A Cold Night in Atascadero

Success!

After an hour of stickin' my thumb out, I finally managed to catch a ride.

The driver was Al, a contract electrician who was working in Santa Barbara an behalf of a friend. His work detail took him far longer than he had anticipated and so he decided to pick me up to help him stay awake. He had picked up hitchhikers before and he said I didn't look like the murderous/stinky type. He took me to the city of Atascadero, CA, north of San Luis Obispo. I was finally on my way

Al told me some funny stories and told me about the few times he picked up a hitchhiker. He was an all around good guy and I was grateful to be picked up. He took me to a gas station off the freeway and we parted ways.

I took myself to the entrance of the freeway and stood confidently, thumb out, hoping to snag a little more good fortune.

But it seems my luck had been used for the day. People here treated me with a sort of disdain, others neglected me. What was made very obvious was the towns population of bored teenagers who had nothing better to do on a Saturday night than yell obscenities at me. One group even promised to come back and pick me up. "Luck at last!", I thought. However, they came back, screaming down the street, flipping me off and calling me colorful names.

I decided I'd call it quits for the night.

When you're in town, you can't afford a hotel, and you don't know where there's any available wi-fi, you have limited options.

First, I walked around town, hoping to find a shopping center with a Starbucks. Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to find one. I then walked aimlessly around this small town, hoping to find something I could find useful. Night fast approached and before I knew it, it was 10 o'clock at night. My tired mind began to think of places I could sleep for the night. I tried to find a park along the stretch of road called El Camino Real but couldn't find anything except a patch of trees here or there. It was looking pretty grim and I thought I would have to give up and just find a bench.

However, it seemed fortune wasn't completely absent from my journey and I found myself at an Albertsons with a Starbucks in it. Unfortunately, it had closed but I hoped I could still connect to its wi-fi.

I couldn't.

But I found another close enough to finally get my position down. I found the location of a Starbucks (only a few blocks from where I was, fittingly enough) and, even more promising: a park. This means I could set up my tent.

Up until this point my tent had been dead weight. I had worried  I would never use it and be forsaken to haul it around indefinitely. Those fears were set aside last night when I finally set up my tent. It worked great, and the comfort it provided was immeasurable. Spending the night in a tent is HELL of a lot better than sleeping on some bench, curled up and on view for all the world to see. The down sleeping bag I brought worked wonders as well. During the night the temperature had dropped well into the 40's and I was pleasantly quite warm and even, dare I say, comfortable!

So much for my plan to follow summer!

Definitely feels more like autumn than early summer. I hope it starts warming up soon, cold weather isn't my forte.

I've also realized I've completely forgotten my harmonicas. Damn. Oh well, guess I'll have to find a new one.

So the plan now is to continue north, getting as far as I can towards Portland. I'm half tempted to take a Greyhound bus or even find a freight train to hop onto. Hopefully I can avoid such extreme actions and thumb a ride somewhere north.

Hmm... maybe I should've gone through the desert after all? At least it'd be warm. Haha, oh well.