08/03/19

Decided to stay in Santa Barbara a day. The two times I’d previously been here were to just grab coffee, but I’ve wanted to explore some of the historical sites, check out the beach, and simply wander about the town in general since those first two visits. It’s been great to have that opportunity, plus the chance to really rest my legs (after months of not being on a bicycle, and to have suddenly thrown myself into this trip, it should come as hardly a surprise that I am feeling fatigued and needing rest days). I have plenty of other stuff to keep me busy too—photo stuff, writing, editing writing, etc.—the usual. So I am back at Handlebar. Haven’t yet texted back my potential WarmShowers host. Maybe in another thirty minutes.

Can’t stop yawning. Slept poorly last night. Fell asleep watching a James Bond movie (I’ve been obsessed lately, so of course) and woke up at midnight. Sent Huyen some goodnight messages and proceeded to attempt to go back to sleep, but failed badly, so I lied awake for over an hour before finally falling asleep. However that wouldn’t last for long, as moisture had condensed on the walls of the tent (which was not staked out well in the hard, rocky soil) causing it to sag and the guy line to slip down the utility pole it was tied to so that the tent had nearly collapsed on top of me. In order to fix this problem (as I previously stated, I have no tent poles) I set up a tower of rocks as rear support and added more to the corners in place of the stakes, eventually falling back to sleep until the crows woke me up at 6am making the maddest racket I’ve ever heard a murder of crows , or any kind of bird, make.