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Tabi finishes loading gear into the back of her jeep. She takes a few moments to double-check that she's not forgetting something. Satisfied, she jumps into the driver's seat. "Ready, Rusty?"
He brought the staff. Yes, the ginger-haired wizardling brought his 'prop' with him for this adventure. Because...what self-respecting sorcerer would wander out on an adventure without his trusty staff...and his bag of holding. "Yeah...let's go." He's practically bouncing with excitement at the trip.
Tabi grins at Rusty's excitement. "Sweet...." She slips the jeep into gear and off they go. "So... how much hiking experience do you have?"
Rustin smiles and explains that he used to go out with friends and family to San Bernadino National Forest every summer. "We'd go camping for a few weeks - but like in a camper and stuff. Nothing -that- primative but it was fun to go on hikes ya know? Get away from the very people I was locked up in that tiny metal box." He goes on about how he wanted to be in the Boy Scouts but his dad wasn't in on it and his mother thought it was some cult. "Yeah...she's -that- kind of person. A Karen before there were Karens."
Tabi nods, as she steers the car through traffic. Well, that might explain the excitement... good childhood memories. "Nice... the woods out here are deeper than you'd expect for being in SoCal and so close to the Prospect metro area... but nothing you haven't already seen at San Bernadino."
Rustin nods, "Yeah, I heard that the Green was mighty thick around here. No one seemed to know how it wasn't pushed back or thinned out by logging and stuff but I'm all about it." Looking out the window to watch the traffic zooms by faster than his tiny scooter would carry him. "The world needs woods like that; thick and green and like...alive ya know? Not just like to make the air but more so that we can see what it's like without all the noise."
Tabi smiles. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." A Thoreau quote? Nice. Finally, the jeep slips loose of the confines of Prospect - moving out into the more open 'burbs. "It's... cleansing to get out of the city, once in a while. I love my high-speed wi-fi, but sometimes you gotta disconnect and unwind, ya know?"
Rustin peers to Tabi as she throws the quote at him. "Did you just Thoreau me?" He can't help but smile at the reference and nods at its accuracy. "Oh yeah...with allthe digital stuff - I'm more of an analog guy myself. It's why I carry my notebooks and things. It's a more personal touch to put pencil to paper than to tap on a keyboard or whatever."
The emergence of the 'Burbs draws his attention and he just shakes his head, "I was telling a friend of mine that I wanted to find a spot out from the city. Like a cabin to go spend time at when I needed to get away, ya know? But dear -gods- the price of those things. I could probably buy the building next to mine for all the cash they want."
Tabi giggles. "Did you just turn Thoreau into a verb?" She passes a slow-moving, soccer mom in a minivan. "I'll admit I'm a bit jealous of your artistic abilities. Not really my skillset." She chuckles at the cabin commentary. "Yeah, tell me about it. Might as well shop for ocean-front property..."
Rustin digs into his bag of holding and pulls out the large, black sketchbook to show something to the driver. It takes only a second for him to flip through the pages until he can find the spread that has a photo pasted to one side and text on the other. "I mean...I don't want much. Just a stone tower in the middle of the forest like any -other- self-respecting wizard, ya know?" he grins and turns the book sideways so that she can take a quick glance.
Image (1): http://imgur.com/w2iEtL4
Image (2): http://imgur.com/ymDbCeR
Tabi laughs. "Oh, is that all?" She hmmms. "Keep an eye on the Forest Service. If they ever decommission a fire tower, it might do the trick..." She shrugs. "Well, maybe not. They're pretty bare bones." And then the jeep is free of even the 'burbs.
Rustin closes and squirells away the sketchbook back into his bag, explaining that he's though of those towers and has been watching the forestry website for a week now. "I've been lookin. It'd be at least something - ya know? A project to build on and stuff. Solar panels on the roof for some power. Water tanks at the base but I'd probably need to sink a well too. Wrap the whole thing in reclaimed wood to add additional living and storage space. Throw a wood-fired stove in there for when it gets chilly. I could -totally- pull it off." Because he is, as she said, a tinkerer.
Tabi laughs. "You've been thinking about this a lot, I see." She nods. "Luckily it's SoCal so even when it does get cold, it's not *that* cold."
"I'd have to sell everything out of the shop about ten times before I could even -think- to afford the land. Then I'd have to do it all over again just to put something out there with a roof on it." He sighs and watches them drive, "But...if it's already there and could be had quickly enough...hey, I think it'd be an -awesome- get away, ya know?" Rustin's mind has already played with the various factors to make it possible - the one thing missing is opportunity and, of course, money.
Tabi grins. "Smart way to do it. And yeah, definitely a good getaway. Though a spendy one." She cocks her head. "Maybe a group of people could share resources to get something and kinda do a time-share type thing... but, ya know, between friends so none of those crippling contracts."
Rustin nods, "I thought abotu that too. I just don't know anyone well enough for that kind of a thing. Would be kinda fun to have a place like that though." He smiles and huffs out, "I need to like...sell my soul or find a rich person who likes my stuff. Who knows," it's the age-old dilema of everyone with an idea in their heads and not the resources to do anything with it.
"So are we heading to somewhere you like work or where?" he asks, glancing out the window as they drive.
Tabi smiles. "A rich patron would be nice. Assuming their strings aren't too restrictive." Yeah, where there's money - there's strings attached. She grins at the question. "I've spent some time out here in the line of duty... so I know a secure place to park and we hike in and see what what we see." Her eyes twinkle a little. "I have some thoughts on a couple of spots, but we'll play it by ear. Nothing that totes set in stone."
Rustin nods, "Cool. I might grab some pics while we're out. Faster than trying to stop and draw but I'm sure this is going to be journal-fodder for the next few days." Absently a thought jumps into his mind and out his mouth before he can stop it. "Are there anything like...uh...like big animals out here? I mean...like not-a-deer?" Because he'd rather not get eaten by the sound of his voice. "And...ya know...I heard some things but not really sure if they're real or just people messing with the pasty-skinned white boy."
The scattered trees you've been seeing a while are starting to become less scattered. Somewhere ahead, lies the woods. Tabi grins. "Probably, somewhere. But I doubt we'll see anything big. They'll hear or smell us long before we see them. And most animals keep their distance from people - just gotta look out for squirrels and raccoons. Those little guys'll steal you blind, if you let 'em."
Rustin smiles, "Raccoons are cool. We get them in the alley sometimes. But like...and you are -not- allowed to laugh at this but...uh...no bigfoot, right?" He holds up his hand to shield himself from the snickers and giggles and explains that one of the guys in the shop -swore- that he saw something like it out in the woods. "And...what got me was that he wasn't lying." Because gingers can detect lies apparently.
Tabi laughs. "Yeah, they're cute. But they are natures little Danny Oceans." She cocks her head. "I'll be honest, I've heard tons of sasquatch stories... but never seen one, so I think we're safe. They probably avoid us too."
Rustin hehs, "Ok, so I'm not the -only- one out there that would think it's cool to see one." He smiles, "Not to get close...cause ya know...I want to keep my arms attached, but just to see one. It's like seeing the dinosaur in Loch Ness or something - just that sliver of proof that there's more out there in the world." He rustles his bag a little to get a better fit for his sketchbook inside and has to move things around a bit.
Tabi says, "Distance would be good." She smiles. "How better to get out of focus, grainy footage of... something indistinct?"
The trees continue to grow thicker. A little bit further down the road, Tabi pulls off into a packed dirt lot that's got a few cars scattered about. She pulls into a spot, pausing to hang a parking tag from the rear view mirror. She turns the ignition off. "And, finally, we have arrived."
Rustin all but leaps out of the car as soon as she parks and puts up the tag. The ginger-haired wizardling fetches his staff and shoulders his bag with bright eyes and enough curiosity to fill at least three cats or one ferret. Like the kid dragging the parents deeper into Harry Potter world or further into the zoo to see the big cats, he walks to the end of the vehicle and checks to make sure his boots are well-tied before they get going. Yes, he's wearing actuall boots. They're not brand new, nor do they look professionally distressed. These are real hiking boots that he's probably had for a few years. A true explorer this one.
Tabi grins, as she gets out of the jeep and stretches. She pulls her trusty ruck off the back seat and slings it on her back. She pulls a gadget out of the ruck and powers it up. she fidgets with it for a few moments, before powering it back down. "Ok. So, if something should go awry... this is a GPS unit. I've just stored this lot as a location. So we can find out way back here, if we get lost." She puts it into a side pocket on the ruck, which she pats. "And it's in this pocket right here."
Tabi says, "Alright, and away we go..." And off she goes, blazing a trail - picking a good and steady, but not overly aggressive, pace. "So... anything specific you wanna see?"
Rustin shrugs, patting his bag as they walk, "I'll know it when I see it..."
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