Grand Canyon

Signs

I'm a geek, I know it, but it really makes my day when a typo in a sign completely changes the meaning.  We stopped at a rest stop in the Mojave, and found this.  The "Hands Off Pardner" is just kind of cool, but the emergency warning below is terrific.  Don't go alone!

And nothing like a rattlesnake warning sign to give you that warm and fuzzy feeling. It is good to know that "reasonable watchfulness should be sufficient to avoid snakebite."  After reading that, I took off my sunglasses.

Nipomo to Needles

Up early, had coffee with friends, then hit the road for a 400 mile day.

Coastal range

A terrific drive.  From the coast, up through the coastal range (beautiful country, beautiful road, almost no traffic for a hundred miles) -- across the San Joaquin to Barstow (burger and fries at that famous culinary benchmark, In-n-Out Burger) -- along the southern edge of Mojave desert  and across volcanic cinder fields -- then to Needles near the CA/AZ border.

After a wet winter, all is green and healthy this spring, even the Joshua trees in the Mojave.  And all along the route wildflowers were in bloom.  Blue Lupine, orange California poppy, and fields of some bright yellow flower pretty much everywhere.

Fields of wildflowers

Train crossing the Mojave

There were also lots of bugs in the air, so we had to really scrub the windshield at every rest stop. One thing I noticed late in the day: the color of the biggest splats perfectly matched those bright yellow flowers.  We can take a good guess regarding what the bugs had for their last meal. Front of the car now looks like a Jackson Pollack canvas.

A portion of our front license plate

Nipomo

Visiting good friends in Nipomo.  Like us they are in the middle of move process.  In their case, from San Rafael to Nipomo.

Nipomo is a really nice place.  Central California coast, away from the urban craziness.  Orange trees in the yard!

Spent afternoon on a picnic trip to Avila Beach just outside Pismo.  Sadie the dog loved it!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water." -- Loren Eiseley

Got up yesterday morning and went to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

It is an amazing place.  Several huge saltwater tanks, I think linked to the open Pacific.  Smaller tanks full of swimming jellyfish.  Open shallow tanks like the inter-tidal zone.  Pools with sea otters playing (and eating ice cubes -- sea otters love ice cubes -- who knew?)

There were lots of sharks.  Leopard sharks, reef sharks, even hammerheads.  The sharks were no problem, they were well fed and behind glass.  The only thing that really took a bite out of us was admission tickets -- but they were worth it!

First miles

We launched today around 11:00.  Said bye-for-now to friends we stayed with last night, adios to realtor, ran last errands then realized "wow, we can hit the road".  It is a day ahead of our original planned schedule, so we figured we would just get rolling and do a few miles -- to start breaking in our butts for many hours on the road.

Departed San Mateo in the pouring rain, drove about 90 miles and stopped here in Monterey.  Took a lovely walk of a few miles down to the harbor and back, on a bike / foot path that runs along the old railroad track right of way.  There are some subtle clue that the tracks haven't been used for a long time.

The old rails and path led along the coastal dunes.  We took a side exit off the path through the dunes, leading to a beautiful view of Monterey Bay.

And a selfie of happy travelers -- taken under a highway overpass we ducked into to get out of a bit of rain.

ers -- taken under 

Life in a Box

Months of preparation and now we are here... our lives are in boxes on Moving Day -1

Big truck full of our stuff is gone, we are spending last night in San Mateo with good friends, hit the road tomorrow, sale of 3408 closes on Thursday.  It's been a whirlwind.

I thought we lived light, sort of minimalist, but boy was I wrong.  Even after an extended process of cleaning out, giving away, recycling responsibly or just plain hauling stuff to the dump we still shipped 10820 pounds. That is 280+ individually numbered boxes, or crates, or furniture items, or drill press (and table saw, and band saw) or whatever.  Wow.

Never expected I would agree with this guy about anything, but in this case I can sort of understand his thinking:  "... I'm going to spend my evenings by a fireplace going through those boxes.  There are things in there that ought to be burned."  -- Richard M. Nixon

Well, maybe I still con't actually relate to him, but ... we have over 5 tons of stuff???  How did that happen?

No Fixed Abode

In law, "No Fixed Abode" means not having a fixed geographical location as a residence.  Applies to several groups -- nomadic peoples, sailors, those electing a mobile lifestyle, and individuals considered to be homeless for a variety of reasons.

We are moving from San Mateo, California to Venice, Florida.  Selling our house in San Mateo in late March, and purchasing a new place in Venice in mid-April.  So for a few weeks, we will qualify as No Fixed Abode.  While "footloose" is primarily a state of mind, having No Fixed Abode certainly contributes!

While NFA, we'll spend our days driving cross country.  Considered a variety of routes before settling on one.  It didn't have to be the shortest route -- we have plenty of time.  Didn't have to be the most southern route -- we should hopefully be getting some Spring weather by then.  But shouldn't be a very northern route -- there could still be some leftover Winter weather in the north.  So we decided on an easy route with no super long days of driving and including lots of good stuff -- visits with friends, hiking in parks, soaking in geothermal hot springs, classic Route 66 sights, interesting museums.  We think of this as the Nice Tour Route.

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