Davy's On The Road Again Ch. 12

"Nope. What is it?"

"It's a famous wellness center. I was there back in '68 or '69 when I was nanging with Lenny in Santa Cruz. I remember these amazing hot springs and a massive pool. I also remember taking a Tai Chi class. Most of all I remember the spectacular grounds and scenery. I've booked a half-day for us - hot springs, massage, meditation and like that."

"That's sounds delicious, Davy. I think I'll love this."

We pulled in and Amy strolled around as I checked in. Things had changed since I was there last, the grounds and the services were more expansive. Storms had damaged the facility and it had taken a few years to rebuild and refurbish the center but it looked just as lush as I remembered it. There were not a lot of guests around so the sounds of the ocean, the birds and some flutes filtered through the air. This part of Big Sur changes your perspective instantly and you begin to feel a calmness that is pervasive. First we hit the large communal pool at the edge of the cliff and the warm water combined with the view was blissful. We were called for our massage and tub and we followed our guide down to a new facility, again perched on a cliff. The silence of the place added a wonderful sense of utter tranquility. We placed our clothes in a small room and lowered ourselves into the hot soothing tub. Gazing at the interminable horizon, I saw seals and dolphins dance through the water. I lay in the tub and focused on that horizon until I felt myself separate from all my worldly thoughts. Amy was getting her massage on a nearby table and the rhythm of the masseuse seemed to blend into the melody of the environment. My massage was next and it was about as good as massage as can be administered. By the time it ended, I was a large mass of jello.

Amy and I attended a session in the meditation center and then we strolled the grounds observing the different arts, skills and practices being taught and exhibited. As we left the center, I observed that our speech and our whole demeanor was subdued. Not far up the road, I pulled into Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park and the three of us strolled the park and gawked at the immense grandeur of the place, the lush foliage and the unforgettable views.

"I think we're in God's Country, again, Amy. How beautiful is this place? So my question is, do we move further north toward Carmel and Santa Cruz or do we stay here for the night?"

"Let's see...we have three days before we need to be in San Francisco so we have plenty of time to dawdle. I vote that we stay here for the night. There's a place just up the road, Fernwood, where we can pull in and hook up. They also have a nice restaurant there. We have plenty of time and I have to tell you that I think this is the most beautiful place. It is so lush..."

"Then it's set." After a little while more of hiking, we stopped to fuel up and then headed up to Fernwood and pulled into a roomy spot beneath a canopy of immense redwood trees. Again,the environment was nothing short of perfect. While I set up the bus, Amy and Santo strolled around the grounds and picked up some supplies in the general store. I also called the Vanity Fair office and told Carter's secretary of our travel itinerary. She gave me his personal email address and asked me to drop a note off to him and that he'd get back to me. I then checked out the YouTube numbers and was again fascinated by the volume and by the beautiful comments visitors had left. Next was email and some kudos over the Ferguson show. I was responding when Amy returned and suggested we go off to dinner. I was fairly famished and so it was no problem leaving the computer.

The Redwood Grill hit the spot. The smoked baby-back ribs were about as good as they get and I sucked those bones dry. Everything in this place was delicious. It was one of those roll-up-your-sleeves-and-dig-in kind of meals. The restaurant was friendly and warm. Lots of kids ran round and it had a 'happy family' sort of feel to it. There was also a rich music scene in this place. I could tell this from all the posters on the wall and the festival dates. In all, I'd say that this place was the sort of destination that the modern hippy family might seek out.

After dinner, we strolled the grounds hand in hand marveling at the mighty redwoods and lush vegetation. On our way back to the bus, we approached a little hootenanny taking place. There were six guitars, a flautist, some singers and lots of young hippies. We stood and listened for a while until one of the guitarists approached me and asked if I would like to join in. I deferred and told him that I would rather listen. After a bit, we started to move on when another guitarist approached me and asked, "Mr. Harper, don't you want to play a little?" Aha! I'd been recognized! Amy answered for me and said that we'd be back in a few minutes.

After using the bathroom in the bus, I got my guitar and we walked back to the guitar circle with Santo in tow. I sat down and started to pick along but was soon asked to lead them. For the next hour, I led them through folk, country, some tex-mex and other songs that were easy to harmonize along to.

"See that squirrel up in the tree

His mate there on the ground

Hear their barking call of love

From the happiness they've found

Is my love still my love?

Oh, this I've gotta know

Send a message by the wind

Because I love her so."

I chose not to play any of my own songs because I enjoyed their voices all raised in song. The sound rang though the campgrounds and a small crowd sat around us. This is often the type of music I enjoy the most. It invigorates me. Finally, we took our leave and thanked them for their hospitality.

Back in the bus, Amy crashed on the couch. The sun had set and we drew the screens, I sat at the computer and looked up Ben Lomond in search of my old friends, Lenny and Lizbeth. I found a phone number and called it. A young woman answered.

"Hello. I'm looking for Lenny and Lizbeth. I'm an old friend from forty years ago. I'm overnight in Fernwood and will be up in Santa Cruz tomorrow and I would love to see them."

She answered me with a sad story. Lenny and Lizbeth, her parents, had passed away over a year ago. Lizbeth had developed a rare form of terminal cancer and Lenny was not very healthy either. As Lizbeth passed into her final stages of the disease, Lenny and she decided to end their lives together. I was heartbroken, to say the least, but the young woman would not hear of it. "My parents were magical people who lived their lives to the fullest. They made a big impression on their community and were very much beloved. They left this world in peace and in love and left us their spirits which inhabit this town and this place. They are always here."

I got off the phone and started to cry. What she had said moved me so and she was right about them. Everybody loved them. They were kind and gentle, free hippie souls and they made everyone around them happy, too. They were infectious people, Lenny and Lizbeth. Stevie and I always loved being in their presence even back in our college days. When we'd hung out in their Santa Cruz home, it was always a joyous hippie festival.

I called Stevie and Sally and told them about my call and about Lenny and Lizbeth's fate. As Amy listened, we shared loving stories about them. Stevie's story brought back wonderful memories.

"Their house was like a hippie festival filled with characters. Remember when Lenny was trying to get someone to distribute that great animated cartoon he made. It was like "Yellow Submarine" but even more psychedelic. But Lenny needed to make money to keep drawing and animating and so he sold drugs to the music community. Remember the day we spent crushing psilocybin mushrooms and packing them into caps? He told us not to take any but just to concentrate on packing as many as we could. We must have packed a few hundred. What he didn't tell us was that the psilocybin would enter our bloodstream through the pores in our fingers. After a while we were useless...laughing and rolling around in the woods and in the steam by the house...screaming laughter for hours...remember that?"

"I certainly do. I remember thinking that I was a bass guitar for about a day. When we finally get straight the next day, Lenny asked if we wanted to drop a cap and get high. I couldn't believe he said that because we'd already lost a whole day. We ended up that night dancing naked around a bonfire...maybe fifty of us...like early Burning Man!"

"Yeah, and the next day we went up to San Francisco to play a gig which I can't recall at all but I do remember that on the drive back to his house, he sat in the back and counted out about five thousand dollars! And then the next day, he got another delivery of mushrooms and we started capping more pills. It was always an adventure with Lenny."

"Remember when Lenny had the idea for a mass orgy? He wanted to charge participants $2.00 each and he figured that a few thousand people would show up. It was going to be like the Monterrey Pop Festival for Sex. I remember that he designed and printed up posters. But then when the big day came, he'd been too high for too long and he hadn't planned for a site and all these horny people walked around town looking for the big orgy. Lenny invited everyone he saw back to his place. Lizbeth was insane when she drove up - I think she's gone to visit her folks or something and lenny got ral horny while she was away - and there's all these naked people running through the woods full of window-pane acid. And there's Lenny sitting on his redwood throne, totally out of his skull and leading people in an Om circle. Lizbeth kissed him and gently cared for all the crazy people until they came down. She was the true Earth Mother. I doubt if any of them ever remembered what had happened or what they had done. He didn't make any money but it was a big success as far as he was concerned. What an insane night that was...Lenny and his big plans!"

"So, Lenny and Lizbeth are dead and here we are, remembering them and laughing again. Their daughter was right. Do not mourn for them, their spirit lives on. Rest in peace. We should smoke a joint in his honor although I wish we had some 'shrooms!"

And that is what I did. I rolled up a big bomber and with each toke praised the memory of my friends, Lenny and Lizbeth. Amy and I snuggled into bed and I told her more stories of the mad genius with a true gift of life. In the back of my mind, I planned to write a song about him and about those madcap days. We were both tired even though we'd hardly done anything strenuous all day. We lay together and softy kissed. I adjusted the mood lighting to a dark glowing blue as we felt each other up under the covers.

Our lovemaking was soft and gentle. Our mouths seems to meld as we held each other. I lightly brushed my finger along her vagina until I felt it become moist. I ran my finger under my nose and into my mouth, then I returned it to her vagina. When I returned it back to my mouth, she took it and sucked it off. She began to rub and stroke my cock. Side by side, we kissed and masturbated each other until our motions became more determined. She draped her leg over my hip and pulled my penis into her. Our hips did a slow jelly roll until we both came, her pussy spraying on me launched my orgasm. We stayed in that position until we fell asleep. I awoke in the middle of the night soaked in our dripping juice. Once I'd realized what the sensation was that I'd been dreaming about, I nuzzled back into her and fell right back into sleep.

The next day, we strolled through Carmel and drove along the Seventeen Mile Drive. The slanted trees along Pebble Beach made a beautiful and otherworldy sight. From there, we drove to Monterrey and strolled Cannery Row. There was a great jewelry store that specialized in silver and we bought some beautiful belts. I also bought Amy an gorgeous silver and gold bracelet. It was a very dramatic piece and it is the perfect complement to her wrist. I also bought Santo a new collar emblazoned with silver medallions. He liked it and seemed to preen and strut around. We bought some Ghiridelli chocolate and sat outside for a little lunch.

From Monterrey, we reached Santa Cruz mid-afternoon. The town was nothing at all like I remembered. I recalled it being filled with wooden buildings and little stores. But storms and landslides had destroyed all of that and it had been rebuilt into a small modern city. We walked around the main thoroughfare until we passed a store that stopped me in my tracks. In the window were pieces of Lenny's art filled with comical characters and lively colors. We entered the store and I began to purchase all sorts of things - a couple of paintings I liked (one of which was a grouping of people looking not unlike Lenny, Lizbeth, Stevie and me), I bought tee shirts, coffee cups and a few baseball caps all emblazoned with his artwork. I bought enough to give some to Stevie and Sally. As I made the purchases, a young woman rang it up behind the counter. I told her that I knew the artist well and that I was overjoyed to find so much of his work.

"Are you the man who called me last night looking for my parents?"

I told her that I was and I identified myself. "Davy Harper! My folks spoke a lot about you and your group of friends. Dad had all your records and played them often. I remember the time you called them. You must have been on the phone for hours and laughing the whole time. You know, this painting is supposed to be you."

"I thought so. Do you have another like it? I'd like to give it as a gift to him (I pointed to the other character in the picture), Stevie."

"Yes, there's another similar one. Let me see if I can find it." She went into the storeroom and came out with a painting of us dancing around a bonfire.

"Perfect!" I declared and bought up as much as I could carry. I told the woman, whose name was Lena, that I planned to write a song about her folks and that I would send her a copy once it was recorded. We hugged and kissed. I was so glad I'd found the store and I was ebullient in my haapiness.

Back at the bus, I asked Amy if she wanted to bunk for the night as it was now nearing early evening. She asked if we could go for a skinny dip in the ocean first so we drove up the road to Bonny Doon Beach. It was still quite warm and the beach was busy with frolicking naked people, even some families with young children. We set out a blanket and stripped down, dashing into the water as we'd done a couple of days before. Santo just wanted to lay on the blanket and watch us. On this day, the water was a little rougher and so we didn't stay in it long. Exhausted, we flopped down on the blanket and people-watched for a while. I pulled a stub from my shorts pocket and we lit up. A young couple, I'd guess in their early twenties, passed us and sniffed in approval. Amy and I commented on their lithe little bodies.

We left the beach and headed straight for the KOA campground in Pescadero. This was a modern facility and so I was able to clean and refill my tanks. The park had plenty of available hookups and we found one overlooking the ocean. With tall redwoods behind us and the vast sea in front, it was a postcard. Except for the slight wind, we'd probably would have dined on the roof but chose instead to stretch out inside. I cooked up a meal of sausages and frittatas and we washed it down with a Boulder Creek red we'd picked up earlier. We were feeling no pain as we took Santo out for his evening stroll.

"This has been a charmed trip, hasn't it?"

I had to agree. "Yes, it has been absolutely perfect...between the beautiful scenery, the nice people we've met and you, my perfectly compatible partner, I could ask for no more. And, I could keep traveling like this with you for another million miles. You are the best, Amy."

"Correction. We are the best!"

We met up with a couple of other dog walkers and chatted about our trips and our RVs. Needless to say, our RV was the talk of the camp. The others were pleasant with the exception of one rather pushy and aggressive couple. He kept ogling Amy's breasts as we spoke and she kept slapping and poking me. We split from them at our first opportunity and headed back. Big Chocolate looked imposing as the setting sun bounced it's rays off it. There were four people walking around it and checking it out. As we got closer, we saw that they were joined by two more people.

"Can you I help you?" I asked. They were six kids of college age. Two male/female couples and a pair of women.

"This is some bus, mister. We were just checking it out. Do you love it?" asked a tall, lanky boy with a mop of hair.

"We most certainly do," said Amy. "Would you like to look inside?"

"Sure," they said. They were all google-eyed as Amy showed them around. "We're all jammed into an old camper, not that I'm complaining," said one of the boys.

During the next few minutes, we discovered that they were students from U.C.Davis who played hookey to come down to the coast for a skinny dip. "Emily is from around here and she knew the good beaches."

I asked if they'd had fun and they all nodded and smiled. Emily, a small girl with spiky hair noticed my Lenny painting. "Oh, neat. You went to Lena's store!" She explained that she'd grown up near Ben Lomond and knew Lenny, Lizbeth and Lena very well. I pointed to the picture and pointed to Lenny's image of me and proudly told her that it was me. I told her that Lenny and Lizbeth were good friends back in the day. "You must be Davy!" she said. "Lenny talked about you all the time and he played your records! You're THE Davy Harper?"

I laughed and nodded. "Wow! Cool. Wait until I tell my dad that I met you!"

One of the boys asked if he could smoke. I told him, "Cigarettes outside, Pot inside." He looked at me and said, "How 'bout hash?" Needless to say, we shared a few bowls while Amy put up coffee and tea. I was just getting into the sweet hash high when the phone rang. It was Graydon Carter.

"Davy, hello. Where are you?" I filled him in. "What parks are you going to?" I filled him in on that aspect, too, and told him who was planning to join us. I also told him that Elon souped up the bus and asked that he be interviewed about it as he could explain the mechanics better than anyone."

"Yeah, why not. He's going to try to sell me one, too, I'm sure. So, Davy here's an idea going through my head. Why not have Annie meet you at Yellowstone and photograph your hippie band and the Magic Bus there, say with Old Faithful spouting behind you? Or something like that. Annie will know what to do. And she has a house not all that far away. I know she likes that kind of stuff."

"It sounds alright to me."

"Maybe I'll send a writer, too, to sketch out an article. If it all goes right, we can have it out for the July or August issue. Oh, and by the way, if you ever loan or lease out the bus, let me know. I'd be interested in taking a trip in it."

"Gray, there's a line forming but I'll certainly pencil you in."

"Great, Davy. We'll talk again in the next couple of weeks."

I filled Amy in on the details and the kids were freaking out that Amy, Santo, Big Chocolate and I would be the subjects of a feature article in Vanity Fair. I resumed my affair with the hash pipe.

One of the girls came out of the bathroom and was awed by it. Amy told her about some of the other features and amenities and then began to usher them out of the bus. They asked if I would sign some autographs and they left. A few minutes later, one of them knocked on the door. Amy was getting undressed so I stepped outside. He handed me a nice chunk of hash and ran back to their camper.

"Hey Davy," shouted Amy, "let's try out the steamroom."

"Okay but just let me look over the directions." I pulled out the thick dossier that contained all the RV manuals and read up on the enviro-bath. I easily turned on the steam functions and told Amy to wait five minutes while it steamed up. I closed up the bus and drew the screens and then met her in the bathroom. We slipped into the stall, sealed up the door and sat down on the bench, caressing and playing with each other. Within a few minutes, we were dripping in sweat and letting our pores clean out. When we had enough, I asked her if she wanted to try the Jacuzzi next. We stepped out of the stall and I flipped a few switches and locked the locker half of the door as the tub filled. Opening the upper door, she slipped into the tub and I set the jets on. With the bench back down, it became a comfortable headrest. I inflated a small plastic pillow and placed it behind her head. One look told me that my girl was in heaven.