Okay, judging by the lack of responses to my otherwise FASCINATING story, the Time Lord has heard your requests...and decided to continue.
But no problem, a while later, a guy in a pickup pulled up, loaded
in the back with with a few other dharma bums along for the ride.
He was headed down to some place near the Bay Area, saying his wife was going into labor soon. What a deal! And so on through the night we rode. We piled in with the others in back and took in the nice, crisp summer night air. The highways were clear as well as the night skies. We made several stops for snacks and breaks at various all night mini-marts. My "buddy" also cautioned me not to overspend my gift food stamps...but I didn't listen. I slept maybe briefly, and soon I was let off where I needed to make my stop down south. The next day I made it into Sacramento and at midday, joined a guy by the side of the road who had been given tubs of soon-to-be-expired (but still very edible) ice cream. Then I moved on back to San Francisco, a town dazzling with decadence and smut that was so different to my young Christian eyes--and I felt like I was getting used to this town which a few weeks earlier I had felt deathly afraid of. There was a sort of charm I liked about it. And then my rides continued...with some characters who seemed a little too forward in their gestures and conversational subject matter...people I felt
I didn't want to bother with. So in Santa Maria I met a trucker who needed a helper to move furniture for a few hours, and after that job was done, we headed south...to LOS ANGELES.