North San Francisco - Petaluma KOA Campground

It was a long 5 hour drive yesterday.  An hour of that was 12 lane freeway.  When I reached the KOA I was utterly exhausted with my mind instantly fogging. It was all I could do to check in. I believe the KOA office folk see others like me. They are so clear in their communication.  This fellow actually came out and opened the gate for me because I couldn’t figure how to work the key pad and bar.  Then I was parking in a beautiful drive through site. The action of setting up is becoming routine and grounding.  

Parking brake, level, electricity, water, sewer hose. Then Starlink WiFi.  Once that was done I walked Madigan to the play area. I love that KOA’s a standardized with laundry, pool, facilities and K9 area all Standardized. Talking with Laura who love KOA too I said it’s kind of like and advanced Macdonald’s for its standardization and reliability.  They are all clean and orderly and at the end of a long drive nothing is better.  If I wasn’t travelling I might appreciate something different.  But travelling its all about easy.

Coming up from the south was the most beautiful country. Lots of views of the Pacific Oceans then agricultureal land forever.  There was even a ‘garlic city’.  The last hour was travelling into San Francisco. I didn’t stay on the 101 but followed the GPS directions to head to Oakland.  All the way I was having memories of my first time visitting San Francisco with Baiaba in the early 70’s after the Colorado Peace and Love Festival with Kirk.  The song ‘if’s you’re going to San Francisco be sure to wear flowers in your hair.’ Baiba was the most beautiful girl in the world and wore flowers in her hair.  It was the time of Gracie Slick and Jefferson Airplane,  The Greateful Dead.  We were hitchinking up to Canada to attend the Latvian Song Fest with Baioba’s mother. And we really were dancing in the streets of San Francisco with thousands.

Next I was a young doctor with Mauraen and we’d planned to hike in Banff but the late snow caused us to head south.  We had my Sheepskin Sleeping Bag I’d made in Winnipeg after survival training in living in igloos in survival training in Churchill. Maureen was going into a Pediatric residency.  Camping in Napa Valley we met Warren and Gail. Warren was hilarious and brilliant.  Gail and Maureen hit it off.  We’d ride on their motorcycles to wine tastings and visit with them back their Napa home.  A year or two later they’d join us in Canada for a wilderness canoe adventure taking off from my brother Ron’s cottage in Lake of the Woods.  

Years later when I left Maureen and visited Warren I’d live with his sister Suzanne and her son.  I’d do my American exams and FLEX, get accepted to a staff position at Stanford having left my assist at professor position at University of Manitoba.  I was suffering the last year of residency  with serious trauma and betrayals and not very nice. I regret how unkind I was.  Warren was a mensch and I loved talking about gravity with him.  There was so much to learn and conversations were like the late night adolescent times when I was at the Manitoba Theatue School .  Knowledge and learning were so incredible in those days.  The girls were so beautiful. Suzanne , Warren’s sister was amazing.  Gail would leave.  Warren’s parents and grandparents and brother were all the most caring and extraordinary people. Warren as Maureen and I separated.  Such heady emotional times.

Then I was back again with Sherrie in the Vanagon driving down from Vancouver where we were living. Next I was sailing down the coast with Tom and Sherrie in the 39.9 foot steel sailboat. SV Giri.  Because Sherrie had adjusted the radar at night we went off the bow wave of a tank in the fog under Golden Gate Bridge.  Somehow we serviced and continued south where Sherrie and I spent the winter in Sea of Cortez.  

Years later I’d sail so low down the coast past the infamous Cape Mendocino and under the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco Bay. I’d anchor off Sausillito to make final preparations. Then in the most memorable way I’d sail under the Golden Gate Bridge dressed in my red survival suit and continue solo in winter to the Hawaiian islands.

It was not just 12 lanes of freeway in a 29 foot Thor Hurricane Class A Motorhome with the broken slide held in by slide locks going at 70 miles an hour. I was do memory lanes with regrets about how arrogant and unkind I was with so many fears and uncertainties.  I really appreciated all the accomplishments and was blessed to know the people I did back then. What wonderful women and friends.  I really had so much but truly was an ‘egomaniac with an inferiority complex’.  We drank too much wine and smoked too much dope. But we danced and loved and share such hilarity.  Now here I was again going through San Francisco and there on my left was the Golden Gate Bridge.

Thank you God for this life. Thank you God for all the blessings.  Forgive me for being such an ass but thank you for all the good times nonetheless.  Thank you now for this day.  I am still getting better from the flu with sinuses that are stffy at times, the cough almost totally gone and yet the fatigue and brain fog persist at the end of the day. Mornings are fine and time for me to walk Madigan, gear up and hit the road again. It’s been raining all night and we’ve left the brown hills and desert and are entering the rainforest.  Soon I’ll be on the Red Wood Highway.  I once drove up here on my way to work at UBC in my beat up Baja Bug I called ‘Pendergast’.  That was some journey too.  Leaving San Francisco for Vancouver BC.  This Thor Hurricane is a far cry from that beater.  I had to adjust the points repeatedly and without a hood deal with electrical shorts in down pours.  Madigan and I are much happier in the Thor even if the slide motor has died.  I look forward to a replacement in Vancouver. Everything works just fine and I’m actually becoming more accomplished as a ‘bus driver’.  Time to go.  

Thank you God for all the love and joy.  Forgive me for my selfishness.  Help me to be a better man today.  Help get Madigan and I and Thor back to Canada safely.  Please protect us all from Communist Coporate madness of eastern Canada and the NWO Carney PM.  Help me to focus more on the serenity prayer and stash in my own lane.  As Zappa said, Politics is only the Entertainment Division of the Millitary Industrail Complex. It’s all above my pay grade.  Soon I’ll be able to work again as each day I feel my body and mind heal. Madigan and I are looking forward to seeing Laura when we return.  There’s Kim and Mac, Helena and Dave, Nicollet and Earnest, George and the men’s group. Gary and Mary Lou and all the people that are part of the Burnaby life.  Thank you