March 31st, 2007.

It’s funny, I can’t remember the last time I woke up and saw some slanting beam of sun illuminating the dance of dust. Perhaps I’m simply not inhabiting dusty enough rooms, but some how that brownian shimmering has become something lost with childhood.

This gangling betentacled beast was our introduction to the Muir Woods outside of San Francisco, California.

Heather encounters a hollow tree sawed in half for the sake of this path through the Muir Woods park. Look around you – yes, this IS the forest of Endor. I was hoping for left over AT-ST shapnel.

I’m fortunate enough to have time to myself for the second time in a month and I’ve been sitting curled around a Harry Potter book stroking a tiny snoozing dog. It’s been a beautiful, relaxed day here in Reno, Nevada and I’ve avoided work and responsibility. We haven’t traveled anywhere and I had the best blackened chicken sandwich I’ve ever had in my Life.

I’m not looking forward to tomorrow’s drive. A good nine hours to Eugene, Oregon where our planning is a little bit lacking. I’m disappointed in myself for not nailing things down a little tighter, but I typed something in wrong and we’d planned to sightseeing amongst redwoods for the whole weekend. Getting them in on Thursday was both a stroke of luck and also an upset of schedule that’s probably for the best, but it I’ve been growing a little rigid in my approach to timelines and some of my sensibilities don’t like the alterations.

It was interesting to encounter this braced log. Clearly the interior had been eaten away, and I’m sure it would’ve eventually collapsed if it wasn’t for this intervention – after the explanation of the National Park Service’s policies back at the Azure Bridge in the Petrified Forest National Park, I was suprised to see this construction, and I’m curious about the logic behind it. .

We spent a LOT of time in the Muir Woods craning our necks to see the tops of the redwoods. We got dizzy a LOT simply looking for the crowns of these gargantuan organisms.

We got into Reno on Friday after a pretty lengthy drive through the mountains of north-eastern California. What should’ve been a short, relaxed drive got pretty arduous through the intrusion of traffic and when we finally made it to Walden’s Coffeehouse, we were a little edgy and a little tired.

At Muir Woods we were greeted by chipmunk that ALMOST but not quite visited Heather’s boot. As it was, he DID run just ahead of us, stopping every so often as if to wait for us to catch up. Unfortunately, a family came tromping down the path from the opposite direction and chased him off. Otherwise I’m SURE we’d have been led to a mysterious and fantastic land. Sigh.

Heather amongst the redwoods. Stained glass? We don’t need no stinkin’ stained glass!

The coffeehouse itself is in a very posh little group of shops in which we got a really amazing dinner of fish burritos before going over to the open mic where we were featuring. Walden’s itself is one of those rare breed of coffeehouses that’s actually set up for musicians, with really nice Carvin speakers hanging from all corners of the ceiling and a fairly decent monitor system. After a number of eclectic performances we get up and play a pretty heavy set, cleansing all the tension and making back a lot of our past couple of days worth of Californian expenditures. (yes, I know the structure of that last sentence was fundamentally fucked).

We were also relieved to find a fellow singer/songwriter who was willing to put us up for the night. He even offered to let us stay an extra night which led to this luxurious day of leisure…

As we left Muir Woods National Park, we were amazed that we survived the winding roads back out of the valley. We were even more amazed at the view as we approached the edge of the mountains… that’s the Pacific Ocean stretching into infinity at the end of those hills… Heather sometimes misses the things that are too big for our brains to immediately get – I remember her totally missing the Rockies in Colorado… in this case she responded “what ocean? OH!”

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco, California. I’m glad that at no point did a magnetically empowered mutant choose to swipe it. At least Magneto PROBABLY couldn’t have flung our Saturn anywhere since it’s mostly plastic.

Justin has a rough and ready voice and seems to have Lived more in his 25 years than i’ve managed to pack into my 32, and he’s got a tiny hidden house with a tiny eager dog named Daisy. We traded stories all last night, Heather and Justin talked books long after my brain had simply shut off, and then got up today and traded songs and licks and played guitar in the Nevadan sun.

Heather and Justin have gone back to the coffeehouse to watch another couple of bands, leaving me to my own devices for a couple of hours. I’m halfway through The Order Of The Phoenix and might even be able to finish it before we leave for Oregon.

That would almost make up for the lack of sweet-smelling dust.