Finally got some free time to write about this. Not that anything MAJOR happened, but here it is anyways. I'll put it in 3 sections: preamble; the trip; and afterwards -- all in the Travel forum over the next several days. I figure if I break it up, it'll be easier to write.

PREAMBLE (and amble, and amble...)

The day before the trip I still hadn't heard from my friend Kimberly, whom I was supposed to stay with for 4 days. I knew she had recent computer problems; however, all I had was a PO Box -- no address and no phone. I tried doing an internet search and couldn't find her there either. I know she's living with her boyfriend and I didn't know his last name. I sent her several frantic emails: "Kimberly I need your phone # or I can't visit you..." We hadn't seen each other in 4(?) years. The NIGHT before I was going to leave, she finally phoned! I had made accommodations for the first 3 days of my 2-week trip but nothing further because I was waiting to see what days would be good for her. Which left me very few hours to book my rooms for the rest of the trip. AARRGGHH!! I also had been emailing Kate "well, I don't know what my schedule is yet but I'd like to get together..." Even for Ms. Fly-By-The-Seat-Of-My-Pants, this was a little too haphazard. Well, all's well that ends well...

WHY THIS TRIP?

I was reading through a poetry e-letter which mentioned "Berkeley Poetry Festival, including community and crafts fair." YES!! At that moment I decided to go. Then I figured I may as well make it into a real vacation, as long as I was driving 8 hours in each direction. And I decided with equanimity that I was going alone.

Why alone? Because the last 3 times I drove up the coast with my husband, we overnighted in San Luis Obispo (5 hours drive), and for 5 hours NON-STOP he nagged "We should have gone earlier. I told you to leave earlier. You never listen to me. If we had left earlier maybe we wouldn't be stuck in traffic," as well as crap that happened 25 years ago...

Five freaking hours in a row

and I asked him to please shut up, and I said there's nothing we can do about it now

and I wanted to jump out of the g-d- car, anything to escape him...

which is why I left him at home, and will NEVER go on another car trip longer than 2 hours EVER AGAIN with him

because this happens all the time, and the only way I can stop it is to prevent it at the roots

and he can nag at the four walls all he wants when I'm gone.

I did not tell him I was going (he figured it out by the check written to Berkeley Poetry Festival. He does the banking.) He thought I was leaving for one week, and I didn't tell him until the morning of that it would be for two (and if he hadn't asked, I wouldn't have told him at all.) And if he hadn't asked, he wouldn't have gotten the itinerary either.

He said "I would have gone with you."

I said "I didn't want you."

And he never asked why. And I may or may not ever tell him.