I've been on the road for a year now.

On the morning of April 1st 2006 I pulled away from my San Francisco apartment for the last time, leaving behind the keys on the kitchen counter as I left.  Ever since then, "home" has been a rather fluid construct for me.  From the beginning I've held the specific intention that this was NOT a trip with some final destination in mind, ending once I reached a certain place or after a certain amount of time had passed. Rather, my goal has been to invent and live a sustainable and fulfilling technomadic lifestyle - living on the road indefinitely. 

For the most part, I've succeeded. 

I have had an incredible year on the road.  I have seen and done some amazing things. I have met and stayed with a range of fabulous people. And on the whole, I have never been happier.

I have also managed to see a do a lot LESS than I expected to have by now.  When I set out, I expected that by the end of the year I would have conquered both Alaska and Mexico, and everything in between.  And though I haven't yet reached either, I certainly still intend to.  But I've found that I strongly prefer a slower and more intentional pace of exploration.  I like not needing to race to get somewhere, and instead focusing on enjoying where I am at and the people I am with.  Alaska isn't going anywhere - it can wait till the time is right.

Overall, it still feels as if I am barely getting started.  And I love that!

The next chapter of my journey starts next month.  Cherie and I have set the date of May 10th to head out together on the road, just under a month from now.

When I set off on this journey I did not expect to find a life partner along the way, but I couldn't be happier with the way things have turned out.  This five month nomadic "hiatus" in Florida has certainly proven to be very worthwhile.

I've been chronicling my adventures of the past year here in my blog using two different "tags" to flag journey related entries.  "Nomadic Serendipity" tells the in depth chronological story of my trip, complete with many pictures.  I've fallen behind in posting the June (!!!) through February entries - but I intend to fill in the blanks of the past year eventually.  "Nomadness" is a superset of "Nomadic Serendipity", and includes both the large entries as well as many more smaller (and more timely!) snapshots from the road.

(Note: I've now worked some magic to incorporate those two streams directly into www.radven.net - click on the links above to see how I've managed to integrate LiveJournal feeds right inside my personal homepage.  Cool, huh?)

A Year in Review:
This past year I've evacuated to avoid a flood, marveled at the Maker Fair, explored Treasure Island (twice!), camped on a river's edge, shown off at Tab rallies (twice!), partied at a sci-fi con, switched to Macintosh, communed with elephant seals, marched in Pride, been paramotoring and paragliding over California and Nevada and Utah, worked on a Rhea ranch in Oregon, visited Nomadic Research Labs, installed a solar panel, built a cathedral at Burning Man, attended Hogwarts, cavorted at Disney Land and Disney's Animal Kingdom, explored remote Utah and the Flaming Gorge, camped off the grid in Colorado, climbed Big Brutus in SE Kansas, visited family in St. Louis and Baltimore, been a guest on "radio" shows of various sorts, cruised to Mexico, saw the space shuttle launch (at night from sea!), kayaked with dolphins, skied Tahoe, spun fire, and I've even managed to fall in love along the way.

Wow - what a great year.  *grin*

States: CA, OR, WA, NV, UT, WY, CO, KS, OK, MO, IL, KY, TN, AL, GA, FL, SC, NC, VA, DC, MA, PA, NJ, DE

Pictures:  (a few highlights here - there are a lot more in the new Nomadic Serendipity set on Flickr!)


Wherever I take it, my cute little Tab stands out...


( More Photos: I travel with a paramotor packed into the back of my jeep... )

( Photos: I've also left the motor behind and have been free flying over Hat Creek Rim (Northern CA) and at the Point of the Mountain, Utah... )

( Photos: I've been to both edges of the continent... )


( More photos: I've seen natural and man-made wonders... )


( More photos: I helped build a Cathedral in the Black Rock Dessert... )

( Photos: I spent two and a half weeks living in another world at Burning Man... )


( More photos: I've worked on tractors, jeeps, solar panels, and (of course) computers... )


I've seen more than a few bizarre sights...

( Photos: And I've seen many wild things... )

( More photos: And I've visited friends and family all over the country... )

But perhaps best of all - I've gotten to spend lots of time with dear friends and family all over the country.


What Next:
Cherie and I head out May 10th, with a goal to be in San Francisco in time for the ANDC on June 15th.  Between here and there we are tentatively planning stops in Tallahassee, Atlanta, Rock City, Nashville, St. Louis, Lake of the Ozarks, Austin, Colorado, Utah, and Las Vegas.  We'll be hanging around the SF Bay Area through Lindsay's wedding at the end of June.  July and August remain undecided - we may head back east towards Chicago, or we may head north towards Seattle and Canada.  Or perhaps both.  Then comes Burning Man.  And after that, who knows?  (Suggestions on cool people / places / things to stop and see are always appreciated!)

I love that my life is such a wide open adventure. 
And I am thrilled to be starting my next year on the road with a partner by my side.  :-)

serolynne and I returned yesterday from a whirlwind twelve day trip out to California.

Ski Trip - Truckee, CA (Feb 2nd - 5th): Uber-DCF (designated control freak) girlpurple worked her usual magic to pull together a group of fifteen people for a weekend of skiing and snowboarding adventures in a rented cabin up in Truckee near Tahoe. This trip was the initial impetus for us to fly out, since girlpurple was the mutual friend that indirectly first brought Cherie and I together.



Unfortunately, even the purple one couldn't DCF away the "limp snow" that was plaguing Tahoe this weekend, but we did manage to make the best of it with some fun night skiing at Squaw Valley on Friday night, and a full day on the slopes at Sugar Bowl on Saturday. I spent a lot of time teaching Cherie how to ski (it was her first time), but I also managed to get my fill of running the full mountain using a borrowed pair of AWESOME K2 Apache "fatty" short skis.

These short skis are FUN. No need for poles, ski racks, or cumbersome storage. They are small and very nomad compatible. I may just need to get a set. They are so small and maneuverable you can even ski backwards and sideways - perfect for staying close to and coaching a beginner.

Other highlights of the trip included two nighttime runs to soak sore muscles at Sierra Hot Springs, and a "Stupor Bowl" party on Sunday.

Sacramento Chillin - Sacramento, CA (Feb 5th & 6th): We had originally flown into Sacramento LATE on Thursday night, so we didn't have much quality time to spend with Lindsay & Sean before our carpool to Truckee picked us up on Friday. We made up for it with a nice evening out together on Monday, where we also got a chance to meet Lindsay's new sweetie Tristan.

House Weirdness - San Leandro, CA (Feb 6th & 7th): On Tuesday Cherie and I hopped in our rental car and headed south towards San Leandro to rendezvous with the House Weirdness crew (dawnd, akienm, klrmn, and the adorable Allegra) for a very pleasant evening and a collaborative dinner. It was good to see them all, but the visit was too short.

The Nebulous Womb - Oakland, CA (Feb 7th - 9th): We next headed to Oakland to rendezvous with my friend Brian who was offering us crash space in his plushed-out massage studio (known as the "Nebulous Womb") for next few days. Highlights of the time at Brian's included checking in with my Men's Circle on Wednesday night, an awesome private yoga class (arranged by Brian) Thursday morning, handling chores at my storage unit Thursday afternoon (as well as pulling out lots of electronics to purge or sell before they go further obsolete!), dinner with my dear friends Karin & Thomas Thursday night, and finally - chores at the DMV Friday morning.

I also got to introduce Cherie to some of my favorite Bay-Area restaurants, including Zachary's Pizza, Taqueria Cancun, Cafe Gratitude, and Herbivore.

Sensual SF - San Francisco, CA (Feb 9th): Friday afternoon Cherie and I walked around the Mission and scored some great finds at some thrift stores - I got some sweet new silk shirts. Later on we met up with Cherie's ex-FL friend Charlie for dinner, and then Cherie and I went to check out the (unfortunately over-hyped) Sensualite Party that we had been hearing about. Though I did run into a lot of people I knew there, it was WAY too loud and way too crowded to have any fun, or even much of a conversation. We tried dancing for awhile, but left in frustration before midnight to instead drive around SF looking for some cool views...

GeekSpeak - Santa Cruz, CA (Feb 10th): A I posted about here, on Saturday Cherie and I drove down to Santa Cruz to be on KUSP's GeekSpeak radio show, hosted by my friend Lyle. After the show we did lunch with all of the Geeks, and then headed back north to rendezvous with Lindsay & Tristan.



Bed & Breakfast - Healdsburg, CA (Feb 10th - 12th): My friend Kevin is care-taking a cute little B&B in Healdsburg, and he invited us to join him for the weekend. Cherie and I picked up Lindsay and Tristan at the Richmond Amtrak station Saturday afternoon, and then the four of us headed towards Healdsburg. That night Kevin had a total of twelve people over for an amazing home-cooked meal and a very fun night of partying. We all had a blast, and slept in much of Sunday recovering.



Sunday afternoon most of the other guests left, and Cherie, Lindsay, Tristan, and I went to do a little wine tasting and to explore Healdsburg's cute downtown.



Sunday night was a much more mellow evening with Kevin, and then Monday the four of us headed back towards Sacramento, with a nice stop at Harbin Hot Springs along the way.

Sean had dinner waiting for us when we returned, and then Cherie and I hopped a red-eye back to FL.


It was great to get back to California for a while. I miss so many of the people and places there tremendously, and this whirlwind trip was just a tease to make me miss CA even more.

Note: Cherie has also posted her own detailed account of our latest adventures.

Ok, I know it is well into June already (damn, nearly July!) - I guess I better hurry up and finish my May travel updates! (Part #1)

Whole Earth Festival - Davis, CA (May 14th): I spent the a big chunk of the day on May 14th checking out the Whole Earth Festival in Davis. I had never been to this particular festival before, but it was indeed very worth checking out. Good music, good food, cool people, and lots of neat stuff on display and for sale.




David Deida, Love in the 21st Century - Sacramento, CA (May 14th - May 17th): I've been a fan of David Deida's writings and work for a while, and his book The Way of the Superior Man is pretty core to the Men's Circle that I am a part of. I knew a bunch of my friends were planning on driving up to Sacramento on Sunday afternoon to hear David give a talk at a local church, and as I pulled out of the Whole Earth Festival I realized I had just enough time to make it!

David Deida in person was pretty phenomenal - he is a great speaker and modern philosopher. I had a few issues with him coming across as a bit one-dimensional and dogmatic in his books, but within the first 15 minutes of him coming on stage he had managed to brush aside most of my concerns. I was so impressed by the intro evening that I signed up to attend the following three days of seminars and sessions. Each afternoon during the week the men and women would separate and do individual body-centric exercises with David's assistants, and then in the evening the whole group would reconvene to listen to David talk and answer questions.

It was a very worthwhile time. I got some great insights around some of the ways that I fail to cultivate a strong masculine / feminine polarity in a lot of my relationships with women, and I had a great time hanging out with some friends who had come up for the seminar: particularly Brian Burt, Yurik Riegel, Scott Longwell, and Jillian Love.

I even managed to host a small social gathering after the sessions one night in my trailer - complete with beer and good conversation. Fun!


Athens Field Flying - Lincoln, CA (May 18th & 19th): I first learned to fly a paramotor at "Athens Field" in Lincoln, CA - not far north of Sacramento. It had been a long time since I had gotten some flying in, so on May 18th I returned to the field for some AWESOME flying. I spent the afternoon kiting and practicing my forward launches, and all that practice paid off - when I headed for the air I managed a perfect takeoff on my first try. Nice.


It was a gorgeous evening for a flight. The air was clear - I could see the Sierra foothills, downtown Sacramento in the distance, and even all the way to Folsom Lake!


The urban sprawl is inching ever outward around Lincoln. Soon there will hardly be any place left to fly around here it seems...
(You can't fly a paramotor over "congested" areas such as housing developments)


The sun is setting on the Thunder Valley Casino. If you look closely, you can see a white dot where my trailer is parked in the field behind the casino in the picture on the left. The picture on the right gives you a closer view of my little Tab as I came in for a landing. I went to the Casino for dinner that night. It was big and loud and sad and very Vegas on the inside. I guess the Indians are exempt from CA law - I was shocked to find indoor smoking! *ick*


After dinner it was late, so I just camped the night in the flying field so that I could get up for a sunrise flight. The sunrise was glorious, but unfortunately a mild weather front was coming through and a few drops of drizzle convinced me to pack up without flying.


Chilling at Harbin - Harbin Hot Springs, Middletown, CA (May 19th - May 21st): My friend Brian Burt had rented out the meadow building at Harbin for the weekend, and he had invited a diverse collection of cool people to come up and just chill for the weekend - sharing in some tasty group communal meals but little else in the way of organized structure. While we were hanging out together at the Deida seminar - Brian didn't have to twist my arm very hard to convince me to come along - and indeed it was a great time and I met some cool new people. Two of the people I met were a couple that had just gotten back from 9 months living on the road, and I sucked up lots of good advice on how to maintain a connected and work-functional lifestyle while mobile. (Adam went three months before he even told any of his clients that he was no longer in the Bay Area, and that he was doing his web development work using a satellite internet hookup!)


Visiting Gloria - Petaluma, CA (May 21st): On my way headed south from Harbin, I stopped in to visit my friend Gloria and to see her new house. We hung out, made dinner, and watched The Village.


Matrix Movie Night - Oakland, CA (May 22nd): The next stop was Oakland, where I had to meet Brian to reclaim my computer power supply that had accidentally been taken home by one of the other Harbin weekend attendees. I spent the afternoon hanging out with Brian, and then in the evening we went together to Jillian's The Matrix: Revolutions movie night. That was a blast - lots of cool people to catch up with and meet, great food, and an awesome movie. At the movie night I met another nomadic couple who were about to return to New Orleans in a tricked-out former forest service bus. They have been doing relief work there ever since Katrina, and have made a documentary film out of their experience.


Camp Cupertino - Cupertino, CA (May 23rd - May 31st): Next it was back again to my seemingly favorite camping spot - Rebekah's driveway in Cupertino. During my week's stay, I visited some of my former-PalmSource colleagues now working at Apple, and once suitably inspired by them, I purchased my new MacBook Pro - and I then spent a lot of the week after in geek configuration and tweaking heaven. When not geeking out, I enjoyed hanging out with Rebekah and David, sharing some nice dinners and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and on Sunday May 29th I ventured out to the BayCon - my first SciFi con experience. And when I finally pulled away from Rebekah's on Wednesday morning May 31st - one final big chore was complete. The titles for Jeep and Bryd had both at last arrived from the oh-so-slow DMV, and we were able to finish the paperwork necessary to finalize our vehicle swap.


BayCon was full of interesting sights...


Ok - now that May is finally posted - it is time to finish June. But first I need to hit the road heading towards Oregon. June will have to wait for another day!

My last major update from the road was May 1st (now with pictures added, so check it out), and the last set of pictures posted was way back on April 25th (also now updated with many more pictures). Egads, I've fallen WAY behind!

And the further you are behind, the harder it is to catch up. But hopefully my new turbo-charged posting engine (details soon) will help keep me cranking.

Meanwhile, here is the summary of May (so far):

Camp Cupertino (April 30th - May 3rd): Camped again in Rebekah's driveway. The intention for the week was to handle the paperwork to finalize and make permanent our vehicle swap - my Prius (Bryd) for her Jeep. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a more complex process than we anticipated - and we couldn't finish the paperwork until our banks got around to mailing us the titles. Annoying. But I did manage to get some solar research done, and to work on some other (still secret) projects.


Rebekah and Gracie hanging out with me in the Camp Cupertino lounge...


Tab Rally! - Folsom Lake, CA (May 4th - May 8th): Detailed post on this here. It was awesome to see so many Tab's in one place, and to meet some other owners.

But though I may have been "camped" at Folsom Lake all weekend, I was actually hardly there. Friday night was Cinco de Mayo night on the town in Sacramento with Lindsay and her coworker Rebecca - though we actually stayed in, had some good tequila, and watched Lords of Dogtown instead. (Evening plans with Lindsay are always subject to derailment by her narcoleptic tendencies...)

Saturday morning I drove Lindsay and Sean and a trunk full of art to Merced to meet Lindsay's parents for the first time, and to attend the "Brown Family Art Show". Lindsay's dad has a gallery space, and her mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and aunt all brought some of their work to show - paintings and photographs. It was fun to spend time with such a talented family.

But I couldn't stay long. I had to leave early to head to San Leandro for akienm's birthday party, which ended up being a lovely evening with some great people. I stayed over, and hung around the next day to clean up and chill out watching Down Periscope with the Weirdness family before driving back to Folsom Lake.


Rio Vista, CA (May 8th - May 11th): Since I had to stay in the area waiting for the banks to issue the Jeep and Prius titles, I decided to spend the next few days exploring the Sacramento Delta - an area which may be close but which feels like a whole other world from the rest of the Bay Area. My first night I stayed at the Solano County Sandy Beach Park Campground, but I left because I couldn't get decent cell phone coverage. I did however have a great dinner at the exceedingly unique Foster's Bighorn restaurant. The next two nights I moved upstream to the Delta Marina RV Park - where I was actually camped right on the banks of the river.


I took the scenic route to Rio Vista - including two way cool ferry rides!


Drive In Pleasure & Pain - Sacramento, CA (May 11th): After a few days of bumming around the delta, I made plans to spend the weekend splitting time between Sacramento and San Francisco. After a stressful drive through some cool little delta towns on Thursday afternoon, I met up with Lindsay at her place when she got off of work for a drive-in movie date Thursday night. We did a double feature - RV (decent), and The Benchwarmers (the worst movie ever made).


Goddess Worship - San Francisco, CA (May 12th): Friday day was spent hanging out with Lindsay, and we met Sean for lunch. That afternoon I parked my trailer in Lindsay's back lot, and caught an Amtrak to San Francisco to rendezvous with my friend Andy Davis at the Ruby Sky nightclub. At the Conexus Cathedral Burning Man Camp Fundraiser, Andy had auctioned off an "evening of Goddess Worship" with men of the Men's Circle - and eight women had pooled their resources to buy us. Andy organized eight "volunteers" from the circle to take these women out dancing at Ruby Sky on Friday night, and he even booked us the VIP room. It was a very cool crowd of people, and it was much fun to be "behind the velvet curtain" and treated like royalty at perhaps the swankest dance club in SF. Good job Andy!


Jen & Dave's Birthday Hunt - San Francisco, CA (May 13th): I snagged some crash space in the city after Friday's night of dancing, and met up for brunch Saturday morning to be part of Jen & Dave's annual birthday treasure hunt. I've played in this hunt the past few years - and I love the way that Jen and Dave (aka Dr. Clue) have their guests bring clues so that everyone has a chance to solve some puzzles. It was a fun afternoon of driving around SF - though as usual there were more puzzles to be solved than time allowed for.

After the hunt - I caught the last Amtrak back to Sacramento, and met Lindsay, Sean, Rebecca (Lindsay's coworker), Heather (Lindsay's sister), and a few others for yet another crazy night of Korean Karaoke Kaos. This experience is hard to describe... Private room. Order "pizza" from the menu and get microwave pizza pockets. Ample quantities of Lemon Soju. 80% of the songs are in Korean, and the english songs are a bizarre mix of old and new pop. Bad instrumental MIDI-synth quality backing music. And the on screen video.... It is somebody's vacation footage. It doesn't match the music. It is just random shots of various tourist destinations. I improvised some lyrics to the Rolling Stones classic: "I see some tourists and I want them painted black..."

Crazy late night fun.


And speaking of crazy late night fun, it is getting late now. I'll have to finish catching up on the May journal postings tomorrow.

When I updated a week ago, I was camped out in a West Sacramento KOA hoping to soon get a little warranty work from the dealer on the back hatch of my camper.

Turns out I ended up needing some warranty work on myself too!

Lid Repair - Sacramento, CA (April 23rd - 30th):
I spent Monday and Tuesday at the West Sacramento KOA, working on various chores and getting my camp kitchen organized. I put it to the test tuesday night, and Lindsay came over to share my first "home cooked meal" - a delicious Japanese-style beef curry, complete with wine and a salad course. *yum*

All day Monday and Tuesday though my left eye was bothering me - particularly the left eyelid. At first I thought it was just a bad bought of eczema, but it just kept getting worse. So Wednesday AM after dropping my camper off for its lid repair, I called Kaiser and managed to schedule an urgent warranty lid repair appointment of my own that evening.

The doctor on call hadn't seen anything like it before, so he asked me to come back the next day to see an opthamologist. But he did guess that it was a reactivation of the chicken-pox virus (I had it when I was in 7th grade). The Herpes Zoster virus that causes Chicken Pox never leaves your body and lies dormant, and on occasion it comes back - often on the eyelid! *yikes*

That diagnosis stressed me out - particularly because there was a real risk of permanent eye damage. I spent Wednesday night at Lindsay and Sean's place researching Herpes Zoster Opthalmicus. The next day I was ready with good questions for the Opthamologist. He confirmed that it did indeed look like Herpes Zoster (the same as Chicken Pox), it was relatively common, and that it was hard to say what caused it to re-activate in me - but that we had caught it early enough so that it didn't look likely to cause any damage to my eye. He also said that it was unlikely to come back any time again for years to come. *whew*

That was a LOAD of stress off. I LOVE my eyes, and don't ever want to be without them. :-)

I then went off to pick up my Tab - and the techs had thankfully managed to get my back hatch closing properly again. They also put some set screws in place to keep the hinge locked in place, so hopefully it will stay fixed this time.

Next up - I drove into Folsom and got a camping spot at Beal's Point in the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. Lindsay drove up from Sacramento after work, and we had a nice dinner out. It was HOT out. Monday night I had been using the heater, and Thursday night I was needing the fan on! Somehow we jumped straight from winter to summer - skipping spring!

I spent Friday relaxing and taking it easy - I did some bike riding, and walked along the lake. I also did some more vehicle shopping and research. (more on that in another post...)

By Saturday my eye was at last starting to feel back to normal. I drove down to Sacramento to do some laundry at Lindsay's place, and in the evening we walked around downtown and checked out the city rose garden that was fully and fragrantly in bloom.


This morning I checked out of Beal's Point, and set off for some paramotoring adventures at the Sod Farm. But as usual - I managed to scare away the wind, and there wasn't enough this evening for me to get off the ground. I did manage to put another nice dent in my cage trying though. I also got to experiment with ways to transport the motor in the trailer without needing to fully dismantle it and pack it up. Mixed results... It is almost less work to take it all the way apart as it is to bungy it into place half-disassembled.


My jeep makes for a great aircraft carrier, and the Sod Farm in Davis is an AMAZING place to fly - acres of smooth flat grass make for easy takeoffs and landings. But without any wind, it is just too hard to get into the air without wheels...

And now I am a late arrival in Cupertino, at Rebekah and David's place.

Not a particularly exciting week - but the health issues sort of derailed me. But - I got some important maintenance work handled, and I got my kitchen systems all worked out.

Next up.... Jeepy goodness. (stay tuned)

Where has the time gone?

My last general update was April 9th - camped out in the Troxell backyard.

Here is what I have been up to since then:

Felton (April 8th - April 13th): The Troxell's backyard and downstairs office was perfect for getting organized, despite the flood. While there, I did some trailer upgrades and added a memory-foam mattress-topper from Costco to the GeekPod, turning the bed into a very comfy nest.


Lyle & Wyatt Troxell working on my electrical system....


Tab vs. Winebago. Both of us seeking higher ground from the flood waters. I think I could have parked INSIDE that monster!

Pacifica (April 13th - April 15th): Beautiful cliffside camping in Pacifica. While up near SF I finished organizing my storage unit, and sold my chairs - wrapping up my Purge Sale. I also did some shopping at REI (I love that store!), and met butterfly_smile for dinner... (More pictures in this post.)


Cliffside camping in Pacifica...


It's been years since I've had a window office. Two laptops, a Treo, and a view. What more do you need to be productive? (Oh yeah, the scanner and printer are in the under-seat storage area...)


Cupertino (April 15th - April 19th): Back down to Cupertino, pitching camp at Rebekah's again. Who can resist a beautifully landscaped campground (ok - driveway) with such great company, and WiFi. Nice party Saturday night at cortneyofeden's place. Easter dinner Sunday with Rebekah and David - yummy ham and cheesy movies. Monday, taxes. Tuesday, recovery.

Treasure Island (April 19th & 20th): The sun was AT LAST shining, so Wednesday afternoon I stopped by West Valley Flying Club in San Carlos to spend an hour doing pattern work to keep my flying currency - just in the nick of time before it expired. Wednesday night I ended up missing connections with my friend Casey, so I decided to camp out on Treasure Island in the hope of hooking up with him the next day. I then spent all the next day exploring the island on bike - taking many awesome photographs. Treasure Island is an amazing and very surreal place - still in limbo after having been abandoned by the military, but not yet redeveloped. One interesting highlight - running into the Bay Area Backroads crew filming an episode on the original "San Francisco International Airport" - when Treasure Island was used by Pan Am Clipper flying boats.


SF and the Bay Bridge by night from Treasure Island.


SF and the Golden Gate Bridge by day from Treasure Island.


Bay Area Backroads filming on the roof of the original SFO.


View of the new and old Bay Bridge, from the backside of Treasure Island...


The flowers and plants on the island are beautiful...


But Treasure Island is slowly rotting away.


The north side of the island has a great bike path along the levy, running past generic former military housing that is now available for rent from the city of San Francisco. Not all of it is habitable though... It feels so wrong - these places have million dollar views of the Golden Gate bridge and city skyline - but some of them don't even have windows pointing in the right direction!


I really enjoyed spending the day exploring every corner of the island on my bike.


There are bizarre sites to see. This "house" is burned down repeatedly by the SF Fire Department for training.



The most interesting thing I discovered was the old base pool - now covered with beautiful graffiti art. The floating cans and lids in the water made for a very colorful and otherworldly image.

Point Richmond (April 20th & 21st): I caught up with my friend Casey, and we went out for the most amazing Sushi dinner. Up way too late having much fun and good conversation with Casey and his housemate - enjoying the amazing view over the Bay back towards SF and Treasure Island. The next day, I spent time researching solar and AV with Casey offering much advice on how I could build a mobile media server. (But I'm not sure I will have the power budget for an always-on server if I want to focus on solar power....)


Casey's condo has a stunning view - looking back across the bay towards Treasure Island of all places...

San Leandro (April 21st - 23rd): Down to House Weirdness for a visit with akienm, dawnd, klrmn, and the ever-amazing Allegra. Allegra thoroughly tested out all systems on my trailer as only a nine-year old can, and everything seems to have survived. Saturday Lindsay came down from Sacramento for a lunch (Chicken and Waffles) and movie (The Sentinel) date, and then Saturday night was spent at ravenslost's 30th birthday party. Seeing Raven duel her father over who could describe the best meal as the audience cheered was much fun - it is VERY clear now where Raven's passion for food comes from. Hearing Taz's food porn submission was also rather amazing. Second best - this amazing bit of Apple Fritter worship.

Sunday day was spent at the Maker Faire, and then I drove up to Sacramento last night.



Allegra and friend testing out the durability of my Tab...


Next up is some (hopefully) minor tweaking of the clamshell hatch at the dealer. And then I'd like to head up into the Sierra's for some skiing while there is still some snow left.

It's been three weeks - its about time I escaped from the Bay Area. Its just that there are SO MANY cool people to visit... I could probably bounce around for another month or two before I even started to run out of cool driveways to park in.

*grin*

My first week of being on the road:

Monday April 3rd -- Sacramento. Picked up my Tab at Folsom Lake RV in the afternoon, and parked on Sacramento city streets that night. I had Lindsay and Sean over for dinner - my first guests in my trailer!

My first dinner guests...


Sunset on the streets of Sacramento...

Tuesday April 4th -- Palo Alto. Dinner out at NOLA for Rebekah's birthday with Cortney, David, and Rebekah. Parked at Cortney's after - slept on her sofa.

Wednesday April 5th - Friday April 7th -- Cupertino. Parked in Rebekah's driveway, and "set up camp" for the first time. Learned how the landing gear and electrical systems worked. Slept in the trailer for the first time. Tried out the heater. Put away clothes. Made runs to SF on Wednesday and Friday to organize the storage unit and retrieve stuff.

Saturday April 8th - Sunday April 9th -- Felton. Did the Geek Speak radio show in the AM, and set up camp in Lyle and Daria's backyard in Felton in the afternoon. Lyle and I worked on some upgrades for the trailer... We added a new power outlet inside one of the under-seat storage areas for my printer to plug-in, and to charge my gadgets out of site. (This is a Geek-Mobile after all...)

We also cut and framed holes so that the table can be pushed far to one side. This is a VERY nice upgrade! Thanks Lyle!!! (He did most of the work while I kept Wyatt distracted!)


Lyle admires his handy-work. Now I can slide the table off to one side, making the inside of the Tab feel much more spacious.

There was lots of great playtime with Wyatt and Gwen. Four year olds are the infinite energy source. Wyatt very nearly wore me out. Great geek BBQ in the evening with Sean and Maggi (and baby River!) and Miles over...


Lyle has domesticated some of the wild neighborhood girls - training them to push Wyatt and Gwen for him.

And now it is Sunday morning, and I am lying in my cozy bed here - looking at the towering redwoods out my windows. Ahhhh....

Today I will probably do some more work on organizing the trailer, and I need to start working on my taxes and catching up on all that paperwork (currently piled in a bin in my car).

In my first week on the road I haven't gotten too far away from home. But I've discovered that the best campgrounds have friends as hosts.

Enjoying life...

- chris