We left the coastal town of Arcata and headed south to Willets where we met Mary and her dauther Marta, the owners of the Marisposa Market and shared with them the great news of RAP. Thanks to a friend in White Sulphur Springs, we were introduced to quite a duo! Our night was settled in the Willet's KOA campground, which has thus far been the nicest campground! Located along the rolling hills of northern California, we found the most stunning scrub oak treee to tuck ourselves in its branches and watch the setting sun on our final night before entering the City of Angels.
No road trip in California is complete until you've visited at least one winery, so that's just what we did, mostly as a stopping point so Sarah could conduct a phone interview with a newspaper in Bozeman and as any good Tour Representative would do, Maggie wandered into the EOS Winery to experience her very first wine tasting. Maggie talked up RAP but restrained herself from passing out RAP koozies, beer koozies probably wouldn't win over the crowd at the winery!
Leaving Ant Hill behind at Pinnacles National Monument, we bid farwell to our rig and made the jounrey into Los Angeles to attend the 8th Annual Women Building California Conference. We stayed in a fancy hotel in downtown LA, and spent two days meeting an incredibly wonderful, strong and talented group of tradeswomen! We are so proud that our pants fit ironworkers, piledrivers, electricians, contractors, masons, plumbers, and all of the hardworking gals! Sincere thanks and gratitude to all of our supporters-we are overwhelmed by all of the enthusiasm, encouragement, and newly forged friendships as a result of this conference. Nevermore has our motto of "Work Strong" rang so true as it did this past weekend in L.A.
Sarah also met, finally, Beth, the RAP patternmaker! Beth lives in Malibu, and drove to downtown LA to meet us at the conference. Beth and Sarah have spent many hours working together on the fabulous RAP design via phone and email, so it was a wonderful face to face meet.
As we packed up our booth and loaded pants back into the rig, we escaped the city and headed south for a little sand and surf in Laguna Beach. We spent the afternoon relaxing in the sunshine and catching up with Mark and Erica and their two daughers, Eva and Clara--who are all good frinds of Sarah's and Mark is the artist for the RAP t-shirts. We enjoyed good laughs with gin and tonics on the beach and even spotted a humpback whale swimming closely to the shore! What a great way to end our southern Calfornia experience.
We've turned back north, and are returning to Pinnacles to spend some time in the park and hopefully see some condors, hitch Ant Hill back up and make our way to Yosemite. We'll be celebrating Cinco de Mayo in Red Ants Pants style along the Merced River.
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