Trip 2005 - Road to San Francisco

From the map, we could tell that our site was right on the Pacific Ocean, but we never figured it was so close. Chicago is garbage because San Francisco is the real 'Windy' City, and you can imagine how that would hinder us from setting up our tent. It was truly an interesting experience.

I was a little worried at this point because we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and not at a campsite. Our site was supposed to be right along the coast on the beach, and I had yet to see sand and water. I trusted Timmy and his faithful map, so I kept pressing on until he would give me the signal to do something else.

We finally made it into Half Moon Bay, and decided to stock up with some essentials from the local Albertsons (Jewel to you Midwest folk.) We picked up some bread, peanut butter, jelly, pop tarts, cookies and chips. You know, normal campfire fodder that you can easily consume on a budget.

It took all 4 of us working in conjunction to lay out the canvas and nylon, and staking it down to avoid loosing the tent to mother nature proved to be the most difficult task. Tim and I have a history of setting up tents, from the days of backyard campouts to our serious days with the Troop 21 Boy Scouts; we've been through the good and the bad. The girls on the other hand, were new at "roughing it" and had to be instructed at proper tent procedure. They caught on quickly (it's all common sense after all) and we all worked together to get our shelter in proper order before nightfall.

Home

It's hard for me to really describe just how windy it really was, so hopefully these pictures can help just a little bit. Notice that Tim's hair is being rearranged by the brisk wind. My coat flew open on its own and stayed in this position without my aid. The wind can do some crazy things, so we all must fear and respect it. Even Eddie & Alex Van Halen wrote and performed such a track for the movie soundtrack to Twister, possibly Bill Paxton's finest performance.