Author Archives: Sparky
Merry Christmas y’all
No, they don’t say “y’all” out here in California. But maybe we picked up a little Southern Drawl in Texas? We will be having a quiet Christmas in Patience. We will sit next to our electric fireplace, sip egg nog and open the presents that surround our tiny tree. Then we will sing a few songs … Continue reading
Mail mess
If any of you have a driving need to mail something to us, our address for the foreseeable future is: 9750 Monterey Rd Coyote Valley RV Resort Morgan Hill, CA 95037 Don’t make the same mistake I did, which was use Google to get the ZIP from the address given on the park’s web site: … Continue reading
Living small
We are now settling into Patience for full-time, everyday living (as opposed to traveling across the country living). It is mostly ok, but is very different than living in a four-bedroom house. Some things we miss: The yard. Strange though it may seem, the thing I miss most is the yard. Not so much for … Continue reading
GTW surprises
I have now had a week post-GTW to think about the experience. I find that some of the things that were most memorable about the adventure were the things that surprised me. Such as: The trip was wetter and cooler than I expected. As Jett noted the other day, “I expected to be wearing shorts … Continue reading
Back in the saddle
I am back at work again. It was a busy week in many ways. I went into the office – a room in a suite of accountants – on Monday without being certain that I had an office. I had a verbal agreement but no lease. It turns out that I did, in fact, have … Continue reading
GTW Hop 37: Gilroy, CA, to San Jose, CA
19 miles via US 101 and local streets. Cumulative distance: 6,184 miles. This last hop of the GTW was less than 20 miles and was made simply to move Patience to her winter resting place: the Coyote Valley RV Resort which sits on the border between San Jose and Morgan Hill. I will describe the … Continue reading
Budget review
We have now completed two months of our semi-retirement and it is time once again to see how we are doing on sticking to the budget. Not well. The bottom line is that we have exceeded our budget by almost $6,000 – almost 38% more than we planned to spend. The largest component is in … Continue reading
Winning the spam war
The deluge of spam (2,200 per day at its peak) has been reduced to a trickle (less than 200 yesterday). I accomplished this by blocking just 18 IP addresses. That mean that a very small number of purveyors of spam accounted for about 90% of the messages. Jerks.
GTW Hop 36: San Jose, CA, to Gilroy, CA
31 miles via US 101 and local streets. Cumulative distance: 6,165 miles. I think this dance is called the “South Bay Shuffle:” up to San Jose, down to Gilroy, then, on Sunday, back up to San Jose to complete the GTW. This hop was to retrieve Patience from the RV repair place (after paying a … Continue reading
GTW Hop 35: Morgan Hill, CA, to San Jose, CA
28 miles via US 101 and local streets. Cumulative distance: 6,134 miles. The declaration of the “penultimate” hop turned out to be premature. The park where we spent Sunday and Monday nights – the Uvas Pines RV Park – was unpleasant enough that we decided to return to a different RV park after getting the … Continue reading