What the bus ride led up to

EDIT: SOME CALIFORNIA PHOTOS HAVE NOW BEEN POSTED

"ASIAGANZA" TRIP PHOTOS LATER

Hrm. Writing this post, I have an extremely awkward feeling. Probably because the people with whom I spent the most time over the past few days are the ones who are most likely to read and comment on it. Usually I can just make up realistic adventures and people will believe they really happened. In this case I ought to just stick to the facts. Thus:

Things recently done include:

-Spending Saturday-Wednesday at Yosemite with David and Andy Pekema(aka the "let's-pull-our-pants-down-and-take-a-picture-by-this-waterfall" brothers)
-- Preparing on Friday by going shopping for longjohns, plastic bowls and spoons, and a "sanitation trowel." I assumed this would be used to fling my excretions into the forest, but apparently you're supposed to dig a little pit and poo into it. You probably don't have to guess which I did.
-- hiking 45 miles or so over 5 days, over rocks and through muck and snow
-- lizard-resting on rocks in the sun, drinking purified stream water and snacking on GORP
-- eating untold amounts of aforementioned home-made GORP, plus salamei, peanut butter, and instant potatoes
-- sleeping in a sleeping bag on a tarp under the stars with piles of snow 15 feet away (aka "alpha-maling")
-- rinsing off in freezing stream water
-- taking photos of various shenanigans
-- not being afraid of bears. not even a little bit.

-Followed by several days with the illustrious Jeff Stepp, spent
--Visiting various ritzy malls in search of big, shiny watches.
--Visiting used book shops and stumbling across "The Mike Roy Cookbook No. 2" (LITERALLY!)
--Playing stupid amounts of a board/video game Jeff read about in Wired magazine called "Settlers of Catan."
--Cooking out of the "Grange Cookbook" purchased at the used book shop: aloha chicken, napoli pizza, peach crisp.
--Taking a mini-road trip from LA up to San Fran.
---First by driving up the 1, the westernmost road in the US (I figure), running along the Pacific coast.
---Stopping for a night at Morro Bay to watch seals or sea lions or whatever they were play in the marina while we had dinner.
---Going to Hearst Castle so a 65 year-old named "Art" could use his "tour" as a pretense to make about 6000 terrible puns.
---Driving through Greenfield, the town where I spent innumerable summers, looking at houses where my friends and I used to live, which have now been abandoned because the owners took out too many loans and were forced to foreclose.
---Spending an evening at Chez Pekema, eating free fish and ribs and seeing David and Andy's parents for the first time in 5 years or more.

As with the last 5 months' worth of hijinks, photos coming sooner or later.