Nothing like just meeting someone on the side of the road and then coming to spend the night at their house, eh..?
The “official” Santa Monica departure was from the pier this morning, and photographers from two local newspapers came to shoot us. We spent at least an hour and a half with Brandon then Margaret, the two fun photographers. To our great fortune, the 50% chance of rain and slight chance of thunderstorms in the morning had all passed the night before, when heavy rains seriously got underway at about 8 PM. As luck would have it, this was about the time that I stopped walking last night– at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd & Normandie St.
Santa Monica Couchsurfing host Dan accompanied Shay and me to the pier for the event, and after the photographers were finished with us, we went back to Dan’s to prepare for the rest of the day. It took a while to leave Dan’s, and after doing so, a bus was taken back to Santa Monica & Normandie, where the trail was picked up exactly where it was left off last night, and I moved on to Silver Lake.
Tom and Kristen Abraham, who had stopped in the storms of Big Sur to say hello and take our picture, had stayed in touch since then, and invited us in for the night. We took them up on their invitation, and Shay and I are spending the night here. Kristen walked the last mile with me to the house, which is in a very quaint neighborhood just a few blocks from Sunset Blvd. Tom & Kristen invited us both to dinner at one of their favorite local restaurants, and a lovely, energetic octagenarian neighbor of theirs joined us.
We stayed up into the night for hours chatting away, and I look forward to the Sunday morning Hollywood Farmers’ Market that Tom will be taking us to before we walk on out of here to Pasadena.
Yes, we’d spent not even a minute talking to Tom & Kristen in Big Sur– it was raining too hard for them to get out of the car. But Kristen added me on Facebook, seemed trustworthy enough both during and after that first minute, and we never thought twice about accepting their warm invitation on our way east to the Atlantic…
Great times!
Time to turn east. From the Santa Monica Pier, atop the Pacific Ocean, the end of Route 66 and beginning of I-10, Shay Emmons joins me as we team up for the first steps east.
“Having started in Washington State, a thousand miles have already been walked to arrive here. From here, I will continue on foot for thousands more miles till reaching Florida, then shifting north, up into Washington, DC.”
Shiny Happy People!
Daniel Hayes hosted us in Santa Monica, and joined us for a walk from the pier. Great guy!!
There are SO many signs and other external stimuli competing for anyone’s attention that we were barely noticed while walking. That said, among those that did notice us was a radio reporter from a small town in central Oregon, who wanted to record a quick interview on the spot.
