make back to chico, but it was nice to see jodi again.
now, saturday night, when i got back to chico, i took a shower, started packing, made sunday midmorning plans to meet up with heather, and then fell asleep. i was pooped. i had every intention of heading to trader joe's for some more vegan trail mix cookies to bring on the plane, and some dark chocolate raisins for my mom, but at around 645am, my mom called to ask when my flight got in to houston. i told her my flight from chico was at 5pm, so i would get to houston at 11pm. this didn't sit right with her, so she had me double check, and it turned out that my flight was at noon! i immediately called heather and we agreed to meet up at 8am. i quickly took a shower, packed, and burned my thesis onto a cd for my formatter. i wanted to drop the cd off before meeting heather for coffee and to talk to her one last time face-to-face before her defense, but the stupid motel office was closed and i couldn't check out. 24/7 service my ass! i had to return an iron and give back my room key, so i knocked on the door and rang the doorbell, but no one ever came out to help me. i ended up just putting the iron by the door and leaving. hopefully my credit card doesn't get charged an abandonment fee.
coffee with heather was bittersweet. it hit me that after i return for graduation next month, i might never go back to chico, and i might never see heather again. i was bummed. and stupid me, i forgot to get a picture of the two of us. i even forgot to get a picture of melanie, jodi, dr. fox, dr. schaefer, and adrienne.
but, anyway, so i just wanted to write about my last days in california, and share some pictures. here's hoping there aren't too many typos...
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