Couchsurfers, swimming and Needles Lookout

27/8 - I'm officially in another transition phase of my life. I'm physically still here in Porterville, but my mind and heart have been long gone and can be found elsewhere, far away.

My time at the newspaper is coming to a close, as Sept. 19 will be my final day. I also registered for the Foreign Services Officer test, which will be Oct. 3 in Sacramento. And of course, I will apply for the French visa in San Francisco on Sept. 16. Luckily, Marie-Amance gave me everything I need from her for that process.

Like during my final two weeks in England, I'm thinking ahead. I know my time here in Porterville is closing out, and it's a little bittersweet. While I will say it was a mistake to return to the Valley, I will never say it was a waste of time. My time in Porterville has definitely been productive, and I have grown as a person. Like that dead-of-night thunderstorm over the Isle of Wight a year ago, I feel like the past year is already fading away into a memory. But since there is no weather here besides heat, a more appropriate comparison would be the cloud of smoke from a wildfire slowly disappearing throughout a week.

28/8 - I hosted Evgeny via Couchsurfing last night. He is bald with a beard, and his accent is thick. He lives in Los Angeles but is originally from Moscow, Russia. He's been in California for the past four months and said everything is much different to Russia, including how many oranges there are compared to apples. It's funny how a traveler makes you appreciate things in the states more, like driving habits here. Apparently people drive much safer here compared to Moscow, and the traffic in LA is better than Moscow. Ok then!

I only hosted him for one night. This morning Evgeny was back on his motorcycle on his way to Sequoia National Park, Yosemite and eventually Burning Man. I'm glad I had the chance to give him some advice as to where to go and what to see; after all, I'm a traveler helping a fellow traveler. I'm also happy to be his first Couchsurfing host.

One more aspect of my life that is going through a transformation is the fact I joined a health club which houses an indoor swimming pool. It's time to treat my body right and get fit again. Swimming as a workout is tough! It's easier on your body in terms of impact, but there's the fact you can't breathe freely like you can when running. I feel it's more fun than running as well.

One other benefit of the gym is the fact it's the perfect release of frustration that builds up as a result of living in Porterville and the Central Valley...

1/9 - The flight to Paris is booked for Oct. 17. There are only a few more things I need for the visa application and then I'm ready to head off to San Francisco in a couple of weeks for the appointment at the French consulate. I still need travel insurance and a couple of application forms. I got passport photos taken a couple of days ago, but they look more like mugshots.

7/9 - I've had a pair of French couples Couchsurf with me over the past three days. While it was a pleasure to host Emma and her husband because we exchanged stories discussed language and they helped me with my French pronunciation, Cieline and her friend arrived late at night and were shy. It wasn't nearly as fun talking to Cieline and her friend because they were so shy and quiet, whereas Emma and Antoine were outgoing and talkative. They also brought homemade crepes and jams and shared them.

Both couples were around my age and were traveling through the Sequoia National Park, Yosemite and around California. I'm happy to give a little bit of advice to travelers regarding what to do around here.

As for my own hiking adventures, I went to Needles Lookout this past weekend in the Sequoia National Forest. It was a short hike (4.5 miles) but it was at high elevation, above 7,000 feet. The draw of this hike was the fire lookout perched precariously on a tall group of rock spires which provides an awe-inspiring view of the surrounding mountains. Unfortunately, the lookout burned down some years ago but the stairwell up to the concrete base still remains. There is a gate which blocks the stairwell, but it's not locked. So, while carefully climbing the steps, I opened the gate and proceeded to the top.

The walkway felt sturdy for the most part, but it had that rust color on the metal, and I felt a small amount of vertigo at the very top, as if I'd lose my balance based on the sheer drop on either side of me.

 

With all of the swimming and hiking I'm doing, I feel refreshed. It's a throwback to when I was in Spain and Finland, because of the fact I'm using a sauna several times a week as well. I feel better, I have more energy, hikes are easier and I can swim farther. I also look better! So, here's to the transition phase of my life. 

The 100th post: humility, German Couchsurfers and a brilliant decision

20/4 - This is the 100th post of Adventure Time with Mike.

I've been waiting to write this post, to save it for an epic journey. But I need to keep writing, especially because my next big trip isn't for another month.

To think I've reached 100 posts on here...It's crazy. It started as a way to inform family and friends of how I was doing during my early days in England, but it turned into a fully fledged travel blog. I feel grateful for the advice from others to start a blog because now I can look back, read old posts and feel nostalgic.

This blog has documented a whole year in England and the many adventures of mine throughout Europe. It keeps records of several first-time experiences such as being in a nude photoshoot, playing American football, volunteering far away from home and discovering the unknown joys of meeting total strangers and sleeping on their couch for the night.

It would be fair to say some of my trips and adventures were done with the blog in mind, so I could show others my experiences and hopefully inspire them to do the same, to make their dreams come true as well. In the past year-and-a-half, I've been called a nutter, a real character and incredibly adventurous. I take those as genuine compliments because life just isn't that fun if you're not going to new places, experiencing new things and taking risks. After all, I'm all about collecting memories and fascinating stories.

The definition of an adventure for me has slowly evolved, even since I first arrived in England on Sept. 14, 2014. Then it was going on a trek into an unknown country, far away from home. These days, an adventure can be had right here in Porterville, but I still very much desire to travel far and wide.

With the help of another friend, I recently discovered an application called Geocaching. This is an app that is essentially a map for a huge scavenger hunt. You can find several areas in your own city where a Geocache is hidden, which is like a capsule one can hide in an area and leave notes inside. When another person finds it, they can sign their name, add a note or leave something in it for the next person to find. There are certain hints and directions on the app for finding each cache, and your phone can be used as a compass but it's only accurate to within 30 feet. At that point you're on your own, and that's when you have to really pay attention to everything you see on the ground.

I went to three sites yesterday around Porterville and Strathmore, and I only found one. It was in an alleyway off of Main Street stuck to the side of an electricity meter, but it took me several moments to realize what it actually was. This cache was an old twist cap to a plastic bottle with a magnet on the bottom. It was gray, and it perfectly blended in with the box on which it was stuck. Inside was a couple of little pieces of paper with the names and initials of all of the people who had found it.

These caches can be anything. My friend said she found one in an old chapstick cannister and a bullet casing. This reminds me of portkeys from the world of Harry Potter. I enjoy this because it's the simple pleasure of searching for a tiny trinket and being able to sign your name, though the search can be quite difficult and frustrating. It's cool to be a part of that community.

I've also just finished hosting Monika and Peter through Couchsurfing for two nights. They are from Bavaria in Germany and are traveling through California and Nevada for a couple of weeks. When they left my house, they started their journey towards Death Valley. They took a full day to go around the Sequoia National Park and see some of the things I saw on Sunday, such as Moro Rock. I gave them advice on what they could see on the way to Death Valley, such as Red Rock Canyon State Park.

I cooked them breakfast and was simply a friendly and welcoming host, something the two appreciated. I also told them to pay it forward whenever they have a guest at their place, whenever that may be. It feels good to help fellow travelers during their journey, as other people have done that for me. I guess this blog influenced that.

And speaking of the Sequoia National Park, it was great to explore my own state a little bit more this past weekend. I hiked to the top of Little Baldy and Big Baldy, and climbed the steps of Moro Rock as well. California is such a massive place, and there's no wonder why it's world famous. I should feel lucky to live here and call this state my home. I may call Porterville and the Central Valley a terrible place to live sometimes, but I really am fortunate.

So here's to the 100th post of Adventure Time with Mike (formerly known as American in Bournemouth). The decision to start the blog and fill it with my stories has been life-altering. But I say with hopeful humility that I feel grateful to have had all of these opportunities documented in the previous 99 posts. It didn't turn out quite the way I intended or expected, but this is how life is. I'll just embrace it and roll with it.

Here's to another 100 posts to this blog.

A Ducati, the Coast Guard, newborn cattle and a swim in the river

30/9 - I'm still on the ranch in Springville. I love living here and seeing the difference in moonlight each night. This is a perfect situation, except, I can't stay here forever. I've been looking for places to live in Porterville, but I'm being super patient, something I haven't been in the past. I'm being patient with looking for a motorcycle as well, something that is a little surprising to me considering how much I want one.

I recently looked at a Suzuki SV650, the same kind of bike I rode through Wales in June, but that bike had 29,000 miles on it; I'm looking for one with low mileage and a little bit more power. On Sunday, I believe I will have found a bike suitable for me. It's a 2004 Ducati 749 with less than 5,000 miles on it, and it's located in Bakersfield. The owner and I will meet halfway in Delano, and I have already started haggling, saying I have $4,000 cash in hand.

I've been at the Recorder for almost three weeks now. There hasn't been anyone complaining about coverage, and it's been great reconnecting with people and meeting new coaches. It feels so easy to me now, like it's natural. I haven't really been stressed out, even in situations where it becomes fine to be stressed. I can control only what I can control, such as how well and quickly I get my work done. I can't control when games end.

The ball for the United States Coast Guard has been set in motion. However, one of the recruiters advised me to hold off on the application for a few weeks in case I smoked marijuana recently. I guess it doesn't matter how much or how little you smoke. As the recruiter sternly said, "that stuff is bad." But I need to include some medical records that explain my heart condition along with the application. Because of that small hurdle, there is some small worry in the back of my mind that I won't be accepted based on that. I'm at the point where I really would like to see if I can get in. Over the past month or so, I've been focused on that, and in my mind that is the next most logical step in my life. I would be lying if I said there will be no disappointment if it turns out my heart condition prevented me from entering.

2/10 - As a form of rent, I've begun helping with work around the ranch. In the mornings I'll feed the cattle and horses. It's pretty neat to exit the house in the early morning sun, start walking down the driveway towards the barn and have the horses walking beside or behind you, knowing you're about to feed them. When the cattle see you walking they also make their way towards the barn. It's like a large meeting, and everyone knows what's going on.

Grunt work is a good way to start the day. In the barn I find myself rushing a little bit to feed all of the animals. The cattle are jockeying for position and being noisy, the horses stand to the side, giving you attitude and Spirit lurks just outside the front door, waiting for her bit of hay. But once the right amount of hay is in the correct places, the barn relaxes and quiets down with just the sound of chewing. There's also a large pile of wood that needs splitting and stacking. As a kid, I hated it. I hated everything about wood. Now? That work is refreshing!

There was a new calf born last night. It's the size of a dog and has trouble standing. In fact, it's so small that when Brent pointed it out to me in the early morning, I thought he was just pointing to the large cow keeping an eye on it. Later on in the day I saw it for the first time, thinking it was a dog, Beau to be specific. But it had trouble standing and eventually laid down right next to the fence with the same red-and-white cow keeping an eye on it. From far away, it looks scruffy. Hopefully I get a closer look in the morning.

4/10 - I got a closer look of it when Brent needed help driving the cattle back to the pasture closest to the house on Saturday. It's a female calf and it's so fluffy. It's still very unsure of everything though, such as where and how to eat with the rest of the herd. Like this morning, the calf was wandering around the backside of the barn and eventually to the side of the trough where the biggest members eat. While watching it, I saw it try to lick its hind quarters but lose its balance and fall down. When it got back up, it was standing too close to Boo's hind legs. When the large bull backed up a few paces, the calf got knocked in the neck and whipped in the face by the tail.

It'll learn.

That Ducati 749 I wrote about will be mine in a week. I went to Bakersfield to look at it, and the owner keeps it spotless. It won't be the easiest bike to maintain, but it has the power I'm looking for and should be a thrill to ride. But most importantly, I won't have to spend a fortune on gas anymore.

9/10 - The adventure never stops. This ranch is located in the perfect location for adventures to happen, such as hiking to the top of the very steep hill, following nothing but trails made by cattle until you get to the top. It's a small accomplishment to get to the top, where you can see the whole valley below as if you're flying over it, and there's also the possibility of going deeper into that backcountry.

The ranch is also less than 5 miles from the Sequoia National Park. Today I drove in that direction, not knowing exactly where I wanted to go or what to do. What ended up happening was one of those unplanned adventures that makes a day great. I ended up swimming in the Tule River by Lower Coffee Camp and then laying on a warm, granite boulder in the sun in the middle of the river. It was a fantastic, spontaneous decision. I also kept my shoes on my feet so I could walk upstream in the water, up boulders and small rapids. It's a great way to get to those large, calm pools where it's totally peaceful and perfect for just floating on your back.

But today was a representation of why I returned to Porterville. I'm so lucky to have friends who give me good advice and call me out when my ego gets too big. It's jarring, but refreshing (in a way) when someone points out you're being a little too arrogant or egotistical. It makes you take a look at yourself and step back. I welcome that and wish people around me would do it more often.

11/10 - As a final entry here, I'd like to mention two things. I rode the Ducati 749 home today. It's pretty powerful and will draw my complete respect. It's loud (which is good; people will hear me) and runs hot (which is perfect for the winter). Now I just need to get my own garage to store it (Thank you so much, Tamara).

With the arrival of the bike comes the resurfacing of my inner adventurer. I found myself tonight sending a Couchsurfing request to a person in Tehachapi. My plan would be to ride to Red Rock Canyon State Park, a small park to the southeast of Bakersfield. It looks really interesting in pictures and I'd love to do some hiking in the desert. What's good is this trip would be less than 200 miles so I could do it easily in a weekend.

Based on my history, it looks like I'm going to Red Rock Canyon State Park.

Uh oh.