July 2nd: Day Two on Charlie's Farm

I've known Charlie for six years now but have only seen him briefly, here and there, for nine days each year. He's the chef at the hippy dance camp in the Hye Sierras that I go to. I've known that he has a farm up in Big Sur and this year, with more of an interest in farming and less of an interest in spending my whole summer in the metropolis of Los Angeles, I asked him about his farm. Turned out he needed help and turned out I had the next two weeks free. So just like that, here I am, in his guest yurt, half an hour drive from an already sleepy part of highway one into the completely isolated but vibrantly alive hills of Big Sur. His post office box is twenty minutes away.

Before leaving, I riled up my friend Tyler to come along. He and I were planning to go on some sort of adventure and the goat herding and cheese making of Sweetwater Farm seemed like the perfect opportunity. The drive up along the coast was fun but, as soon as we got to the farm, it was obvious that Tyler was not in his element. Im sure it didnt help that Charlie clearly prefers for his farm interns to be girls; young attractive girls.



So Tyler, and the Subaru that brought me up here, left- just 24 hours after arriving. I assured him that I would be fine and would find a ride back to LA before my flight home in two weeks. And I will. I'll get back and I'll make my flight but right now, I have no idea how that will happen. But for me, that's the ultimate freedom. I don't enjoy the uncertainty for the sake of the rush of waking up not knowing where I'll be sleeping that night. It's not a discontent with my original plan. What I like is that it's an open ended deal. A trip that could take me anywhere. My original itinerary is a fall-back plan. And any divergence, an improvement.