Thursday, 4. September 2008.
I open my eyes and everything is totally quiet. I check the time and it's past 9 am. I figure out Shyra is still asleep and late for work.
No way. There's nobody home and I must have slept like a stone since I didn't hear her leave the apartment.
To my utter surprise, there's a box of croissants a jar of Nutella and a carton of chocolate milk on the counter. I think: "When did all this make it in here?".
Not only I didn't hear her leave the apartment, but I didn't hear her come in and out of the apartment.
I get the message on my mobile phone - the food on the counter is my breakfast and it's to thank me for the fabulous dinner yesterday night.
The thing is that at a certain point yesterday night we were talking about the differences between the American and Italian breakfast. I mentioned what we normally have for breakfast over here and Shyra must have remembered it word by word, hence that box of croissants, the jar of Nutella and the chocolate milk carton in her kitchen. They weren't there yesterday. I
'm seriously flattered that she'd do that for me.
I send a thank you message and ask for instructions on how to lock the apartment. I let the cat in and get out to the warm summer morning in Lompoc, California.
Today I have another long ride. This time to Oxnard.
Even though a good friend of mine, Fred, lives there, I didn't bother him about hosting me since he lives with his mom. Instead, through CouchSurfing I found an interesting young lady of Chinese origin. More about her later.
The first few hours of biking are pretty hard. There's nowhere to hide from the sun and there are several hills to pass on the way towards the coast.
But once I hit the coast the road becomes flat and straight.
There aren't many towns on the first stretch of the ride. The first bigger place I run into is Goleta and that's exactly where I leave the Highway 101. I get on Hollister Avenue and it takes me through the town.
I pass by a supermarket with a big parking lot on the right hand side of the street and I immediately recognize the place. I turn to my left and see the place I saw the Ebullition festival in 1996! Memories come to my mind. The day following the festival was one of my fondest memories of the trip to the US I did in 1996. I went to the national park called Red Rocks with Kent McKlard who organized the festival and about 20 other visitors from all over the world. I remember there was someone from Switzerland, a band from Canada, Marco Valzel from Germany who at that time used to publish "Speak So That I May See You" fanzine and later on went on being the head honcho behind "Join The Teamplayer" record label, Lisa and Leslie of Heartattack, the guys from Hellbender (one of them later joined Milemarker) my friend Nishone from San Pedro, and so on. We parked our cars and then after some hour of walking we arrived to this tiny lake surrounded by trees and rocks. There were big ropes hanging off the trees and we spent the day hanging off these ropes and jumping into the water. Late in the afternoon we all returned to Goleta and then went to some Chinese restaurant to fill our stomachs. I had so much fun that day that I'll always remember it.
So down the road from that once community center where the festival took place, there are Ebullition records headquarters. I'm always amazed how I seem to remember to take the right turns and get there in one try.
Kent has taken the day off. There's only Lisa in the office and it takes her a while to recognize me. We chat for a while, I tell her to send my best to Kent and I get on the road again.
I'm soon in Santa Barbara. The town of Santa Barbara looks just like you imagine it to look like. Palm trees, fresh cut grass, bicyclists cycling along the shore, lots of tourists and shops that cater to them,...

Santa Barbara, where else?

At a certain point my Tom Tom gets confused, so an older lady on a bike draws me a little map of the area and explains to me how to get to Oxnard. I must say her directions worked out well and with the last rays of daylight I get to Ventura, the last town before Oxnard.

Somewhere on the Ventura Highway.

I turn my lights on and get my last ounces of energy to work and get me to Oxnard. And just when it seems I should have found my destination I look around and see some super fancy residential area. There are no street names, no signs and no chance a couchsurfer would live in such an area, so I figure I got lost.
I call my host, Cindy, to get the directions to the place, but as incredible as it seems I am at the right place. She says she sees me from her window and tells me where to turn.
Her place is, like, "wow!". Definitely not a student apartment. I'm getting my own room with queen size bed, my own bathroom that looks like some 5 star hotel suite bathroom and I just can't stop wondering.
But enough of that. My host Cindy is super friendly and great fun. She gets some Chinese rice based dish ready while I shower and then we both talk to her boyfriend on Skype.
Sure, why would I talk to her boyfriend, right? People usually want some privacy when they talk online. Well, it turns out he's from Rome and he grew up with my first neighbours and he and his group of friends used to hang out right in front of my building. Who knows how many times I sent them a juicy "vaffanculo" because of being loud and playing football at the parking lot at 1 am at night. Well, probably never, because I'm usually not at home at that hour anyway, but I'm sure my neighbours did.
Cindy shows me some photos of them in Rome and... surprise, surprise,... he used to play basketball at the same court I used to play basketball. We must have run into each other before.
After the Skype session, Cindy gets back to the drawings for her exam and I get to check my e-mail. We chat until the talk gets to croissants and such. Then, at 2 am we get the great idea of going to some croissant/donut shop in Oxnard and of course that's exactly what we do.
We get ready, hop into her car and drive to the pastry shop. At 2 am, of course we're the only customers there. Oxnard is not like Rome where you get to "cornettaro" and wait in line for 15 minutes because everybody and their mother have had the same idea as you. But in Oxnard it feels more like an adventure though, so it gives it an extra touch.