California

I am now more than a week into this journey. I'm getting used to some of the parts of long-term travel - no bedroom, less showers, say yes to everything!! mentality, asking locals for ideas of what to do. I have spent the entirety of the week in California, first in the Sierras and then in the greater LA area. I've seen so many different climates here! From the high mountains filled with sequoias and then totally bare above 10,000 feet to the deserts and beaches of LA to the vast breadbasket in the center of the state. California is long and varied, something I've always appreciated as a resident. I am so grateful to those who put me up and fed me and showed me around. Without your hospitality I wouldn't be able to do this.

I'm happy that I started out in the shallow end as opposed to just jumping into the deep end - a country where I knew no one and couldn't speak the language. California has been easy for me to travel through. I have friends and family and have been to LA several times before. I'm excited to leave tomorrow and head off to Bisbee, Arizona, somewhere I have never been (and somewhere I would not have heard of if not for you, Ben! Thanks).

Currently thinking about the constant background noise in LA. It's a low white noise that at first I thought might be the ocean but in reality is the freeways. It's never silent here in the way it was up in the mountains.