Wish I was a slave to an age old trade.

Back on the road now.  I'm not sure which day we left Dan and Shelly, data like this eludes me these days. It's almost been a month already.  Don't know what to make of it most days.  I try only to think about today, where we'll sleep and how far we can make it on a tank of gas.  I think about which campsites will be the hardest to get into.  Maybe what we'll cook for dinner.  People ask what I'll do when we get to Portland and honestly I try not to think about it.  I stress and worry and I lose the significance of what we're doing now. Which ultimately is what I was doing at home.  Every day.  Anyway, we're in San Francisco now.  Got into the hotel room late last night about midnight and it is still only 9am here so haven't gotten out into the city.  I'm hoping to kayak in the bay and visit Haight/Ashbury.  I find it historically intriguing.  But as for where we've been, just driving up the coast mostly.  Highway 1 and 101 when necessary, through Malibu, Pismo, San Luis Obispo, Big Sur.  We camped one night right on the beach outside Malibu, met a couple, Andy and Eva, who were wilderness teachers and had just gotten off for the summer to travel to Tahoe.  There were sea lions in the surf most of the day and night we were there.  In the morning I got out of my tent and, no joke, there were 5 dolphins.  I have never woken up to dolphins before.  Try to calculate the odds of finding a hotel room in Malibu, directly on the beach, with quiet and solitude, and dolphins in the morning; but the kicker is we got all this for 18 dollars a night.  Bad ass, right?  Also did a 9 or 10 mile hike that morning. My knee has been aching pretty bad since.  It was kinda creepy, the clouds limited visibility for much of it, only like 30 feet of visibility sometimes.  Next night was Pismo, gorgeous sunset but not beach camping.  Big Sur was beautiful, and we got to do a half mile hike into the campsite so we did our first pack camping.  Hiking out to the beech required another river crossing, always so cold!  I'm looking forward to an easy day today, give my knee a chance to catch up.  Hopefully drive through to Tahoe after, might be an all nighter with a full day and night camping the following day.  It's getting so close but it really is still so far to the goal still.  Tahoe, Shasta, Napa, Redwoods are all still on the list and that's still not even into Oregon yet.  We've come so far and I'm not sure how much I've changed, but I know as I write these words that I am not what I used to be, and in a grander way than just one breath after another usually causes.  I feel different about money, and food, and the work that I want to do.  I feel different about the mistakes I've made and the choices still to come.  I wonder and think about different thoughts than I did.  The worries are there but they are different worries.  Clearer worries I suppose.  And clearer joys.  Struggle is not what I thought it was at all.  I have no idea what I mean, sorry haha.  

The internet connection in this hotel is terrible.  I will post pictures at a coffee shop later or something.  Apologies.