Early January, Southern California. We woke up to waves crashing over their confining walls, just below the limits of the boundaries of the well-off community of Santa Barbara.
We had spent the day before enjoying writing and gabbing with folks in a Starbucks buried inside a classy hotel. It was one of the few of the top line places we found that actually has a safe parking lot strategically located in the back where guests can get direct access to their rooms. Turned out, to our benefit, even though they say they are not pet friendly, they let a few selected guests stay with the barking beasts as long as they don’t mind the lesser view from the rooms.
We loved the idea and got a good off-season rate!
Since we had enjoyed those benefits, we decided to hang around and lazy about in the “glamour hoods” before rolling along with our La Parada journey. It gave us a great chance to talk with people and get our traveling feet on the ground.
But it also meant that we were not in the best of positions at the end of that day to locate the next evening’s place to say.
Which was how we ended up running out of driving steam and stopping next to the ocean on a coastal side road. We didn’t do anything inappropriate in being there, as people are allowed to stop overnight as long as they pay for a slot. But we did skip the paying part. There didn’t seem to be anyone around to enforce the rule anyway.
Or so we thought until we awoke. It turned out that crawling out of our vehicle was its own wake-up call. Apparently we had stumbled into an awareness of a remarkable community of travelers, several of whom seemed to snuggle right up next to our bumper as we slept!
A backpacker was folding his one-person tent, getting ready to hunt for a ride. An RVing couple sat in collapsible chairs encircling their stoop, sipping coffee. Several truckers were gearing away.
And then there was Sam.
Sam crawled out of his SUV (also a Ford Escape, though a couple years newer than ours) as we returned from giving the dogs the chance to make their morning marks. He said, “Hey neighbor! You guys are adventurous — two guys AND two dogs in a ’06!!”
Apparently he knew a bit about Fords and was familiar with our variety. So he talked a bit about what it was like to live inside a Sports Utility Vehicle…something he liked to say was a great experience for the inventive types.
“It’s great to run into some folks who seem to be joining our family. It’s amazing,” he then added, “as I’m sure you’re about to find out!”
… to be continued …
SUVpacking 