Rainbow Rock at Fernwood
Driving down Highway One felt like a showcase from God of beauties so moving, you can’t even imagine them before witnessing it yourself, unveiling more of his creation with each roll of a hill. By the end of our hasty journey to Fernwood, I had become utterly useless regarding human functioning as my senses melted into a puddle of stupefaction from the glorious depths of Big Sur’s coastline. After an attempt to pull myself out of my daze long enough to help Faith check us into our site, I took one look at the Fernwood campground and entirely accepted that I was done for. Despite the spellbinding magnificence surrounding our senses, we set up our camp and dressed for night one of Rainbow Rock.
Reverberation Radio started night one off with an avant-garde DJ set while Faith and I shuffled around the tavern, trying to fight our increasing fatigue. We settled in front of the stage shortly before Glenn Annie began, whose performance was saturated with groove-driven songs with energy replicating the early seventies. Faith was able to conjure enough energy to dance; I, however, was using all of my remaining energy to stand upright. By the end of Glenn Annie’s set, we had lost ourselves in our fight against exhaustion and accepted the fact that we couldn’t put off rest any longer.
The next day felt like a sequence of movie scenes, not entirely in a favorable sense. We began our morning with a hike through a nearby trail we had found and shortly found ourselves lost on top of a mountain in the middle of the woods. After a few hours of fighting the urge to lose hope as we strode in circles, we finally gave up and returned the same way we came. Once we finally returned to the site, we took a few moments of solitude to recharge before attempting to view more of the coastline. While our eagerness to submerge our senses into the coast of Big Sur sat thick in our spirits, our intuition continued to pull us back to camp until its firmness became impossible to ignore. Sure enough, just as we had reached the top of the hill at the entrance to Fernwood, Faith’s truck died with just enough momentum to get us down the slope and out of the way.
As we sat there racking our brains as to how we would revive her truck to get us back to our site and, more importantly, back home, a kind man from a neighboring site offered to help and jumpstart us. After three failed attempts, we realized the problem was not the battery but the alternator.
We were stranded in the middle of the forest in California, around 1,700 miles from home.
After an eternity of sitting somewhat inconveniently in the way, Wesley, the face of Reverberation Radio, comes to help us. Shortly after he makes his acquaintance, Babe Rainbow comes rolling in and invites him for a beer, which he has no choice but to accept. The same kind man eventually returned, after around two hours of us developing a panic in the car, and jumped us off with just enough power to book it to the campsite. We then were forced to accept that we would have to be towed to the nearest shop in the morning and shift our energy towards preparing for night two.
I commend Faith and me for letting go of the fate that awaited us in the morning as we walked through the tavern doors. We immediately began making new acquaintances and reviving old ones. We met a couple, both named Sarah, who are currently living out of their adorable orange van as they venture across the continental states. I also connected with the Babe Rainbow and Seventies Tuberide members before their performances as we recalled moments from the previous time I saw them.
Night two was overflowing with superior psychedelic sound, with performances by Very Nice Person, Will Worden, Mariana Allen, Seventies Tube Ride, and Babe Rainbow. DJ Kristofski wrapped up the festival with his set while Faith, me, the Sarahs, and all the artists mentioned danced together well into the night.
Faith and I got up the following morning way earlier than preferred and packed up our site as swiftly as possible before the tow truck arrived. We said our last goodbyes to our new friends while the tow truck driver prepared Faith’s truck and watched in the rearview mirror as they waved us off. We eventually revisited the astounding beauty of Highway 1 during our journey to the Auto Shop. Overall, the drive felt like a gentle reminder of the importance of finding gratitude in the unexpected aspects of life. I pondered this while gazing at the elevated view of the famous coastline.