January 2006 Archives

On Tuesday we signed a one year lease for a 3 bedroom apartment in Oakland, just over the border from Berkeley. It's in a quiet neighborhood but still very close to the university and good places to go out. It's a split-level and we get the 2nd and 3rd floor with a spiral staircase connecting them. The top floor is one big room that we're going to use as part living room, part office and part guestroom. It has a nice backyard and I'm hoping to start a small vegetable/herb garden in the Spring.

We spent most of today making trips to Target, Ikea and Trader Joe's to get all the things you need when you get a new apartment. We're excited to finally have the chance to use some of the wedding gifts we'd received almost a year and a half ago. Megan's busy finding places throughout the apartment where our stuff will live. Sanna and David will be here tomorrow to see the place and bring us some things they were holding on to for us. We'll get some photos posted soon so you all can see the place too.

We spent the last few days looking for apartments in the Berkeley/Oakland area. There are quite a few on the market and Craig's List has been our main means of sorting through them. We also used Google Maps to see how close each candidate is to downtown, UC Berkeley and good restaurants and cafes.

We found one place in particular that stood out among the rest (see photo). We weren't able to go inside and take a good look around because the stairs were falling apart and there was a "No Trespassing" sign posted on the boarded up window. Plus it didn't look like anybody was home anyway. Well, if we don't get this one we'll have to just keep on looking.

I arrived in Berkeley yesterday afternoon after spending the night at Dave and Dawn's just outside Los Angeles. It was a nice, albeit short visit with them and I set out Friday morning around 10AM to complete the last leg.

The drive out of Los Angeles up route 5 was much different than I thought it would be. I had no idea that LA was bordered by such large mountains to the north. They wound up and around for a good 20 miles and then emptied out into vast flat plains filled with industrial farms. In many ways the drive yesterday was the hardest stretch of the trip because I was surrounded the whole time by other cars and trucks. We were cruising at a good clip (a bit above the 70MPH speed limit) and were pretty tightly packed together. In New Mexico, Arizona or Texas it seemed an easier drive since I only had to share the road with a few other vehicles and could zone out a bit.

I did have a chance to see and appreciate what a beautiful state California is. I'm excited to be out here and look forward to being able to do a lot of outdoor activities (biking, hiking, camping, snowboarding, etc.).

So, thanks to Google Maps I pulled into Berkeley around 4:30PM PST. Sanna and David were already in San Francisco waiting for us to arrive at a bed and breakfast they frequently stay at. I called up Alexa and we headed into the city to join them at the B&B. We went out to dinner at Herbivore and then I set out to pick up Megan. Her flight out of Atlanta was delayed and she didn't end up arriving in SF until 10PM. I met her at the airport and we took the BART to the B&B.

Now that we're all in one place Megan, Alexa and I will begin the apartment hunt and I'm starting a search for shared office space. We're hoping to find a place to live in the East Bay - Berkeley or Oakland. It feels good to have arrived in the place that will be our home for the foreseeable future. We'll do our best to keep the travelogue updated but please forgive us if we're sporadic with our entries.

I've stopped at a Travel Center in Sayre, Oklahoma because they have wireless internet and I wanted a rest. My "dinner" tonight is care of Taco Bell (2 bean and chesse burritos). I think this may be the second time in my life that I've ever eaten at Taco Bell. It's cheap and you get what you pay for.

Yesterday I was hoping to make it all the way to Little Rock, Arkansas. But a thunderstorm and heavy rain forced me to call it a night in Heth, AK (just past the Mississippi River). I spent the evening burning audio books for my ride today and, after finishing Stephen Hawking's "The Universe in a Nutshell" I'm listening to Deepak Chopra. The hours on the road fly by when I'm listening to audio books and lectures. In some ways it's a treat for me because I find it difficult to make the time to spend hours listening to audio books in normal day-to-day life.

I don't know if I mentioned it previously, but I've been on Route 40 West for quite some time. It'll take me all the way to California. Having only one road to think about makes it pretty easy to stay on course.

It's been interesting stopping at different points along the way to fill up with fuel and grab something to eat or drink. I feel like people look me over a bit suspiciously when I walk in. It might be that my large laptop bag looks a bit too much like some kind of man-purse or maybe my clothes make me stand out. A lot of folks around me are wearing denim and cowboy hats. I'm sure my accent (or lack thereof) singles me out too. But curious glances aside, everyone's been friendly.

Well, I'm going to head back out onto the road and put a few more miles under "Big Blue". That's the name I've come up with for my Dad's F250. Now, if only I had a CB radio I could really get into this trucker thing.

So, it's been a while since we've written an update. Rather than going over all that we've been up to over the past month I'll just jump right into where we are now:

Megan is in Linz, Austria with her Mom visiting Henni, Omi, Roland, Tamara and Kurt. She'll be there until the 12th and then will fly into San Francisco International Airport on the 13th.

I'm in Radford, Virginia at a Super 8 Motel (with free high-speed internet access!) driving my Dad's big Ford F250 filled with all our earthly possessions. I'm driving to Berkeley, California which will be our new home for the next few years. My goal is to arrive in San Francisco on the 13th to meet Megan at the airport.

This past Saturday I drove 11 hours from Boston to DC to make a 7:30PM happy hour with colleagues and friends from a previous job. I stayed in DC with my friend Meredith (and her cat Tupilo) and then stopped by Diana's to pick up Megan's bike that she'd been keeping for the past year and a half (thanks again!). Diana and I visited Rob and Aly's to pick up furniture from the apartment Megan and I had before we left DC. We crammed everything into the back of the truck and then the four of us had a nice lunch together. Then I stopped by Envision (my previous employer) to chat with Richard, the co-founder.

I got online at a Panera Bread cafe to talk with Megan using Skype and finally made it on the road around 4:30PM. 5 hours later I arrived at this Super 8.

I'm not sure how far I'll get tomorrow but my aim is to hit the road early and get some serious distance covered. I'll do my best to write an update in the next day or so.