California Bound

With dreams of the potential opportunity looming in our minds, Ashley and I drive west into the sunset. We are bound for California, for the fall harvest season.

I assumed many things about the upcoming adventure. As the days and state lines passed us by, ideas and inspirations ramble through my skull. The mind painting a perfect picture of how the months will unfold. But then things changed.

And that's what happens when you assume. Upon arrival, work contacts fell through, and our plans went to the wayside. I slowly began to recognize that my dreams weren't matching the reality i was experiencing...

Ashley, Willee, and I after a Kali Puja ceremony
In a strange place with collapsed plans. We were now in the mercy of "California" and its people. Luckily the only one we know, was the right one, "Willee" a buddy i worked with in the Bolivian Amazon. With a big head of hair and even bigger heart, i knew we were in good hands.

Playing some music on the porch of the van
With enthusiasm we were invited in to Willee's community, and made to feel both comfortable and apreciated.

What began as a work trip, became a season of tourism and jewelry making peppered with occasional work stints in odd places with even more odd bosses.

Cooking it up on the side porch (downtown Berkely, Ca)
And as odd as some of the places and faces have been, As different as it could be from what i had imagined this trip to look like. It is perfect. It is the road. I am a gypsy. I am in great company. And it is the beautiful manifestation of my life right here, and right now

Ashley walking over the salt flats


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