Another 3 days have come & gone & again it feels like a week since my last post. It’s so weird! Anywhoozle, not much time this morning before we need to hit the road so straight to the updates.
Day 4: We quick made oatmeal, packed our bags & were on our way. Thanks again for the wonderful hospitality, Jerad & family. It was much appreciated. Good luck on your trip! Our morning didn’t start out great but it ended nicely. We tried getting coffee in town but nothing was open. We had planned to have a down day with little biking but turns out I needed more plans. We had a general idea of where we wanted to be by the end of the day but that was it so we were just wondering around Modesto,CA & I was feeling lost (not literally but mentally: “what are we doing?”). I just needed direction, even if it was to do nothing, but to sort of do something & not know what was frustrating for me. We got a little cranky with each other but once we decided how to spend our down day I felt better. We swung by Dicks Sporting Goods for a few things we needed (propane tank, brighter shirts for Ben, new helmet for me-neon green, can’t miss me now!) & then off to a park to chill for the day. The weather was perfect. We had lunch, Ben caught up with friends on the phone, & I finally added photos to the blog. Ben took a nap while I ran some errands: Goodwill to donate my old helmet & pick up some books to read (The Piano Teacher & Don’t Let Go) & the grocery store for dinner fixings to add to rice. I met Ben back at the park, we loaded up & hit the road for a short jaunt (about 15 miles) to Fox Grove Park in Hughson, CA. It was a nice location right on a river & looked like a good spot to set up camp for the night. I was surprised by how much litter was on the ground. It seemed like no one took the effort to walk things to a garbage can (which I’m finding hard to come by, along with public restrooms here in CA) & instead just threw everything on the ground. That was a little disappointing 🙁 We picked up a little until I realized I’d lost one of my hiking sandals during the ride. NO! Ben went looking for it while I set up camp. He went out a few miles & didn’t see it but he DID find it right by the entrance to the park, only a few yards from us when he came back 🙂 Thanks, Ben! While he was gone, a Muscovy duck made friends with me, or rather with my food! It was a very bold bird & not afraid of anything. It was a constant (albeit hilarious) battle of me chasing it away with a stick. They’re very pretty birds with a red face. If you haven’t seen one before, look it up! They’re cool. We made a rice dinner with peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, avocado & a meatless Chipotle sausage & enjoyed it with some wine. Pretty fine dining for a camp meal 🙂 It was quite tasty. We had a nice relaxed evening, waited for the park to empty & then set up our tent in the furthest-back corner. Technically there was no camping allowed but we weren’t hurting anyone, & we made it better by picking up trash. It was nice to finally be just us again. I love staying with Warm Showers hosts but sometimes it’s nice to be alone & not feel like you’re imposing on anyone. Neither one of us got great sleep (me afraid of every sound thinking it was an animal, Ben afraid of people & getting in trouble) but it’ll get better the more we do it.
That was only 1 day but it’s all I have time for now. Time to head to Yosemite! I’m not two-tired this time since I’m writing in the morning & slept in a motel bed last night but more on that later!
Until next time,
Whitney