Pixiq

PART II

Our first shoot was a bust for all practical purposes.  It was nice to get out with the camera and take some photos, but the light wasn’t great…and there were no real ‘winners’ created during our time on the Santa Cruz coast.   It was just the first stop though.  Plenty more opportunities still awaited us as we sped into the darkness down highway 1.   Shortly after the sunlight from the day faded completely, the rain began to fall.  Hard.

This was not in the plan the weather man laid out for me online.

  The goal for the remainder of the first night was to get farther south and find a nice coastal area to photograph for the next morning.  We didn’t care if it was going to be Monterey, Big Sur, or maybe a little farther south.   The plan was to find a camping spot…sleep, and then get to the shooting first thing in the morning.

  The continuous downpour was making it hard to get very excited about stopping anywhere to camp.  Aiden and I were sleeping inside the Prius, which would keep us dry.  Rob, however, was sleeping in a tent outside…and not thrilled in any way about the rain.  We opted to keep pushing forward until we found a break in the weather.

  Aiden at this point is sitting quietly in the back trying to put stickers into his sticker book.

Although I’ve never personally tried it, I can’t imagine that attempting to put stickers perfectly into a sticker book while moving on a curvy road in the dark is very easy.   Despite my attempts to persuade Aiden to wait and work on his sticker book when it was light, and we were stopped…he kept right at it; placing sticker after sticker into the appropriate outline in the book…only to have it not line up perfectly.  

This caused him much grief. 

He would ask me to help him remedy the wonky sticker…which of course I couldn’t do because I was DRIVING.   This left Rob to be sticker fixer…a job he performed admirably.

The routine would always go something like this.

-Aiden screams -- calls his book or himself stupid.  I’m not sure how he quantified whether it was the book's fault or his fault.  It always changed though.  “This book (or sticker) is STUPID.”  Or “I’m stupid…I can’t do this!”

-I would try to assure Aiden he wasn’t stupid and he was doing the best he could, considering it was dark and we were in a moving vehicle.   Then I’d really try to encourage him to put the book away until the next day.

-He wouldn’t buy my reasoning, and ask me to fix it.

-I couldn’t fix it. I was driving.

-He’d freak out some more at his stickers.  Usually partially ripping one...which led to more grief.

-Finally Rob would help and the problem would be temporarily fixed…until the next sticker.

Ideally we would’ve found a camping spot and just called it a night.   My seven-year-old loses all sense of normalcy once it hits 9:00 p.m.   He gets cranky, and needs to sleep.   This was the main problem.  He was too tired to function as a human, let alone as someone requiring surgeon-like precision to put stickers in a book…in the dark.

We need to stop.  This has to happen sooner rather than later...

The weather has other plans for us, however.  The rain will not let up.   We pass Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, San Simeon, Cambria, and Morro Bay.   The rain never ceases.   We pass some place that is the home of Anderson’s Split Pea Soup.  It is nearing 11:00 p.m.  The rain doesn’t let up, and there is no place we can camp.  We push on.  There is still sticker trauma galore in the backseat.  If Aiden knew curse words he'd be using them.

"Oh my freaking gosh."  is as bad as he gets...the madder he gets the louder he says it.  I laugh every time.

  Hours have passed…and the next thing I know we’re entering Santa Barbara, and Friday has turned to Saturday.   The rain has let up by this point and we’re desperately looking for somewhere to sleep. Anywhere to sleep.

 

Looking at a map we determine there are a few campgrounds in the region south of Santa Barbara.  We can finally find peace.

The problem is that once we FIND these campgrounds, they’re closed.  They lock the gates at 10:00 p.m….which passed over 4 hours ago.  

  If we head much farther south we’ll be in Los Angeles proper, and the chances of finding ANYWHERE to park and camp will be non-existent.   I’m to the point where I’m trying to justify to myself that Rob could set up his tent in a parking lot or anywhere, really…just as I’m about to ask him to jump a campground fence, so I can throw his tent and supplies to him I see a road heading up into the mountains.

  In a last ditch effort to find somewhere safe and legal to sleep, we take the road.   Not far there is a sign saying ‘Group Camp  'A’, and another road jutting to the right.   The gate is open…and I take the road. 

 

In a short while we arrive in a parking lot full of cars, probably parked to use the group camp.  We’re not part of this group…but we’re going to camp here.   I silently pull into the lot (one of the advantages of the Prius) and we start the set up process.   Rob sets his tent up near my vehicle, but out of the immediate view of the people in the camping area should they walk to the restrooms at night.    I set up the back of the Prius for Aiden and myself.    I know what you’re wondering.    How do you sleep in the back of a Prius?

It’s actually quite comfortable.  Even though I’m 6’ 5” I can fit diagonally in the back of the Prius.  My son isn’t too big and he can fit next to me.  It looks bizarre, and seems improbable, I know…but it works, and it saves a lot of money on hotel rooms and puts me that much closer to where I need to be for shooting.  Plus…you rarely get harassed by any rangers or other official types.  Oddly enough, nobody is ever looking for people sleeping inside a Prius.      

  We drift off to sleep to the distant sound of waves crashing on a beach and traffic on highway 1.

  I wake a few hours later to movement in the group camp parking lot.   While I had hoped that we would be up and out of the parking lot by 6:00 a.m. to go photograph and leave before anyone knew we were there, it appears that these group campers are early risers and they are milling about the parking area.   I look out my car window to see a few bodies shuffling around the parking area.   The sky is drizzling rain…and there’s not a chance we’re going to get anything done with the cameras on this morning.   The forecast is wrong again.   Right now I’ve got no time to think about photography.  We need to get packed up and out of this group camp spot before we’re noticed.  While I know they’re not suspect of my car…Rob’s tent will cause a second look.   When I see a break in the action I jump out of my car and wake Rob. 

“We gotta roll…people are waking up.” I whisper.

Rob is awake and is already beginning to get ready.

  I quickly try to wake Aiden who is in NO mood to wake up or get dressed, no matter how urgent I tell him it is.  He’s going to take his time…and that’s all there is to it.   Rob is scurrying about trying to shake the night’s rain off his tent and get everything broken down and back in the car.

 

People are starting to re-enter the parking area from the group camp.  I decided to just face the music and go explain why we were platooned out on their parking lot.   The people I spoke with looked like they were still very tired…but I think they understood our plight. 

 Aiden finally finished getting dressed, and we set off south again.

  We’re not going to get any photography done today…but we’re close to Hollywood and Beverly Hills…maybe we can get a cup of coffee and watch some famous people instead…