Saturday, June 3, 2000
We left the second
time at 8:18am-- Brian had not remembered a hat so we had to go back and
get two. After that, the drive down was beautiful but uneventful.
South of Carmel (by-the-Sea), 
Highway
1 juts in and out of the twisted natural coastline that has been carved
out over time. We stopped twice to take pictures and, while Brian
was playing billy-goat on a ledge, I noticed that I am leaning in the opposite
direction to help give him balance (as if it would help!).
We arrived at the first gate and were sent to the second gate to check in with Eric. Eric jokes with Brian that he doesn't look like a Marcia (the reservation is under my name) so Brian leans back to allow Eric a better view of me in the truck "Okay, now she looks like a Marcia"! (Last fall when I was checking on the smoke in this area from the forest fire that we were trying to avoid, I think I talked with Eric then, too. He's not the sharpest stick in the pile, if ya know what I mean.) Eric assigns us our campsite and we drive on in search of #24.
Brian had predicted, since our arrival was on Saturday instead of Friday, that we would end up between the septic field and the dumpsters. He was right! We pulled into #24 and were facing the restrooms; while Brian was unpacking and setting up the tent, I saw the dumpsters on the road just opposite our site!! Needless to say, we had a good chuckle over that! The traffic to the restrooms and dumpsters wasn't too bad.
One interesting thing about our new temporary surroundings was the ground squirrel population. There were a lot of them!! Just our luck: 20 of Earl the Squirrel's relatives!!
While we were putting up the tent, one of the neighbors going through noticed that the ground squirrels had put a hole in another camper's potato chip bag. After re-arranging the potato chip bag to hide the hole from the ground squirrels, that same bag of chips was on the picnic table bench with four of them munching out of it about 15 minutes later! When the owners' got back, they were not pleased! We learned an obviously important lesson with regard to protecting our food!
Saturday turned out to be colder than I had expected. I was in sweat pants and wondering what I'd be wearing tomorrow! I hadn't planned on the temperatures being that cold!! So far, the only thing Brian wants to do is drive around the campgrounds trying to hit the ground squirrels with the truck-- he figures that since he can't do it at home because of the traffic and kids, he should be able to do it here and very easily!
Sunday, June 4, 2000
Ground
squirrels, as we've seen here, sleep for about 14 hours a day. I
stopped seeing them around the campsite last night about 5 or 6pm and hadn't
seen them rise in the morning until well after 8am. The two babies
are kinda cute-- the way that the play together-- I can't tell which of
them is the more dominant. They are, however, scared easily and don't
wander very far away from home. There is an obvious size difference
between the adult and babies as you can see.
Walter
Lantz, I now know, used the California woodpecker to model the cartoon,
"Woody the Woodpecker".
Growing up in Michigan where the woodpeckers are colored differently than
here in California, I always felt a bit disconnected from the image of
the cartoon character because it didn't look like the woodpeckers that
lived where I grew up. At least, after sitting here watching them
pecking their little brains out, I know why Woody looked the way he did:
he was a California native!! 
The
blue jays and ground squirrels have been having a hey-day as people pack
up and toss the crumbs of the leftover foods at them. We now have
a perfect explanation as to why the blue jays and ground squirrels are
so big here: they eat well! Even the woodpeckers pick up some of
the foods that are leftover-- its the only explanation for their equally
chubby-ness.
**********
I know I can seem confused to people: I'm in a campground on the Big Sur coast instead of in a church building like some of my siblings and, when I was growing up, my family. In my early twenties, I explored a lot of religions: Christian Reformed Church (the way I was raised), Lutheran (Wisconsin Synod), Episcopalian and Catholic. I couldn't find one that I could agree with on their doctrines.
I'm sitting here in the woods, looking at a tree that I know has to be a couple of hundred years old. I'm noticing the gnarl of the roots, the way that some of them have come to the earth's surface and gone back down again a few feet away, only to rise again another few feet away. I'm noticing the way that the fog rolls out and pulls the sun along with it over the crest of the coastal mountains, the way that the sun tops the trees as it slowly spreads its fingers of light to the ground. And, just like when we were on Morro Bay and saw the grand scale of the whales in the water, I think to myself "My God, You've made some wondrous things in nature!!" I believe in the roots that were given to me as a child in that a Supreme Being made all of these things. I've never lost sight of that and I never want to lose sight of that.
Today, I'm in my cathedral . . . temple . . . church . . . communing with the world that my God has made. You are welcome here anytime, y'know? Feel free to drop by-- His door is always open.
**********
We walked to the grocery
store that's located along side the Big
Sur Lodge (and restaurant and gift shop); we figured it was about a
half mile each way but that's about as much exercise as we got for the
entire weekend! 
On
our way back to the campsite, we walked a short path down to the riverside.
The Big Sur River runs through the campground, meandering its way around
and down to the coast. There are no fish in it, unfortunately, or
at least there is no fishing allowed-- yes, of course, I checked!!
While it is rare, occasionally,
Brian relaxes; there's proof on the right. 
On
top of that, its a Sunday afternoon and Brian went into the tent for a
nap!! (Yes, I've put it on the calendar and it will be celebrated
annually!!) He stirred and dozed but never really slept; we had made
lunch after we returned from the store. I tried later to sleep but
was totally unsuccessful because it was already starting to chill too much.
When we prepared dinner, I was wearing my Max-Its
(which I also slept in) and sweat pants and sweat shirt and T-shirt!!
When the fog came in, it was a little warmer but not by much. Before
we went to bed, we turned off the lantern (battery operated) and looked
up at the sky full of stars!! There are more stars out when
you camping!
We went to bed around 10 and woke up remembering why we limit our camping trips to two nights-- the dirt is very hard even with an air mattress!
Monday, June 5, 2000
After eating our breakfast, we packed up the gear and headed for home.
The
trip back was sunnier than the trip down because the fog had gone out earlier. 
It was a beautiful sunny day and, if we'd have stayed, it may have even
been warmer than the other two days that we were there. 
Its
always good to be home, though where the water runs cold and
hot and where I don't have to fight blue jays and ground squirrels to make
dinner!
Copyright © 2000, Marcia L. Dykstra