Day 10: So Fresh and so Clean Clean

Today’s story starts last night, with the story of John Keeffe, then meanders along the coast, before heading inland to the quaint town of Ferndale, a fairground, and an incredibly expensive laundromat.

After my gorgeous dinner last night, I headed back to camp to talk with John, and boy does he have quite the story. John was a adopted growing up, and ended up in a foster home. After turning 18 he went to the military and joined the 82nd airborne. (According to John, humans are maximally afraid of heights at 35 feet, so that’s how high all the jump towers are at jump school.) Apparently he did pretty well, because the army sent him to West Point to become an officer. After West Point he ended up becoming a journalist for some army newspaper and served his years in the army writing news articles. He was pretty stoked about the job.

After the army, John moved to San Francisco where he got paid $50 to repel from Skyscrapers to do miscellaneous work (that jump school paid off in the end after all!) After that, John retired at 65. After retirement John started thinking about his family. He had met his real brother when he was in his 20’s and decided to reach out. His brother invited John to his home in the middle of the desert in Texas, in a small town called Terlingua.

It’s important to know that Terlingua is totally off the grid. No water, no electricity, no gas. And dust storms are a major problem. According to John, no matter what you do, things get dusty. The nearest grocery store (or any store that’s not just a quick convenience store) is 80 miles away. And once a year they host the world championship (or so John said) in chili. But that’s where his brother lives, so he went to go meet him.

Upon arriving, and John swears this is true, his brother told him he had just the previous day read a fortune from a fortune cookie that said “You will soon be reacquainted with a long lost relative and it will bring you great fortune.” And that it did! John dug his brother a sceptic field, painted his entire house, and buried the batteries to keep them out of the sun! Now that’s good fortune if you ask me.

After visiting his brother, John decided to build his own house nearby, so he bought five acres of land, and built his house, where he now lives with his dog Maggie. Also, at the suggestion of his brother, he recently went to the VA after not going for years. The VA looked at him, and sent him to Medford, OR for surgery. John had a total knee replacement, got fake teeth, and had some eye surgery done. He was super impressed with their service, and says he feels so much better now after getting treatment. At the VA, someone was trying to get rid of a bike. John bought it off him for $100, and decided to bike back to his home in Texas. (Pretty ambitious for a guy just off knee surgery if you ask me.)

John is now retired, living paycheck to paycheck (he had to stay in his campsite one more day for his next paycheck to hit). He has until September to make it back to his house, so he’s taking his time, doing 20ish miles a day. And he’s taken up photography as his hobby. (He’s actually quite good. He posts some pictures on Facebook. You can look him up as “John Keeffe.”) It was nice talking with him for the night! I’m glad I got to hear all about his life.

(Morning at camp)

I left John at about 7:30am, and rolled into Trinidad to get some breakfast. At this point of the trip I feel like a hobbit, stopping all the time to eat more food. The cafe is Trinidad was nice, and they don’t allow people to take “to go” cups. Doing their part for the environment. Unfortunately, and I’m sure to the owners dismay, some local ... people with nothing to do ... where hanging out in the cafe. One trying to get a free coffee refill, the other coloring the firsts drumsticks. They were harmless, and nice, but boisterous and loud. I’m sure the owner wanted them out, but not much she could do.

After hot chocolate (drinking coffee would be super convenient) and a breakfast burrito I hit the road, and saw a beautiful morning. I stopped multiple times to watch people surf and enjoy the ocean.

After the beach came a long bike path! The first of the trip. Also, Karl rolled in (fog) and there were some absolutely gorgeous houses.

After stopping again for another breakfast, and getting some camping food for my trip into the Lost Coast, the scenery changed. The second half of my day reminded me of Switzerland, and biking through the cows!

I made it to Ferndale with one wrong turn, and one annoying road closure. (I hate biking on the 101 in California. Biking on a freeway is demoralizing and not at all scenic. It’s also hard to stop quickly for food. I avoid it as much as possible.) The county fairgrounds here are also a campsite, and for $12 I got a tent site. I also used the local laundromat mat (which costs $6 a load to was!!! That’s incredibly expensive), and so as I’m writing this I’m wearing all clean clothing. Happy Mark.

Tonight’s menu for dinner is pizza. I nearly ate a full medium pizza, but got stuffed by the last slice (get it?). I finally started reading the book, Just Mercy. So far it’s very good. It’s terrifying the amount of prejudice the author runs into in the modern day. That being sad, I’ve noticed that even on this trip I’ve definitely made some decisions based on preconceived notions. Like I thought John last night wasn’t trustworthy at first (after about 10 seconds of talking with him I realized I was wrong. I think I originally saw Home as one of the homeless of SF. Which draws even more questions about my snap decisions. But I digress)

After I finished pizza, I ended up chatting with a lady that is going to bike for AIDS prevention from SF to LA. After talking for awhile, she invited me to stay with her and her boyfriend in town. I would’ve taken her up on the offer, but my tent was setup, and I was ready for bed! Apparently I remind her a lot of her son, Errol Funk, who currently lives in Seattle working for the coast guard. Good luck to her on her ride!

Tomorrow is a long day. Lots of hills. I’m headed to Lost Coast Mattole Campground for the night, then off to Humboldt State Park the night after that. I’m almost certainly not going to have service tomorrow night, so no post tomorrow night, sorry! I’ll try to post something from the state park!

View from the tent. There are crickets in the background, and cows mooing. And one large mosquito buzzing around the fly.

Goodnight!