And maybe it wasn't a ghost after all!

A few months ago, I thought I had heard and seen dangers when there weren't any.

But maybe I did, and maybe there was.

Some days ago, at around dusk, I went by that suburban shopping center again. I shop there often, and it's a common stop for me. And as I pulled up, a half-dozen cop cars were there, across the street, in the parking lot, everywhere. And a couple gangsta-looking thugs were sitting out on the curb in front of the houses across the street from this parking lot, handcuffs on. The whole building was on the lawn and hanging out of their windows, looking at what was going down.

Whatever it was, I didn't want to know. Instead of camping there, I went to the store, did my errands quickly, took off in a hurry. And wondered if, that night when I woke up in such terror, maybe there was some actual danger after all.

I went by there again today to run some errands, parked in my usual spot, and the little Toyota next to me had on its windshield a ticket! Never seen one of those there before. Apparently they are now busting people for parking overnight there. The ticket said "FINAL WARNING" on it, so they might even tow the guy, which would really suck.

Never, ever, ever again will I stay there overnight. It has become a hostile environment. And maybe my instincts were very right the first time around.

Taking care of the simple things

The label on my box says to re-torque the U-bolts every six months. Since the big drama with the U-bolts back in September, I'm pretty sure I've checked them at least once. But it's been a while, so I checked them again today. Guess what? About a third of them were loose, some significantly. Good thing I did that.

Been wrestling with some strange tire pressure issues. The van is pulling to the right, and I had a slow leak in the passenger front tire, which would explain the pulling, but the leak seems to have gone away. Perhaps that wheel is just flaky in some other way-- maybe out of round? I'll take it back to my alignment/tire guy and find out what he has to say about it this week.

I'm also fed up with dealing with ice, and am looking for deals on a 12v refrigerator. Might could have found one, will see. It's an expense, but the convenience factor will be worthwhile, I hope.

I've got the wanderer's itch now

I've spent the last three weeks on the road. Got completely out of the city, and stayed there. First time I've done that since I've been vandwelling.

I love it. It was fantastic. I spent weeks on the ocean, up the rivers, in the mountains, in the redwood forests, and it was great.

I've got the travelling itch now. I've got the van and there's really no reason for me to stay in one place, let alone in a grungy, dangerous city.

I want to go find some land out in rural coastal California and go live there forever. I do NOT want to go back to the city again. I don't feel safe there anymore. I don't feel healthy there anymore.

After travelling back, I hung around in Marin for a few days, which was also wonderful. Then to the East Bay for a few days, seeing friends I haven't seen since last year, and then spent an afternoon being a dad again. Now I'm down the coast, wandering and hiking around the beautiful natural areas here. I have to go back to the suburbs again, and then I think I'm quite done with the city from here on, if I can get away with it.

It'll be hard to make the rural thing work, but I can much more easily swing the suburban thing.