My last full day on the west coast included a visit to the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation. What a way to conclude nearly 6 months of craziness.

The MVTF is one of the largest private collections of military vehicles in the world. My head was spinning by the end of the tour, as there was just so much to see in a few hours, but we had a great time checking the place out. (For fans of the show Mythbusters, this was the place that they used the two tanks to pull apart the phonebooks)

Anyway, pictures speak for themselves. Really cool stuff. Highlights for me were the SCUD missile and the bridge layer (just like in GI Joe!)

Also, if I am ever forced to settle down permanently in the bay area, Portola Valley is really the only reasonable place to live. It’s like rural wilderness in the middle of suburban mess. (er, according to wikipedia, it’s also apparently in the top 20 wealthiest neighborhoods in the country. sigh. although it would have to take a pretty serious amount of money to get me to live full time in the bay area.

NorCal

The truck is back in action, and seems to be working fine — 450ish miles since the repair and all is well.  I decided to do a shakedown run from Malibu up to the Bay Area just to make sure things were in order, and all seems good.  In 20 hours I leave for a cross-country attack run — I-80 from San Jose to Pennsylvania in 3 days.  The last time I did such a drive alone I was 21; we’ll see what these 30 year old bones can handle.  (Given how pathetically tired I was after last night’s 6.5 hour jog, I’m not anticipating much success..)

Not sure how many updates I will make from the road, so here are some pictures of the last few weeks to keep you occupied until I return..

Magic boycotting the day -- after a hike, he slept almost 14 hours!

Yes, that is a dog. On a motorcycle. Ridiculous.

I was sick for almost 10 days, and Magic was good company. Didn't make soup, but was a good pillow.

Crazy FJ45 parked next to me in Malibu

NorCal

I’ve spent the week working in the bay area again, and rather than heading back to Saratoga, I decided to check out Coyote Valley RV Resort in Morgan Hill. Morgan Hill is far, far away, but the park is great. Well maintained, lots of high-end rigs, a little dog park, etc. Morgan Hill seems to be in the middle of a forced gentrification, so there is a lot of crap development surrounded by cows etc.

Heading south in 12 hours..

NorCal

My boss told me to be careful about heading north at this time of year — that I’d be crossing Mt. Shasta, and that there may still be some dangerous crossings.  Looking it up, it seemed that it was just a dormant volcano that wasn’t really part of a mountain range, and according to the map, I wouldn’t really have to worry about high altitudes.

Ha.

While I lucked out and avoided snow, I did get to experience the auxiliary cooling fan in the truck for the first time — pulling 8000lbs up long grades at 65mph definitely works the diesel a little.

In general, when it comes to driving around, I’m not easily impressed.  I’ve driven all over creation in the last 14 years, and as a result it takes a little more to wow me than it used to.  But, I’m happy to say, I was truly blown away by Mt. Shasta.  Hopefully these pictures speak for themselves.

NorCal

Our first destination (besides the I-5 rest stop we slept in near Maxwell, CA on Tuesday night) was Chico, CA.  Chico is probably best known as the home of the Sierra Nevada brewing company (one of my favorites), but our business was with Transfer Flow Inc. Transfer Flow sells aftermarket fuel tanks for trucks, and 12mpg + 28 gallon gas tank = misery, so it was time to improve on that.

It took about three hours to install the new 46 gallon tank, and during that time, Magic and I cruised (by foot) around the Chico Airpark.  While it was fairly typical of an airpark (lots of industrial type businesses), the surrounding area was really great — reminded me of Pennsylvania before sprawl and overpopulation.  Lots of orchards and farms, great scenery, and an easy, slow-paced life.  Driving north on Cohasset and then west on Keefer, you also pass through some of the more affluent areas (I guess?) of the Chico suburbs — lots of amazing houses with gated driveways etc.  Although, gated driveways seem to be the fad around here – even the crappy houses seemed to have them.

I don’t imagine I’ll have any reason to stop by Chico again (maybe to sample some fresh Sierra sometime in the future), but I’m glad I got to see it.  While I had always been more of a SoCal fan, NorCal certainly started to grow on me.

Lots of pictures of the airpark below..

NorCal

After checking out of the Hotel Monaco on Sunday (and not getting caught breaking the “dogs are not allowed to be unattended in rooms” policy), we cruised around the city for awhile and ended up at Golden Gate Park.  Golden Gate Park is the largest man-made park in the country, and the third-most visited park in the country after Central Park (NYC) and Lincoln Park (CHI).  This was more impressive until I realized that it’s only 174 acres larger than Central Park, which itself is about 1000ac.

Anyway, Golden Gate Park is a lot more calm and enjoyable than Central Park — less cars, less people, more nature.  It also contains a small herd of Bison (?!) among other things.  We had lunch at some BBQ joint at a golf pro shop, which was decent though not particularly memorable.

We later drove through Haight-Ashbury, which was a cool neighborhood that reminded me St. Marks in the east village, though more laid back.  Neglected to take any pictures of that, though.

NorCal

After bumming around Union Square for awhile (and eating at a great deli, which I can’t recall.. dave’s or something?), we took the cable car down to the wharf and did touristy things.  Ate free chocolate, took pictures of Alcatraz, went to some art galleries, and checked out the Sea Lions at Pier 39.

Apparently it’s a well-known fact that I never heard before – a bunch of sea lions took over many of the boat slips here, and hang out there almost all the time.  It was really amazing and totally out of place.  Like an accidental zoo.

NorCal

Hakone Gardens (www.hakone.com) is the oldest Japanese garden in the Western Hemisphere (94 years old!) and is a National Trust for Historic Preservation landmark (not sure what that is, but sounds important).  It’s a replica of a Japanese Samurai Garden, and also happens to be about a 5 minute drive from Saratoga Springs.  After driving by it every day for almost a month, I figured I should at least check it out before I left.

After driving up the steepest hill blacktruck has ever seen, I paid my $5 fee and roamed around the gardens for a couple of hours.  Lots to see, very impressive, very zen, very difficult to capture in pictures.  But I tried, there are about 40 here below.  I’d imagine that when things are actually in bloom it would be much more scenic, but it was still good stuff.

I’d imagine that when this was built nearly 100 years ago, the mountainside location would’ve been an incredible retreat, far away from whatever city life goings-on and noise and whatnot.  Unfortunately, any possibility of calm is ruined by the never-ending screams of the Loud Pipes Save Lives motorcyclists on their way out toward Skyline Drive.  I love motorcycles 99% of the time, but it definitely messed with the whole mood they’re going for.

Anyway, definitely recommended if you’re in the area.

NorCal

Blackdog and I took advantage of a break in the rain to do another hike near the campground.  We hit the John Nicholas Trail, which starts at the end of Sanborn Road, a few miles past the Sanborn County Park entrance.  Given our experience with the other (unnamed) Sanborn trail, I wasn’t sure what to expect, so I put the big hiking boots on and packed for several hours of hiking.

As it turned out, the John Nicholas Trail is a pretty easy hike through a redwood forest and around the Lake Ranch Reservoir.  It starts out with a pretty long climb, but after that it’s a leisurely hike on a dirt road for about 2 1/2 miles to the far end.

NorCal

Magic and I took advantage of a brief break in the weather and did some hiking yesterday.  We used the trailhead on Sanborn Road just off of  Big Basin Way, and hiked as far in as the trail took us — it was about a 3 1/2 hour hike.  Had I been alone, I probably could’ve done it in an hour or less, but we had a little problem: Magic hates water.  And the trail crosses the stream.  About ten times.

Yes, I had to repeatedly carry my 80 pound, bronx-bred pit bull across 6″ of water due to his supreme daintiness.

Unfortunately most of my photos didn’t come out well, and the ones that did don’t do justice to the comedy of our journey (I forgot to mention – we lost the trail at some point and decided to climb down a hill, which turned out to be incredibly steep and had tons of loose dirt.  We basically slid down a 100′ near vertical drop).  The photos also don’t really capture the amazing scenery here.  Redwoods, meandering streams, lots of old growth, mosses, birds..  not really point & shoot territory, but if I had been carrying my SLR, it probably would’ve been destroyed/waterlogged/crushed.

Anyway, we had a great time — magic was so tired when we got back he went to sleep for.. well, he’s still recovering a day later.

NorCal