Road Rule #1 - Always stop if you see something interesting.

While on a trip such as this, you never know where you will be from one day to the next. I have always found it to be a great way to travel. When I fell asleep Tuesday night, I was convinced that I would stay in San Francisco for another day. I was finding it pretty relaxing to hang-out in North Beach and at Michelle's apartment. She was encouraging me to stay. We were having a great time together and she has a great space in a great neighborhood.

But something happened during the night. I awoke around 8:AM and decided "today...is a good day to travel."

The day before, I placed an ad on Craigslist offering a ride to north on Highway 101. Gas is now around $3.25 a gallon and I figured it'd be nice to have some help paying for it, along with the company and helping a fellow traveler out. I received a couple of emails, but nothing firm. 

I sprung out of bed...okay...I drug myself out of bed and started to pack-up when the phone rang.

It was an 808 (Hawaii) area code and my initial thought was - "what does Brad (brother) want now?"

Turns out it was a woman responding to my ad. We were going back and forth on times and directions when she said it probably wouldn't workout for her.

So, I says to her I says, "but you've got an 808 area code, that's Hawaii. Where are you from?"

and she says to me she says, "I'm from the Big Island, but I use to live in Seattle."

So, can you guess what I says to her next? Yep...you know it!

"Well, since you are from Hawaii, I will swing by and pick you up at noon." I couldn't pass-up another Hawaii connection.

Michelle and I said our tearful goodbyes to one another. We are planning to see one another again on Maui sometime later this fall. I then followed her across the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin where she was going to work and I was going to pick-up my internet travel companion.

Turns out Susan is a St. Paul native who has recently sold her home in Seattle after some 30 years of living there. She spent some time on the Big Island and her current journey is taking her back to Hawaii, but first she is visiting friends around the west coast and is networking for rides through Craigslist.

The newfangled high-tech hitchhiker for a new millennium. Just put your sign out on the information super-highway and wait for a ride.

We tossed her belonging in the back and hit the road. Destination: Arcata, California and Humboldt County.

It was nice to have someone riding shotgun and we got along well as we discovered all that we had in common between Seattle and Hawaii. Our 4 hour trip up highway 101 turned into 8. The road unwound and we crossed path's with a few unique people along the way. And when we saw something interesting, we stopped.

Be sure to blog on as I will be posting Highway 101 photos and stories later.