You know you're in California when...

Hello,
It's Sunday October 3rd and I'm in Mendocino, California.

We rolled into Arcata, California, a quaint little college town deep in the heart of Humboldt County, a few days ago. Knowing that we were going to take the next day off (our first rest day in a LONG time) I went immediately to the bike shop to give my bike some tlc. The owner greeted me with "Welcome to the dred lock capital of North America." And sure enough, not only were there plenty of white rasta hippie kids everywhere around town, but there were VW vans and tie dye as far as the eye could see. For you see, Arcata is not just any college town, it's a college town in the middle of the largest producing county of marijuana in the United States. The bike shop owner, who has been there since '72, informed me that "unfortunately there are a lot of panhandlers in the town square who came here to find mecca, but at least it makes for a very liberal, mellow constituency." At 4:20, KC and Nina went to inspect the local flora and I went in search for a little holistic healing myself. My shoulder/neck ache escalated to shooting pain a few days prior, so I figured that a town like Arcata had to have a massage place. In fact there were 17 massage therapists, not including a massage therapy school - all in a town of 15,000 people. The place I went to looked like a normal dentist office from the lobby, but instead of the dentists and orthodontists' names on the board, there were 7 massage therapists, 2 acupuncturists and a chiropractor. After he worked the knot out of my neck and showed me some exercises to prevent it from happening again, I went to the local noodle shop. While eating a fantastic Indonesian noodle dish, in walked a Dad's group. That being, 4 Fathers in their mid-30's each toting a toddler. The group then sat down to eat, with the dads eating green curry and the 1.5 year olds eating udon noodles with thai peanut sauce (all organic, of course). Just like in Hudson, Ohio.

That night, Alex and I went into the local saloon for a beer. An establishment qualifies as a "saloon" if a. the front doors swing in and out, b. the bartender is older than death, c. there are dead animals hanging all over the walls, d. there are trucker hats with various sayings hanging from the ceiling (made popular from actual truckers instead of Ashton Kutcher) e. the jukebox is filled with Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard and all of this is done NOT in the name of kitsch. The bartender took a half hour to scan our id's to make sure that we were over 21 (htis is funnier when you realize that Alex is completely bald) and 20 minutes to finally hear what we wanted to drink. Two guys walked in to the previously empty bar and the following conversation took place:
New guy: "Is Dana around?"
Bartender: "Who?"
NG "Dana"
B "Who?"
NG "Dana"
B "I don't know a Dana"
NG "Brown hair, about 5'7""
B "What's her name again?"
NG "Dana"
B "What?"
NG "Dana"
Bartender, looking around to us, the two guys and the rest of the empty bar and said, "Well, evidently, she's not here."
The two guys went to play pool and after a time came over to me and the one asked, "ma'am, would you mind doing me a favor and kick my friend's ass?" This was the icebreaker we were looking for and soon we learned that their names were Mingo and Mick and they just got released from prison. Since this was definitely cause for celebration, they bought us some pabst blue ribbons and we continued to talk to them although I was slightly more guarded than before. However, Alex just kept going at his normal level and his commets about sushi were met with blank stares and his cerebral, urban jokes dropped flat and were returned with Mick and Mingo's favorites all regarding pirates...
Question "What rating did the Pirate give the movie?" Answer "Arrrrrrr"
Question "What beer did the pirate order?" Answer "PB Arrrrrr"
The bartender cut them off and kicked them out (apparently they had been celebrating for many hours (days?), and on their way out they shook our hands and said, "thank you for a nice evening ma'am" to me and "your name should be Ben" to Alex. I looked closely at Mingo and imagined him without the beard and the hat and there was a hint of George Clooney there. Alex agreed that with the help of the team from Queer Eye, those two could saunter down the red carpet - this of course would be the ex-con episode and comedy ensues when little Jai tries to infuse culture into the guys while not losing their pirate sense of humor.

Hope everyone is doing well.
cheers,
leigh