It had always been my childhood dream to visit California, so when I had a week vacation, I took off and hit the road, and spent a week driving up the coast of California, arriving in Los Angeles, going down to San Diego zoo and USS Midway (the ship my dad served on when he was in the Navy), hitting a bunch of small towns along the way, before making my way through a bunch of places including Hollywood, Bel Air, Santa Monica, Malibu, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco, before heading east over to Lake Tahoe, Reno, and then driving back down through eastern California.

Anyways, along my travels, I did meet a few "bums" or homeless people, a few living on the beaches of Cali and a few living out of their cars. One guy I met at Starbucks, who asked me to buy him a coffee -- I did and we sparked a conversation ($2-$3? no biggie) was doing some freelance work (like graphic design or programming or web design) for gas money and for a little food here and there, just enough to survive and get through the week). He was living out of his car by choice and loved the free lifestyle he chose.. he was waking up in a new city everyday, and just stopped into a Starbucks to get a coffee, recharge his appliances, take a little shower in the bathroom, etc.

I would hope that you would certainly have ambition to "not give up", but there are people out there who just prefer not to be tied down into an apartment or a house and actually enjoy living out of their cars or on the open road. For the most part, you can find free parking near the beaches in California, if you were to hit a coastline every night, but don't stay in one place for too long, police and people get suspicious. If I travel alone, I never get a motel/hotel/AirBNB, I usually just sleep in my car, and since I have a moon roof, I just put my seat down, open the moon roof, and stair at the stars. Being close to the coast with little light, the stars were gorgeous.

Southern California is much easier to survive because the weather is almost always warm. Northern California definitely gets much colder and will require you to at least have a jacket and possibly a blanket, especially if you plan to move above the Santa Barbara area. The worst thing about California, of course, is all the damn traffic. Sitting in it, dealing with it is definitely enough to make you mad and cause rage within, so if you can let that rage go in a non-violent manner, and just accept the fact that traffic is just a part of California, than you can definitely be fine with California. If you want to be somewhere, you just need to be getting there an hour in advance. For that reason alone, I was happy to visit California, but I would never live there. I live 5 minutes from my job.. and it takes me 5 minutes to get to my job or back home again.

Gas is a bit more expensive in California than in the Midwest or "the Mountain States" and eastern California gas prices were outrageous, almost $2 or more above the national average for some reason. So when I was there, I knew gas in my state was about $2 but in Cali, it was much closer to $3.50.

My week in California was amazing. I had no run-ins with any cops or "scary people" and minded my own business pretty much. Be weary though because there are places you cannot park -- and those meter cops are crazy lurkers. You might not think they are there, but the minute you step away, they are giving you a ticket. I started to walk away from my car once and he began writing a ticket for the car behind me.. I hopped in my car and high-tailed out there and was lucky enough to avoid a ticket.

Californians are friendly people but everyone is all going about their own business, trying to get through the day, trying to avoid traffic, and get home or get to wherever it is their going. Another exciting thing about being in California is the chance to possibly spot a celebrity, though I didn't spot one on that trip, on a separate trip, I had actually came across Jennifer Tilly in the Los Angeles airport.