Heading South To Campo, California

The last 24 hours have been very exciting for me.

I really didn't know how I was going to get to the start of the trail. Mostly, I was counting on something from Craig's List, and I had planned to stop and visit a friend in San Francisco on the way. I didn't want to pay a lot of money. Amtrak would have been about $175 or so.

Several different offers came together, but then fell apart. The best was a guy from LA that wanted to pay me to drive a U-haul truck from Eugene to LA. That one fell apart over the weekend.

Then I heard from a guy in Portland that wanted $45 to ride to Oakland. That looked like it would work, so early on Monday, my roommate Jo dropped me off at the Taco Bell near I-5. I heard from the driver that he was tied up in Portland traffic and would be delayed, so I walked over and sat on the edge of I-5 to wait for him.

As I was sitting on the side of the freeway in the rain (for about 1/2 an hour), a large semi-truck pulled up and stopped. I though maybe he wanted directions or something, because semi-truck drivers rarely give rides. The driver asked where I was headed, and I told hime San Diego. He said, "Throw your pack in, I'm headed to Riverside, California" and we were off.

He was a really nice guy. In fact, he bought me dinner.

It was about 8 am the next day when we rolled into L.A. I tired to pay him for the ride, but he wouldn't take anything!