"California Sun, Finally"

I jumped off the train around 12am, and thought to myself, I had better get a good sleep and quickly found myself a spot in the dirt and crashed. The next morning I awoke to a smattering of rain, quickly packed up my gear, and found a nice little cafe in the train lounge that I camped beside the night before. This is where I began my search for the Skinner family. The Skinners are related to some good friends of mine back in Boise, Idaho, and I was really looking forward to meeting them. I quickly found Heather online, and she agreed to pick me up at her earliest convenience. To this point in my journey, most of my interactions with people had spawned out of either random meetings on the street, or people that had simply opened their couches for me to sleep on. So this meeting with the Skinners was special, here was a family of four that had completely sold out, to the idea of bringing me, a dirty traveling stranger into their highly structured world. This was a family that was constantly on the run, living a very busy life juggling school, kids activities, work and home life. I thought to myself initially, where am I going to fit into this? Where indeed, I almost immediately fell into the roll of the new fifth family member. I was fed, my wounds cleaned, entertained, and given a much needed nights sleep. More importantly I was exposed to a family that genuinely cared for a complete strangers wellbeing, and went all out to make sure that I experienced the best that Southern California had to offer. Day one began with a dinner at a local wing joint where I was treated to a spicy pre game meal with a beer, my first in weeks, soooo good! I was then treated to a baseball game featuring their son who hit a nice double in the bottom of the fourth,as I recall. Day two I was dropped of in the Newport beach area with a lunch and directions on what to do and where to go. I found a gorgeous beach, and spent my day swimming, sunning, and exploring the many beaches and harbors in the area. So my two days were up, I was driven to and dropped of at the very same spot I had been picked up two days earlier by Heather, we parted this time with a hug, and each of us the excitement of having made a new friend. While the Southern California sun had treated me well, I new my feet in particular were begging me for an extended rest, my soul for the smell of a forest, and my mind for a few less people. I threw on my backpack trudged my blistered feet to the nearest freeway exit I could find, and put up my sign that read simply, San Fransisco.