Today I grabbed an early lunch with my dad and then got a ride down to Vallejo, CA, where I met my craigslist rideshare going to Eugene, OR. The guy driving the blue VW was Antony, a personal trainer and non-profit owner from San Francisco. I sat in the front and we talked for a number of hours about unschooling, nutrition, international travel, and everything in between. He warned me that his recent (first) trip to New Zealand in early December–the same time that I’m planning the Unschool Adventures NZ trip–was rainy 13 out of 15 days. Uh-oh! Here we gassed up somewhere south of Redding.

Two other ride sharers were in the car, and we dropped the first one off at the Jackson Wellsprings resort in Ashland, OR. The VW wouldn’t start up again, which Antony assured us was not normal, and so we pushed it around the the muddy resort RV campground once to kickstart it, unsuccessfully, and then jumped it successfully.
At midnight I arrived at my friend’s house in Springfield (just east of Eugene) and found this note waiting for me:

It’s good to have friends in warm places.