SanFran, Vichy Springs, City Lights Books - 06.13.23
“I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.”
- Jack London
I do like to take naps… and I plodder around… but after that, superb meteor!!!
☄️
Here’s a complete foto assault from a week in Northern California. I came here this round for some ocean time, nature things and to deal with some gear that’s been tucked away in a SouthWest Berkeley storage unit… and a lot of ploddering around too.
I love the transportation in San Francisco… no car needed. I spent an evening in the city just busing around. The next day would require renting a car share to go North into the sticks. One 1999 Chevy Impala with relatively low miles and in severe need of a deep clean and zero USB ports… but it runs and it’s cheap and I’m here to tell the tale.
Vichy Springs near Ukiah, CA was the destination. It was a favorite haunt of Jack London. There’s even a picture of him on the billboard advert on the way up, 20 feet tall, standing in his weirdly fitting bathing suit. It seemed awkward but swim suits for men are always weird. My suit was likely designed by someone who hears instructions opposite. “Here… design the best men’s bathing suit ever.”
“Check… I’ll design the worst men’s bathing suit ever!!” See… the pockets pull out and float on the water and it looks ridiculous… it’s supposed to be quick dry but it takes 17 days of sitting in the sun to dry… and when I get out of the water (with my pockets hanging out like a rabbit’s ears) it sticks to my skin leaving nothing to the imagination… NOTHING! There’s a pocket for a key, or soda money, or taffy, or whatever the fk… but it’s in the back and the pocket falls right on tailbone. I’m quite sure the last place that one wants a bulge in their swimsuit is the crack of your hamburger buns 🍔🍔.
Anywho, Vichy Springs has one of only 3 natural effervescent springs in the world. One being in France and the other in Spain. The bubbles from the carbonated water rest on your skin and has a medicinal effect of expanding your blood vessels twice their size. So… there’s a particular burning sensation on thin skinned areas… like the eyelids… and some other nice places below the equator. ☺️ Coolio.
Vichy was apparently frequented by Robert Lewis Stevenson, Jack London and Mark Twain… and other peeps as a writers retreat. I just started identifying as a “wryter”… not “writer”… there’s a difference and I’ll tell you about it as soon as I make it up. So… I enjoyed thinking about creative ghosts floating around that place while I had a variety of burning sensations in favorable locations as I soaked in the effervescent waters. 😅
The town of Ukiah is near and I had only stopped for gas in previous excursions but this time hung out a couple of days. The people I came across were awfully nice… practiced my Spanish at the food truck and had some warm feelings there. Wonder what that’s all about?
I looped back to the coast in the 99’ Impala because there’s that thing called the Pacific Ocean. I was walking on a Coastal trail near Sea Ranch, CA and a couple pointed out some whales in the bay. I’ve never seen whales in person. I made all kinds of noises of approval and wanted to swim out to them with pleasant greetings from the bipedal beings of the landlocked places of planet earth... “hey dudes! High five!!” 💙💙💙🐋🐋🐋 whales! Do you believe that craziness?!? Whoaaaowww!!!
There was a ton of wildlife spotting on this loop. The whales of course… a sea otter, deer, birds, bees, salamanders, lizards, seals, a hobbit, butterflies, a frog, a ruffle potato chip and the ghost of Allan Ginsburg. Cool stuff. There was a rock out cropping near the town of Jenner that is speculated to be a mammoth scratching rock. Mammoths and whales. 💙🙏
There was a last pilgrimage to City Lights Books and Jack Kerouac Alley in San Francisco before I was to fly back to Denver. All kinds of cool… they have a beat poets section because that’s their thing. I loved every second of it… feeling all beatnik-ish and extra… hunched over a book in my GenX uniform of ‘55 shades of grey’ clothing and black shoes and mild disposition from being raised on John Hughes’ films. Ok… snap out of it, Jacobs!!! Anyways… I bought a couple of books and a touristy tshirt to mix up the formal wear for my travels. One time I wrote a beatnik poem about ‘desire to have desire… and the despair of’… then I went and had some tacos and decided life is pretty cool. #deep #tacos #deeptacos
There’s 80 more pictures on top of these 80 pictures that I posted, and another 5,000 words about this round of storage/ocean/adventure… but my $14 flight was cancelled… and I need to find another way home. Frontier’s flights are booked for the week… maybe because of the Nuggets win. Don’t know but it’s a bit of a pain. I do have a little extra time to figure it out but when things like this pop up… I do feel stuck. I start to squirm… I want to tie bed sheets together and climb out the window. Last summer I missed the last ferry from Vancouver Island and I was contemplating stealing a boat or swimming across the sound. Stuck!!!
I’m supposed to be back in Taos by this Friday but the sun will still rise if that doesn’t happen. So… I’ll add to this story of Northern California a bit more and climb out the window and start hitching back tomorrow if I need to.
#californiadreaming
P.S. a water knot is the best knot to use when tying sheets together to use to climb out a window. #SafetyFirst
