DAY 18. FEBRUARY 24, 2018. A Saturday.

Bill got in around ten last night after a long drive from San Diego. Apparently on the way down he and his jeep had managed to commit a small scale massacre of bunny rabbits. The bunnies were either dazzled by his lights or did not know how to look both ways before crossing. Today the high winds continued, but we wandered around town again and visited the local museum that was full of fun fossils and other historical artifacts of the region. We drove out to the south side of town and found another nice little beach that would be a good camping spot. There was a remnant there of an old brick structure built up on the hill overlooking the beach. Hard top identify what it might have been. Perhaps a lighthouse, although there is another lighthouse just round the other side of the way. There was some people there snorkling and another overlanding couple from Switzerland who had been traveling for 6 years. That had taken their rig on 4 continents and would be heading up to Alaska as the weather starts to warm up. We picked their brains for thoughts on the overlanding life. Their rig was built in Germany onto a Land Cruiser. It was nice and compact, just a few inches less wide than ours with a shorter pop up as the pop up did not extend over the cab. I admired these seasoned travelers. They had a real appreciation for the outdoors life, but were very practical and not too romantic about the lifestyle. Down in Baja especially you do meet a lot of the hippie style travelers. I often admire the bohemian esthetic, but it’s not quite me, but neither am I the North Face style of traveler that has all the correct gear and charges into opportunities for extreme climbing or sports. I am just doing what I can to chase beauty I suppose. I suppose finding your own aesthetic is a never ending process that requires continually tweaking and changes and morphs as you discover new details about yourself. So I try to be less precious about my own ideas of who I am these days.

Whatever the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth -whether it existed before or not. – John Keats

I’ve been reading the sci-fi, space opera series by Dan Simmons which is full of John Keats and this quote has been sticking with me. Imagination seizes beauty. Such and evocative idea. My new goal in life perhaps. Seize beauty. Worry not where you find it. Perhaps my beauty will be different in apprehension, but it will be true nonetheless.

After the beach and a sighting of a graceful heron skirting about the water we heading back to town for some food and then back to the campsite for a fire. The wind had died down just enough and the stars filled the sky as they do at night. The stars, perhaps, bright bits of souls long gone in worlds far away dusting us with their wisdom. All those molecules stretching across the sky in a galactic yawn that never ends. I watched Zack Attack and our friend Bill across the fire and it was just as it should be for a moment.