Redwood National Forest and Conversations with a California Hippie Late Into the Night

Jul 5, 1984 Thu0

In the early 80's I traveled to a few places and kept a travel diary. I thought my sons would some day enjoy reading my diary so I have decided to put it in my blog. I will enter my diary here as I wrote it years ago when I was a much younger man. I was 24 years old in 1984. At this time in my life I was traveling to Toronto Canada every week and I got bumped from a flight. Delta gave me a free ticket to any place they flew in the 48 states. I looked at their route map and the farthest I could fly was Seattle, Washington. So I packed my bags, tent and sleeping bag and headed West. I drove around the North West for a week.

8:18PM Camping at Six River National Forest (Panther Flag) just northeast of the Redwood National Forest in California. Last night I talked to a fellow named Walter who was camping next to me. He was a drifter who had lived on the streets of Seattle and Portland. I asked him why he drifted? He said he was looking for something and maybe he had found it in his song writing and singing.

It was after dark so I don't know what he looked like. I just remember laying in the grass in front of my tent and listening to him pick the guitar and sing. I could see his silhouette in the fading sunset. He said he didn't do drugs anymore. We wished one another good luck and a happy 4th of July and I went to bed. It was a pretty neat experience.

I had to sleep on the ground. My chair broke. Today I traveled on a rough road. I spent 3-4 hours on a road that must have been a paved over logging trail. Narrow, steep, often one lane and little traffic. Drove through the Redwood Forest today and saw the Pacific Ocean. I appreciated the size of the trees today more than I did as a kid.

Jul 5, 1984 Thu

Jul 5, 1984 Thu
Redwood Forest
Bobby

Discovered three more sentences the car can say.

Left door is open.
Right door is open
Fuel level is low (in a pleading voice)

I think the car was a Nissan Maxima. I had never driven a foreign car and had trouble with some basic stuff like turning on the lights and wipers. I soon discovered the car could talk and had fun trying things to make the car speak to me.

Had T-bone steak tonight with wine.