At 37 years old – an age when many are settling down to start families or solidify careers – I decided to leave my life in Oakland, Ca. and travel the U.S. with my cat, María Lionza. The reasons for this were many and varied and often, not entirely clear. Like Thoreau, I wished to live my short life more deliberately. And, as Whitman had advised, I had already begun to reexamine all that I’d been told. I was suspicious of how we’ve been conditioned to think of our lives and of the world around us; the ways we’re all expected to perform. Something in me was calling me back to the beauty and simplicity of nature. It was telling me to go to the mountains.

At the suggestion of a friend, I decided to record my journey on this blog, based very loosely on John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley. I aim to be as accurate as I can, though conversations will be repeated from memory, and names may be changed to protect identities or locations modified to keep hidden treasure concealed. Mostly, I hope that these ramblings and musings bring you as much joy to read as the experiences themselves have given me to discover, to live and to write.