This morning we said goodbye to Tim and his family and hit the road (I-680 to be exact) down to Saratoga, where we had planned to camp at a county park. Before we left, Tim gave me this photo of him and I posing in front of the Tour Trailer. What a studly pair of guys, eh?

He also had a nice shot of Eleanor and I being interviewed for the podcast last night. We talked about life on the road, homeschooling, budgeting, planning, and the differences between our travels in Vintage Thunder and this new Safari. Eleanor was a natural and she’s got a nice radio voice. I never noticed that before. She wasn’t even nervous. It will be a great program when it airs. You can check it out at TheVAP.com.

Tim’s going to have to do a lot of editing of that interview. At a few points on the recording you can clearly hear Emma talking very loudly downstairs about something. Next time I suppose we’ll have to include her in the interview!

It was good we had a short trip planned, because one of “those situations” occurred. We got to the County Park, which was only 9 miles from the center of Sunnyvale — a technology hotspot. I figured we’d have no problem getting good cell phone service and Internet there. Wrong! We were up in the mountains somewhere. My Verizon phone barely worked, Eleanor’s Sprint phone didn’t work at all, and our Internet box just shrugged and gave up.

Worst of all, there was a sign which alerted us that the gates to the campground would be locked at sunset. They don’t provide campers with the gate code, so we’d be unable to go anywhere (or get back home) after 5 pm! Pretty ridiculous.

Since I had planned to do a lot of work this coming week and visit friends, this was not going to work. That’s part of the game when you have responsibilities to shoulder while you travel full-time. Flexibility is key. So we bailed out and headed for Santa Cruz, where we found a great state park on the beach. We’ve got a nice spot just a couple hundred feet from the bluffs overlooking the ocean. A short walk down brings us to the beach, and I can assure you, you’ll be seeing pictures of that in the next few days! Just gorgeous…

It’s quite cool even here. Today was barely in the 50s and overnight it is getting into the 30s. I suppose our friends back home won’t shed a tear for us, since it is snowing there, but for Californians, this is cold. And when I see frost on the Airstream in the morning, my motivation is to head further south. So last night I made our reservations for our desert home in Borrego Springs, which I’ve added to the Schedule page. If anyone wants to cross paths, you’ll find us there by New Year’s Day. We’re already making plans to meet up with a few people. The more, the merrier!