The Professor Goes West//Day 14//Breaking Camp

 Day 14—Saturday, June 2, 2018

We broke camp right away and then took a hike on Eagle Creek trail which led us into the heart of the redwoods. We climbed into a hollowed-out redwood. The tree’s roots are very hardy—if one tree is killed in a fire, other trunks will grow out of living roots—we saw many fairy circles of redwoods around mossy stumps.

Our next step was the Santa Clara mission on the campus of the university of the same name. There was a lovely, fragrant rose garden where we overheard a student advising a friend, “If you are going to smoke, smoke a pipe.” From this we concluded that all university students are the same. In the church at a side chapel under a grotesque crucifix was buried Padre Magus Cataler O.F.M., a missionary who has a cause for canonization.

We then when to the San Josè Mission where there was a wedding—so we stayed in our car and said a quick prayer to St. Joseph—and continued to In-N-Out Burger where we guzzled lemonade while waiting for our burgers. From there we sat in an hour of traffic on the Oakland Bay bridge and made it to the San Franciscon de Asìs Mission with 15 minutes to spare before closing time. The old church was preferable to the new one. There were lots of statuts of Franciscan saints, including the professor’s friend St. Bonaventure.

From the mission we proceeded to Chinatown past classic San Francisco houses down the trolley tracks and steep streets. We had a great dinner of soup dumplings, pork and noodles with gravy, Chinese broccoli, with fried sesame balls and sesame dumplings for dessert.  T ate one soup dumpling at dinner and then ate PB&J in the car. An hour later we arrived at my friend Samantha’s sweet home in Alameda in Oakland where we showered and did laundry and visited with the family.

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We tried to make leaving the campsite as efficient as possible. We usually left camp around an hour after we got up.

On mornings we broke camp we all got up early. After we got dressed, we all rolled the sleeping bags and pads together and put these items and suitcases in the car. The professor swept out the the tent while I took down the clothes line. He would break down the tent on his own while the kids got water, we refilled water bottles, combed the girls’ hairs, put away the tablecloth, and folded up and packed the chairs. When the professor was ready to roll the tent up, I would sweep off the dirt and leaves while He did the rolling. When the tent was rolled we put it in its case and put the tent in the car. The professor did the finished touches of packing the car and I made sure everyone made it to the bathroom and brushed teeth. When we were ready to go, I would hand granola bars and cups of milk for breakfast. We would purchase coffee and gas on our way out of camp.

That was it!