Andrea Says: In the woods

Mike began his story about today’s adventure with an observation.

“I am sitting on a little stone wall practically on a cliff overlooking a sandy ocean with a beach on it,” he said and continued with the adventure that got them to this hidden campsite.

The boys got up a bit later than expected. Mike said they were out late the night before with Meaghan in San Diego.

For breakfast they had amazing leftovers and they all got to try a bit of the leftover Snickers Pancake.

“It was really good,” Mike said.

They said goodbye to Meaghan and hit the road.

Mike then went on to explain the names of the roads and which ones they decided to take.

“We took The 5 until Dana Point, at which point we switched over to Route 1 which is the Pacific Coast Highway or PCH,” he explained twice.

They stopped for a bit to look for stickers, but couldn’t find the ones they were looking for.

“We jumped back on PCH and then we were in Orange County,” Mike said excitedly. “We started seeing famous places.”

They parked their bikes, crossed the street and started to explore.

“We went by Laguna Beach and we met this guy and we stuck our fingers in the Pacific Ocean,” he said and never elaborated more about guy until a bit later.

Based on Meaghan’s insights, the boys learned jaywalking is a serious crime in California. But, like good New England men they decided to live on the edge and attempt to cross the street.

Because as Mike explained it, “You just look both ways and you don’t die and it is not that hard.”

One of the cars that passed the boys turned out to be a cop car. Mike said they were clearly standing on the side of the road waiting for the cars to stop before they crossed.

“The police car slowed down and said ‘don’t cross there,’” Mike said and explained that it was playful, but they went to the crosswalk anyway.

Upon crossing the street the two saw this man that looked like a “rockstar.” Mike said he kind of looked like Russell Brand, but it wasn’t him.

Several people slowed down and said hello to this guy.

Mike said to him “Hey, I guess you are really popular.”

And he responded in a British accent, “That is because I have the best drugs.”

Then more people stopped to say hello and shake this guy’s hand. The man then went into his artist studio.

Mike doesn’t think he is a drug dealer, just a local celebrity.

The boys then went on a hunt for an “In and Out Burger.”

It took a while and a bit of searching on the GPS, but they ended up at the burger joint. They both ordered a Number 2, which is a cheeseburger with fries and a medium Doctor Pepper. Mike said they learned to order the food “Animal style,” which meant they added sautéed onions and cheese sauce.

“I thought it was going to go on my fries and burger and it only went on my burger,” Mike said. “It was just like McDonalds. It was nothing special at all.”

They got on the road again and passed by a pier that Mike thinks is the place where THE Bluth banana stand was in the show “Arrested Development.”

While they were there they saw a skywriting plane that was making circles with “Xs in them and it looked like the X Men logo,” Mike said. “Then we road right by LAX.”

When they stopped for gas they met a fellow rider with a KLR (yup, I had to look that one up too it is a motorcycle).

Mike went over to compliment him on his bike, and the guy told him of a secret place to camp.

I’ve been asked to not go into details about the site, but on the way to the site, Paul dumped his bike twice and Mike dumped his bike once. They are both fine, and were only going 2 mph. I guess the road was just lose and messed with the tires. Paul did break a front peg off his bike, but because Mike already did that the boys knew how to fix it.

The site is pretty cool and other folks are around, so they won’t be lonely. The boys set up their hammocks like bunk beds, according to Mike.

As I was getting off the phone with Mike, Paul was preparing dinner and Mike fell off the rock he was sitting on. Tomorrow they head to Big Sur.