A Little Help From Our Friends
Our current RV trip is different in several ways.
First, we're planning the trip as we go. That's totally natural for some people, but definitely not for us. We had no choice since this is a last-minute trip. We have some fixed dates, such as when Ari will fly to meet us in New Orleans. But everything in-between these dates is just a rough guideline. The challenge is that many others are spending the winter in the sunbelt, and they planned ahead. We'll figure it out, but we need to be both flexible and creative in picking locations. (And again, traveling with a combination of the Bowlus trailer and an electric car means we need to select campgrounds with electricity or close to a fast charger).
The second difference is that we're actually taking more time along the way. We're trying to follow the "3/3/3 rule" of RVing: drive at most 300 miles, finish driving by 3pm, and stay for 3 nights. We may not follow this rule precisely, but it is a useful guideline.
A fringe benefit of this is that we're trying to visit friends and family along the way. For example, right now while in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have deep friendships in the Bay Area, as it was where Amy and Greg met and where Ari was born. Currently, we are "moochdocking" at the home of our good friends, Ann & Jeff. Specifically, we're camping on the street in front of their home, using our RV as a private guest room. And we get a chance for a visit, meals and to charge our Tesla with their EV charger.
In the morning, while Amy and Ann had coffee, Greg was on the computer, planning the next few stops. Peak-season Florida remains challenging. Greg enjoys working out logistics like this.
Mid-day today, we got to visit two long-time friends of Greg. First, we had lunch with Hussein, one of Greg's roommates from college. We haven't seen Hussein since the 25th college reunion. Hussein was not traveling over the holidays since he's opening his own law firm at the start of the new year in a few days. We met Hussein at an Asian-American fusion restaurant in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland. It was good to catch up on work, travel, life, kids and college classmates.
Immediately afterwards, we met Vijay for coffee. Vijay has been a friend since our early days in the Bay Area, and it was common for Greg to run into Vijay while commuting on Caltrain, on a run in Golden Gate Park, or at Operations Research conferences. We were excited that we could find a time that worked, since Vijay was recording a podcast episode in the morning. Vijay and Greg kept the "shop talk" to a minimum to keep from boring Amy. It was great to compare notes about careers, parents, kids and more. And to hear about Vijay's sabbatical in Paris.
Tomorrow, we head further south. We're sorry we couldn't see all our friends in the Bay Area, but it was great to get some good visits before the next winter storm reaches California.