We had a delightfully warm welcome from Elise and Devon, our hosts in Yuma, Arizona. They have a spacious, very clean house with and had a guest bedroom waiting for us. Having traveled from a beach in Mexico, we treasured every measure of comfort and luxury that was offered to us. Elise was occupied with a play she was meant to perform within the next week, so we didn’t get to spend much time with her. Devon spent a lot of time in his office working as well. He did take whiskey and cigar breaks, like a true writer, on which we spoke with him. Devon is an army man and very passionate towards mathematics and science in his reasoning. We got to have a very interesting exchange on the importance of arts and calculus respectively. It is amazing how people’s brains can be hardwired so differently. I really enjoyed our conversation.


Drive to Yuma



Dog friends

We had only planed on staying in Yuma for a night before continuing on to California, but our hosts invited us to stay another night and since we didn’t have any plans in San Diego we gladly accepted. We had a big cozy bed and a clean shower and kitchen at our disposal. It was a welcome respite from our usual compromises for comfort and cleanliness.





Driving our last leg west was a strange one. An unexpected aspect of this trip is finding my knowledge in geology insufficient. We drive by these impossible landscapes and both Meg and I find ourselves utterly dumbfounded on how they cam to be. We went from desert to mountains to cool and breezy seashore, which was a mind-boggling 70 degrees. Here we were with our desert skin all accustom to the dry heat and it’s 70 with a sea breeze. We put on pants and jackets before taking a stroll around the city.

We found the climate of San Diego positively livable. It had a lot of the neat and bizarre vegetation we saw in the desert along with green plants and northern-looking growth. Walking through Balboa Park there are so many good smells. Flowers. I had forgotten about those.








We spent a couple of days in the city. It’s always a little strange and static when we stay somewhere without a host. On our third day there we were in a salvation army and Meg had a brilliant idea, which led to the impulse buy of skateboards. We spent the rest of the day cruising around on our wicked sweat salvo buys. Although they’re not of the best quality they have been an immense part of our Californian experience.

After sending out many requests we got a positive reply and went north to Huntington Beach. We stayed there with Anesa, who is originally from Bosnia. We met her and two of her friends at a coffee shop around the corner from her place. They were all very nice and interested in our travels. We shared stories and had some laughs, and Meg and I were glad to be connecting with people again. Later that evening we went out to an arts theater and saw a viewing of Dusk Till Dawn, which included a trivia portion and prizes. All 6 people in the theater got a movie poster as a prize. The next day we had a delightful brunch at Anise’s and then went to a German bar to watch the Brazil vs. Ivory Coast game. We met a rather dedicated fan that had been at the bar since 4 am. He was an older man from the Czech Republic. He explained some of the proceedings and more obscure rules to us and thought it very odd we didn’t already know them.

After the game we went to Laguna Beach with Anesa and her friend whose name is also Heather. We soon got hungry and went to this great little joint for lunch we all got tofu burgers and they were amazing. Meg realized she had left her ring on the beach so we went back to look for it. Laguna beach is a rich white area and the towns around it have strip malls and seem impersonal for the most part. But when we went back to look for Meg’s ring the people on the beach were so nice. Everyone came to help, there were several of us on our hands and knees searching in the sand. One guy even phoned his buddy and had him meet up with us with his metal detector. It was a good hard search before we came to the conclusion that the sea ate it.






It was time to move on before we knew it. Anesa had work the following morning and we wanted to give her space, so we said goodbye. A couple of hours later I got a phone call from one of the WWOOF farms. He was just up the shore at Ventura and said we were welcome to come stay.

We spent the night in a hotel parking lot and after a continental breakfast we decided we’d do Los Angeles. I thought back to the drive near San Diego, which was horrible traffic at 1pm for no reason, and was not looking forward to the commute. To my surprise it was lovely. Every thing about LA was better than I had thought it would be. There were beautiful mountains, quiet sections just outside downtown, and cafés. The only thing that kept us from staying longer was parking.


Smog is a big problem in LA









Once we got to Ventura we met Mike, the farmer/guy we’d be staying with. He is very chill and has a minor in Women’s studies oddly enough. He wakes up at 4 am everyday to surf before work where he is a lawyer in LA. He’s got a neat garden throughout the front and back yard. There’s a big avocado tree in the front. Along with a few smaller fruit trees there are many beds of vegetables squeezed into a small amount of space. This is what everyone’s yard should look like. We did some weeding, but other than that there’s not all that much to be done. It’s a pretty well maintained garden. Both Main Street and the beach are a short walk down the road. There are two other WWOOFers here, they got here just hours before we did. Natalie and Kim are from Austin, TX where they too have a farm. In the evening we all hang out and enjoy each others company.