I met my friend Louie in Bodega Bay yesterday. We went out in his homemade sailboat to pull up a crab pot. Only one crab. Then north along Hwy 1. The pic below is of the beach at Jenner, the mouth of the Russian River, where it was churning with life of seal and bird persuasion. Then over the next 10 or so miles of winding often-hair-pin cliffside highway to the Timber Cove Inn, where we had (great) hamburgers and dark draft beer and looked out at the ocean, where whales were spouting, on their way from Alaska south to Scammon’s lagoon and other warm water bays for calving. Sun setting just before we got into Pt. Arena. Really a nice day, blue water, a nice swell, surfers out (mostly getting stuffed by straight across 8-foot waves) at Salmon Creek. I feel so lucky, being able to take off for a few days like this, recharging psychic batteries…
…There’s a juice stand in one of the busiest parts of the city that is 24 sq. ft. The rent? $30,000 per month…The night after I stayed at the printers’ plant, I couldn’t find a hotel room on the internet to save my soul, other than ones for $400, $600 a night. Trevor, a HK native, has a group of about 100 friends that are connected by an app called Whatsapp, so he put out a message. He got about 10 replies and I found a room…Sign on a bus: “No matter how far you go, remember where you are from.” This could refer not only to geographical, but occupational…Hong Kong is vertical; they have just filled in a big section of the bay down by the convention center for more high-rises…The 3 most expensive cities in the world for real estate and rentals are London, Tokyo, and HK; a 1000 sq. ft. condo here is like $800,000…Food is actually cheap if you eat at local restaurants; just had excellent sushi meal for $15.00; dinner last night (slices of smoked duck in broth with rice noodles for breakfast, was $7…weather in summer here is hot and humid, but unlike Rome (“Dog Days”), the city stays as crowded as ever…Streets are actually pretty clean, although there are sewer smells; the city is growing too fast…There are tons of shoe stores; been wearing my Sanuk surfer shoes the entire trip…What they call “hot coffee,” or HK coffee is strong dark coffee with canned milk, v. good…Yesterday I had soup with noodles and slices of abalone…I’ve got the subway figured out; you buy a card that you swipe upon entering — when you exit, you swipe again and it knows how far you’ve gone and deducts appropriate amount; subway system is brilliant: clean, trains run frequently (every minute at rush hours), are clean, air conditioned. I got so I felt pretty clever making my way around…Had glass of iced coconut juice yesterday while roaming…
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Going to be skipping around in time a bit here.
Impossible to find hotel in city, so ended up way out here at this “resort hotel” last night. Man! For someone living in a house built of recycled lumber, pretty exotic, eh? Been eating in restaurants where nary a gringo (farang) in sight. That’s the way I like it. Abalone soup for breakfast this morning. Hot pot lamb and spring rolls for dinner last night, along with v. high alcoholic Chinese beer. Wandering around in shiny mall-land this morning, these two very polite, very skinny boys said, Sir, can we take picture with phone? Guess I look pretty different in this locale. Tons of stuff to report, will do so when there’s time. Adventures every minute…
Lew just dug this up. Looks almost too good to be true. Sure worth checking out.
Are these cute or what?“The Bulldog All Terrain Truck is the most versatile off road vehicle on the market.
• At 4.5 x 10 ft and only weighing around 1400 lbs, these mini trucks haul easily to the hunting camp, farm or the trail ride. The truck is around 5 1/2 ft tall so it provides a comfortable ride while being able to ease around the trails and backroads.
• All models are right hand drive. Most models have a powerful 660 cc, 3 cylinder gasoline engine that will get over 40 mpg while running in excess of 55 mph. An 8 gallon gas tank has never provided so much.
• Models come with 4, 5 or 6 speed transmissions, automatics are very rare but available in limited quanitity. We are able to provide you with the best service, all parts and accessories that you would need for these trucks.”
We now offer Custom Extended Cab Trucks. Starting at $7300
https://www.bulldogoffroad.com/vans_4doors.htm
Shreveport, LA: 318-402-8834
Yesterday I ran across these four people on bikes in point Reyes Station. They are: Robin Hill, Abe Greenspan (in the photo), Robin’s dad Tyler Hill, and Chanel Walker. Since leaving South Lake Tahoe, they’ve been on the road for three weeks, heading south from the Oregon border, following the ocean down to Cabo San Lucas. Here’s their blog: https://bikensurf.wordpress.com/
“About the Ride
In September 2011, fellow surf stylist and adventure extraordinaire, Abe Greenspan and my self (Robin Hill) will embark on an epic 3 month adventure, biking down the pacific coast surfing in Baja Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. This trip is inspired by a love for adventure, and a humble appreciation for the ocean and a simple life on the road.…”
I’ve been sending out email newsletters called GIMME SHELTER for some years now, to a mailing list of around 600.The frequency is a lot less often now that I’m blogging. We post each one on Shelter’s website. Here is the latest: https://www.shelterpub.com/_gimme/_2011-09-28/gimme_shelter-2011-09-28.html
I talked one of my adventurer friends, Tomas, into exploring a coastal canyon with me last week, said canyon with a full creek, descending to the ocean and having, at one point a 200′ steep drop and waterfall to the creek bed below. Tomas is a rock climber and brought his climbing rope. We walked down the fern-filled deep canyon until we got to the cliff. I showed him where I wanted to tie the rope (to a metal post on an old concrete dam) and he said, “No way!” Everything was wrong. You need 3 points of attachment, he said, plus if we tied up to the dam, line-of-sight gravity would not allow a smooth descent down the side (to the left in below photo), but would rather pull the climber back over into the waterfall, and who knows what would happen then. It’s not the first time in my life I’ve been saved by friends from doing something dumb.
