I'll write about a few days at a time.

June 3:
Left Orange County. I was so happy to be on the road! Stopped in Santa Barbara to stretch my legs and write a poem. Stayed the first night at the AYH Hostel in San Luis Obispo and wrote some more.

I love hostels not only because they're inexpensive, but because you get to meet people from all around the world. It's much more personable than staying in a chain motel, and I feel safer. The SLO hostel has a free cook-it-yourself pancake breakfast. All hostels have cooking facilities, which is more economical and less caloric than eating out on the road. And did I mention you meet a lot of neat people?

June 4:
Took the wrong highway out of SLO and landed up on 101 inland route instead of 1 coastal. Wrote a poem about it Driving through San Jose, rush hour traffic was so bad that I wrote a poem about being stuck in traffic, while I was stuck in traffic. Whenever we "sped" up to 10mph, I put the pen down.

Stayed overnight (and 2 additional nights) in the Yountville Veterans' Visitors Hotel, just north of Napa (famous for wineries.)

June 5:
Berkeley Poetry Festival!! ~11am-4pm in a small city park. Continuous readings on stage, including an open reading (anyone may sign up;) a Lifetime Achievement Award for Julia Vinograd; a slam contest (poets perform and are judged numerically. Winners go to the next round etc.); and a reading from students in a high school poetry workshop. Some of the kids were pretty good!

Unfortunately I signed up for the open reading too late to get on, because I was busy setting up my jewelry booth. But I was pretty close to the stage and got to hear everyone read!

The festival organizers thought attendance was a little low (only ~100 people) because everyone was at the San Francisco peace rally. My sales were OK considering the turnout. I sold my most expensive piece of jewelry and 8 poetry books, plus a few books in trade. Everyone I met was super nice and I had a real fun time! My goal had been to make enough money to pay for gasoline (500 miles each way, plus a lot of side trips. Gas prices ranged from $2.35 to $2.50 .) I made enough to pay for all my gas and lodging.