7/17/19. 8:18am. NSJ. “Wanderlust Prep.” “Finding my Voice.”

The midsummer festing feels good. In the past, mid-summer had been the slow time for festival work, mainly because I was SD-based. There’s small campouts, yoga, and music fests in the mountains in the summer.

I leave for Wanderlust today. We’ve got a crew of four plus myself for today through Friday. Then on the weekend, we add Josh and Shelby. So, should be a good crew.

Reaching deep into the depths. Where’s the voice, the streaming consciousness, linear, but art that gushes down from the high chakra and up and around and all about me?

Yesterday was fluid. Costco, Rocklin. Families, middle america in Cali, suburbia. Great place for a weird movie. A strange place to me. Then, dry ice, South Sac. Onto açaí at US Cold. Back to Briarpatch in GV for organic produce. Drop trailer in NC, then back to The Ridge.

Today, WL bound. I’ll have breakfast with Shelby, then head to the trailer, hitch up, Dupre’s for fresh bread, then off to the Olympic Valley.

I feel better. I caught a bug at High Sierra and now Shelby has it. It’s a mild summer cold, but a bummer nonetheless.

7/17/19. 6:54am. Olympic Valley, CA. “Booth Placement.” “Getting There.” “Açaí.”

Yawning. It’s chilly here in the mornings. Drove up the 80 yesterday via Hwy 20 from Nevada City. I passed Josh & Chole’s diesel E350 on the side of the interstate just passed Cisco Grove. Another electrical issue, but it restarted after sitting a few hours and Chloe made it to Squaw by late afternoon.

The booth is placed under the awning of an open air parking structure along with five other food vendors, and then about 15 merch booths too. India Gourmet is to the customer’s left and then Lydia’s. To the customer’s right is Happy Buddha Bowls, who might be serving açaí sorbet on the menu, along with what looks like stir-fry.

Açaí Bowls are so popular all over now that I’m not surprised to see them offered more, especially since the sorbet is trending up. I still prefer the pure açaí. The new stuff is coming direct from the Amazon, just like it used to when I first worked with Sambazon, but it tastes even better than before. The fats are there.

7/19/19. 7:15am. Olympic Valley, CA. “Veteran Crews.” “Setting Up.”

Early mornings. Enjoying some yerba mate, waking up. Turns out the neighbors normally do açaí bowls at events, but are doing chia bowls this weekend instead. They’re using sorbet for an “açaí cookie sandwich.” It’s not Sambazon’s. It’s too pinkish.

The owner set-up his entire booth yesterday just him and his mom, who flew out from New Hampshire for the festival. He’s got more crew here now though. His set-up took about 8 hours, ours took 3. It’s good to have some veteran crew.

Everyone had to secure all food last night because of bears wandering through the food court.

7/20/19. 7:00am. Olympic Valley, CA. “Lydia’s. Respect.” “Craigie’s Set.”

Trying to get more writing in, but yesterday was really busy at the booth. Arugula. Leafy greens. Difficult to manage. That’s why Lydia’s is so impressive. All that fresh food and prep. No one does that with leafy greens. Maybe salad. There’s other fresh foods that are more hardy, that have skin or a peel, like an avo, banana, lemon, orange, even an apple is pretty resilient.

Josh rode up yesterday evening on his motorcycle. He said it was a beautiful ride. He and Chloe are opening the booth with me in an hour.

We all went out last night, along with Hawk & Kenz, and saw Craigie’s set at “The Spot” stage. The sound was terrible, because it was dialed in for a hard rock band playing after John who is a folk singer. The kid running it for John was lost. It reminded me of the gigs at ski resort bars we used to play together in Pond Rock. John was not pleased. This is his bread & butter.

Shelby’s coming up the afternoon from NSJ for the night. We’ll go out and maybe go in the hot tub.

7/21/19. 7:02am. Olympic Valley, CA. “Love Hardships.” “On to the Next.”

More festival relationship stuff. I get that she wants me to go out and dance, but I just want her to have fun, with or without me, because I’ll catch up after I’ve had a moment to rest and relax after a long day.

Last day of WL. It’s been good biz. I think that we’ll sell out of toast today. And I think that there’s enough açaí left for Guitarfish too, so no trips to Sac tomorrow or Tuesday for more. Need to place POs for bread, nanners, and avos though today.

7/22/19. AM. Olympic Valley, CA. “Love for NorCal.” “Respect for Crew.”

Wanderlust is over. You can’t go wrong with Squaw Valley in July. This place would be a national park if it hadn’t been turned into a global ski village.

I want to come back here and return to the roots of nature, of life. I’ve only really just started creating this NorCal life.

I’ve missed NorCal. The vibes, the people, the lifestyle, the mountain-river-explorer life. It’s good times and I can’t wait for more.

The WL crew was great this year. All of them were veterans that knew how to do it. We crushed with a small crew and it was awesome, everyone wins. The crew was Hawk & Kenz, Josh & Chloe, and Dobko, and Shelby.

I didn’t get to really explore the festival all that much, but Squaw is a great place for a yoga festival. I’d come back here to live, however I hear that winter is a beast here.

7/23/19. PM. NSJ. “Post-Festival Dopamine.”

He drove west on Hwy 20, descending from Donner Pass. It was July and it was sunny and warm. Although not unlike moments when he’d forgotten the time, this was for certain epic game.

He could feel it in his solar plexus, the third chakra firing up, the buzzing in his upper belly. There was the fire, ample and ignited by passions of life.

He would rise up on the mountain and be beneath the clouds of his psyche, that subconscious realm of momentous feats, the epic saga of recent memory.