Epilogue

Well, the trip is history now; It was a fantastic trip.

One flawed measure of how good a trip was: whether you'd like to do it again. In this case, I don't want to repeat it, at least not for a while. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. Perhaps I'm not eager to go again because it was a little too crowded in Southern California for a hermit like me. Or maybe there was too much effort (driving, parking, camping, buying ice, etc) to want it to be a regular occurrence. I've done many trips that were enjoyable, but which I don't want to repeat. Doesn't mean they weren't fun.

Despite all the nice people I met, and great experiences I had, there are a few minor negative things that unfortunately stick in my mind:

• The family who'd bought a big meal at McDonalds, and when they were done, just threw all the bags and packaging out the car window.
• The guy that drove into a campground, parked his truck crookedly by the ranger station so that it occupied three spots, and left it running while he spent 15 minutes talking with the ranger.
• The campground partyers that transformed enjoyable camping into just getting through the night.
• The parents who would constantly scold their kids for trivial things, when they could be having a wonderful family experience.

Luckily, those few experiences were outweighed by the many positive aspects of the safari, including:

• Getting together with old friends and new
• Sitting comfortably on the board on warm clear water waiting for waves
• Getting that happily exhausted feeling after three hours of intense exercise
• Lying in the hammock in a sleeping bag reading at night
• Editing photos and putting together the blog in an air-conditioned library

So, in any case, that be the end of this blog -- hope you enjoyed it!

Al