Back to Mountain View.

Finished the weekend in Sac without incident.  The neighborhood I've been checking out is just north of the city, near Arden Blvd.  Specifically I was staying on Hallmark Ave, between Ethan and Howe.  There is one other big RV parked on the block.  I believe it has been in the same place since my first exploratory probe two weeks ago, but it seems to be vacant.  There is another RV around the corner on Ethan.  That one seems to be actively lived in.  There is an actual "RV Park" at the end of Ethan, so that may be a resource to empty my holding tanks and refill my fresh water, which I seem to need to do about once per month.  All in all, not too bad of a spot.  It's about 15 mins from work, 1 mile from a 24 Hr fitness.  Whole Foods, Safeway and Trader Joe's are all within about a 2 mile radius.  Not quite as convenient as Mtn View, certainly not as picturesque, but workable.

My second night in Sac I went to Safeway to pick up some juice.  It was getting late and I was hoping to get in before closing.  As I pulled into a parking spot, I saw a security guard approaching me.  I thought, omg, here we go again, shades of the 24 Hr Fitness Parking Lot Nazis - I guess RV's are not welcome in Sac!

Well, as it turns out the guy just wanted to ask me some questions about the Dolphin, as he was thinking of buying a similar RV.  We started to talk and it soon came out that we were both from Santa Barbara and went to the same High School(!) - but he was 10 years behind me, so although we wouldn't have met, we knew all the same hot spots.  Small World.  I kept trying to pull away to get into the store, but he just kept jabbering away. I finally had to insist and got in just under the wire - the store clerk was standing at the door, keys in hand, and she informed I had just 3 minutes left to shop!

The trip back down to Mountain View was not without incident however.  It was Easter Sunday and I had made arrangements to meet with my brother Bart, his family and Audrey at Tilden Park in Berkeley.  I had set a meeting time  that would allow for me to get down to Berkeley, pick up Audrey and get to the park.  Bart insisted on moving the time up a couple of hours.  I tried my best to meet the new time schedule, but as it turns out, try as I might,  Audrey and I got to the park just at the original time on the nose.   By then Bart and family had wandered off, and we could not find them.  Oh well.  Audrey and I had a nice time together, although we missed meeting Bart, Shana and the kids.

But wait! There's more fun was to come.  As I returned to Mtn View, I decided to drive by where my car (recently purchased 2001 Subaru Outback) was parked.  As I approached the car I noticed it seemed to be at a odd angle.  As I examined it a bit closer, I saw that it had been struck at the left front corner and pushed up on the curb.  The front bumper was damaged, the left fog light smashed and the right front wheel dinged up as it was forced over the curb.  Arrrrrgh!

Luckily there was a note stuck under the wiper: "my student hit your bumper."  Duh.  But they did leave a phone number, thank god.

As the note would seem to indicate it was a driving school student that did the damage, how frickin ironic. The DMV examiner's car gets smashed by the out of control student.  And oh, the student happened to be from a certain south asian country (that shall remain nameless..) that has no stop signs .  How am I not surprised?

So today (Monday) I've been dealing with the damage, trying to get it repaired this week before I move to Sac, 'cuz it'll be hellish to have to deal with that in a new place, in a new job.  At first the driving school wanted to skip the insurance company just pay cash to get it fixed.  But after I got a couple of estimates that were $1100 -$1300, not including the front end alignment (and maybe more) that needs to be done, they decided they better run it through their insurance company.  This requires filing a claim, and waiting to get all the paperwork in order before work starts.  Oy.  I am doubtful that I'll be able to get this accomplished before moving north.

So then what?

Fun, fun fun.  Life on the road.