Friday, May 30th, I set out for a six month US road trip.

It was a hectic Friday. It was the last day of my lease, and I had to make sure all of my life's possessions were either in my car, a small storage unit, or the garbage. Sure, I've been sorting through stuff for the last couple months, but you know how it goes?

Optimistically, I hoped to be on the road by 10AM; 11AM tops. I think I got out more around 2PM. But at that point, I was free. Just me and the 4Runner I managed to get for my car rental.

So, with my car packed in a relatively questionable state, I headed down highway 1 to my first camping destination: Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. As of that moment, I was more or less, homeless.

Originally, I had these grand plans to do a bunch of hiking. Instead, I spent the entirety of my two night stay there re-organizing the car and just trying to relax a bit from all the stress of leaving my apartment.

It was nice though. It's a long trip. There's no need to rush.

With my car now organized more logically than ever, I continued down Highway 1 to my next camping destination: Kirk Creek Campground

When I arrived, I almost got swindled out of what I think may be the most beautiful campsite in the entire campground. Someone apparently booked two nights, but in two separate spots, and was hoping I'd switch with them.

At this point, I was still a bit out of it from the whole putting everything into storage thing and I had no idea how great the spot I had was. I almost just said yes, but thankfully the guy encouraged me to go check out both spots first.

I'm pretty sure I would have been forever bitter if I gave up that spot.

It was just one night, but after setting up my unnecessarily large shade shelter, I just sat and stared at the view in my reclining camping chair for five hours or so.

The First Day Without Knowing Where I'm Going to Sleep

After Kirk Creek, I didn't have any more reservations. I just knew more or less where I wanted to go.

I thought I was ok with this, but as I went from campsite to campsite, with everything full, I started to get a bit nervous. Camping in California (or really, everywhere) right now is really popular, and there are not many dispersed camping options along highway 1 either.

So, eventually, I decided to just get a motel room. I found a nice king-size bed room at Aloha Inn, in Arroyo Grande, CA. It was relatively cheap (by California standards) and nice enough.

This was fine. Maybe not exactly what I pictured for that day, but that's also what made it exciting. Plus, I likely wouldn't have gotten that In & Out burger, animal style, for dinner otherwise!

Onwards to the Desert!

At this point, my only plan was to stay someplace that would both be a good jumping point to the Mojave Desert and a good place to re-supply.

I ended up finding this house in Palmdale, CA on AirBNB that apparently rents out almost all the rooms in their house to different guests.

But really, the best part was that there was a Trader Joe's nearby I could go re-supply at.

Overall, a fairly mundane day. Well, except for the water guy. He was interesting.

I had to fill up my two 7 gallon jugs, so I found this water place that would fill them both up for under \$5.

The guy there was very passionate about water. He'd talk about keeping his taps pristine, how he thought my jugs were so cool, and he passionately talked about how much water he filled for other people in different ways. I was confident that my water jugs were in good hands!

The Mojave Desert

I've been here before, but never so extensively. Also, thanks to the 4Runner I got, I was able to make it to a much more remote campground I had my eyes on: the Mid Hills Campground.

There was no water and it was super remote, but there were surprisingly clean pit toilets and even places to put your trash. Not bad for \$12 a night.

I stayed there for 3 nights, and there was never really more than 3 or 4 groups of people in what was a rather large and spaced out campground. For two of those nights, it was just complete silence. I really felt totally alone -- like someone was going to jump out of the bushes with an axe.

Thankfully, there were no axe murders, but annoyingly, a large, noisy group in low clearance cars somehow managed to get out there one night. They considerately choose the spot right next to mine despite there being tons of other spots away from everyone else... I guess, even in the remote depths of the Mojave Desert, you still have to deal with people...

Anyway, I didn't do as much hiking as I thought I would, but I did drive a lot of backcountry roads, including the entire stretch of both Ivanpah and Lanfair roads. For that stretch in particular, I ended not seeing a single other the car the entire time. It was a bit scary honestly, given how remote it was out there.

Though, I had a ton of water and food with me, as well as a satellite messenger. Even if my car broke down, I was unlikely to die. At worst, I'd survive 4 or 5 days in relative comfort before dieing.

Onwards!

The plan now is continue further into the desert. Also, with desert, comes many more camping options. It'll be interesting to see whether I get sick of it or not.

Right now, I'm sitting at Boulder Beach Campground. It's not the best place, the generators are annoying (though, thankfully it's now silent at about about midnight), but it's a good jumping place to my next destination: The Valley of Fire.

It's only been a week, but I've felt surprisingly ok with this new (likely temporary) life. It'll be interesting to see how I feel in a month or two.