let your mind flow. Whew...! I felt very alive!
Of the Hills I thought, that maybe at first the earth was a big soft mass and God has taken his hands in it and molded the world out of it. And with his fingers he molded this Hills. I most enjoyed the smell there. In the cities almost everything smelled a little sweet for me, also the American people, maybe it depends on the body products they use. As I got the haircut in L. A., I had experienced, that the shampoo smelled very sweet. Along the Highway No. 1 it smelled of pure nature, very fresh and clear. Also a lot of plants there were smelling wonderful to me. At one point I wanted to go swimming and parked my car on a nice place on the beach. Before taking my clothes off, I putted my bare feet in the water and shrieked. GOD, I never imagined that it would be so cold! I saw all the American people swimming there but for me it was too cold. I sat a while on the beach and enjoyed the sight.

As I was getting hungry, I drove to a “Lucky Food Center” for buying something to eat. I never had been before in a “Food Center” and had never expected what kind of food they sell there. I was really surprised! :)  I bought me a mixed salad with chicken wings, bread, a bunch of grapes and coke. The Lady who was standing behind me had a full shopping car and wondered, that I held only those few things in my hand. She asked me about it and I told her, that I’m on the road and don’t need more.

I went back to that wonderful place on the beach and enjoyed my meal. Sometimes
I held my feet in the water and imagined, that on the other side of the ocean is Australia and New Zealand.

Later in the afternoon I drove to Salinas, where the friendly Motel 6 Manager had reserved me a room for the next two nights. After I checked in, I strolled around in the streets of Salinas, watched at some shops and ended up in a big shopping center near the Highway 101. In a bookstore there, I bought me the new published book “Michael Jackson - The Magic and the Madness” written by J. Randy Taraborelli. That book is really a big one! Since I began it to read, I couldn’t stop until I had read the last line. In my estimation it’s one of the best books who were written about Michael Jackson and about showbusiness.

Even though I had a TV in my Motel room, I read the whole evening until midnight in that book. I enjoyed laying at the bed and reading. After a while I got very hungry and discovered a little Mexican Imbiss just around the corner. The nice Lady got me a taste of the food and I decided to take rice and some meat with hot sauce, salad and coke. It tasted very good!

The next day was my 30th birthday and I had made plans to visit Carmel and the 17 Mile Drive. I got up early in the morning, congratulated me myself to my birthday and hit the road to Carmel.       

Later on the day I got hungry and I drove out of the park and made me on the way to find some cute little restaurant for having lunch. I was looking for a Mexican restaurant, where I wanted to get a good meal. I was driving on a road along the beach, with one eye looking in my map and with the other searching a restaurant. Suddenly I recognized a police car behind me. As I looked at them, it turned on the lights and the siren and pointed me to stop. Immediately I stopped my car on the right side, laid my hands on the steering-wheel and waited until the policeman came to my car. He wanted to see my passport, the driving license and the papers for the rental car. I thought about it, but couldn’t find any reason that he stopped me. After he looked at the papers, he wanted me to get out of the car. I got out and he asked me, what sign I would see straight ahead. I said to him that this is a STOP sign. He said to me, that I had overlooked the last two STOP signs and that now he would arrest me to bring me to the Police Station. Later I would get there my ticket.
My heart ran into my pants. GOD, I thought, maybe I come into jail, how I saw it always in the movies and maybe I had to stay there the whole day. It was my 30th birthday and I didn’t wanted to go in jail! I said to him, that I have seen the STOP signs and as I saw that no cars came across, I drove through, as we in Germany do.  We don’t wait a while, like in the USA. I said to him, that I don’t have much money, but I’m willing to pay 30.- $ if he will let me go. He said: “No way, I have to arrest you and to bring you at the police station”. Thinking of the jail and what maybe expected me there, tears ran down my cheek. I began to cry, handed him my passport again and said to him: “Today it’s my 30th birthday. I came all the way from Germany to California to celebrate it here. I visited 17 Mile Drive and got very hungry so I was looking for a restaurant. I don’t want to go in jail now. If you let my go I promise you, that I will never miss again a STOP sign. Please let me go!” 
He watched again into my passport, read that I said the true and handed it over to me with the words: “Ok, today it’s your birthday and I will let you go”! I was very relieved and promised him again, never ever to overlook a STOP sign. I got back in my car and he in his. He drove a while behind me, than he disappeared.
Whew...! Thank God! :)

A few minutes later I found a little Mexican restaurant and ate a wonderful meal. Afterwards I took an frozen yoghourt and went again back to the beach. The whole afternoon I laid there, reading my MJ book and watching the sea lions who enjoyed their life on one of those rocks in the ocean. It was very beautiful to look at them, how they swam and played in the water. A lot of birds were flying over me, making noises, I never heard before. I asked what birds they are and a man told me, that they be called “Sealaugher” and it really sounded, how they would laugh.
Very funny! :)

The next morning I checked out of the Motel 6 and burned the road again to San Francisco. At 11:00 p.m. I checked in a another Motel 6 room in Sunnyvale.
I planed to stay there for 3 days. Hot to see San Francisco, I only took my bags into the room and speeded off for sightseeing. A dear friend of mine was 6 month earlier in San Francisco and had made me a map, how I could find the most beautiful things to see there. San Francisco was full of mist. As I drove on the famous Golden Gate Bridge to the visiterpoint, I saw nothing except mist. I strolled around on Pier 39 and looked over to Alcatraz. I got so much headache of the mist, that I had to leave the city in the late afternoon, I really couldn’t stay any longer. I have to say, that after being in L.A., San Francisco was not my city. I really love L.A.!
I felt more comfortable there. So I decided not to waste time and to drove back to L.A.. Immediately I went back to the Motel 6 and checked out, without sleeping on night in there.

At Wendy’s I ate a Steak with backed potato and salad (my favorite meal) and filled up my car at the gas station. Now I was ready for burning the road again. At maybe 6:00 p.m. I got off. I decided to take the Highway 101 to drive directly to L.A., or better to Thousand Oaks to the Motel 6. It was a wonderful ride. I was driving in the sunset and during the night and it was really beautiful for me to experience that fantastic road with all the big American cars and Trucks on it, so clean and twinkling. I really enjoyed the landscape and loved it to drive around. At 1:30 a.m. I checked in my Motel 6 room at Thousand Oaks. I was really tired and felt immediately asleep.

More about what I experienced back to L.A. in Hardrock Café and Disneyland and all those beautiful places, you can read in the other story “Back to L.A.”!

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© Claudia Wildner