A Trip to SF - And Then Some!

Ugh. Damage to the Dolphin.

Oh my god.  It feels awfully good to be sitting down in a fat, overstuffed chair with a long iced coffee at my side.  What a couple of days it has been. It is now Sunday, May 20, it's Sacto Hot outside, and I've been sweating bullets.  But let's back up a few days. 

First, some fun stuff. Lately I'd been noticing quite a number of bicyclists (and even a horse!) riding past my parking spot and heading down a road that appeared to be a dead end.  Then, late one night, I saw a man come back from that direction with a bunch of fish on a line. Curious, I decided to see where the road led. As it turns out, just past the towering power lines:

 there is a really nice hiking and biking path that winds along The American River:

Right in my backyard.  Who knew?  Well apparently, everyone but me.  Now I know where to head when I want a nice stroll...

So anyway...  On Saturday (yesterday) I had a rehearsal with "The Agency" scheduled in "The City" (SF) and then later that night, a birthday party at Scher House West for Melina (of Parlor Tricks).   So... I thought "hmm, why not take the camper down, stay overnight and do a little urban camping?" - especially since I had recently seen a CHP officer who appeared to be running the plates on the camper.   Seemed like a good time to leave Sacto for a few days.  And then... it was one fiasco after another. 

Well... I decided to get a head-start on my little adventure, head out on Friday night and bivouac on the southwest side of Sac.  I needed to empty my holding tanks and there were a couple of options down that way.  I decided to park on a street that I had previously scoped-out as a possible permanent spot before I moved up here.  Good thing I did not choose this as the permanent spot!  Lots of noise all night, cars speeding down the street, etc. I got just about NO sleep at all. 

In the morning, I made my way to a new dump site that was actually FREE!  The Chevron station off of I-80 at  Mace Rd.  The downside is there is no fresh water.  But here I noticed a possible problem with the camper (Fiasco #1):  the holding tank release valves were leaking.  Gross!  When I got into the city and parked, I noticed the problem seemed to be getting worse. I envisioned needing to replace the valves, etc.  Oy what a headache. Where to get the parts?  How much would it cost?  What tools would I need?  Well, after fiddling with it a bit, I found that the valve just needed a bit of a twist and a wiggle to seal it off properly.  I also remembered that I had some silicone gasket stuff in my tool box, so I pulled that out and made a custom gasket to seal off the cap, and all was water-tight.  Once again dry. Phew!!!  Fiasco #1 averted. 

Then the rehearsal, which was fine.  We ended around 4 and the party did not start until 8 so I called Audrey to see if we could meet for a cup of coffee or whatever.... She was in Berkeley but said she was coming into The Mission, so we planned to meet over there.  I moved to that neighborhood to park and, BOOM,  Fiasco #2 occurred.  I had parked in a commercial spot temporarily (one block south of Mission, on Capp between 16th and 17th), but when a regular spot on the other side of the street opened up,  I made a U turn to get it.  As I made the turn, the rear end of the camper caught the parking meter and I heard a terrible crunching noise. Ugh.  After I pulled into the spot, I viewed the damage.  It had pulled the molding from the rear corner (see above).  All-in-all, not terrible, i.e. no major structural damage, but it is annoying and ugly.  And... it made me crazy because I had no idea how to repair this.  

The block I was parked on seemed to be a magnet for homeless people and they all were pretty fascinated with the camper.  One asked how much it cost, because "he was gonna get himself one of those."  One guy chimed in that he had owned a camper and all he did was work on repairing it.  Another, kind of odd, youngish (20s-30s), woman showed interest as I futzed with fixing the molding and she offered to help if I needed it.  She seemed almost normal, but just a bit "off." A bit white rabbitish.  Skittish.

Audrey called to say that her train was near, so I went to go meet her at the 16th Street BART station.   As I was leaving, the young woman reappeared.  She approached and started walking alongside me, eager to make conversation, asking where I going, what I was doing, etc.  She introduced herself as Jasmine and stuck out her hand, which I shook.  She told me that "I had a nice house" and said she would be around the neighborhood if I wanted to see her later... hmmm.  She actually seemed to be sweet - if a bit odd.  Not a terrible person, just not quite all there in the usual sense. I can't help but wonder, what was her story?  

Audrey and I had coffee and then around 8pm, we parted.  She, heading back to Berkeley, me to the party.  While getting dressed for the party, I went to put on my favorite bollo tie and it broke!  Let's call that Fiasco # 3.  Man-o-man. 

The party was nice.  Eddie and Melina were both gracious, and it was good to see Jason, the drummer.  They played a set without bass because their new bass player seemed to be missing in action.  I thought about getting my bass but I had parked too far away.  The new guy finally did show up about the time the band took a break.   I was curious to hear him play, and would have stayed for the second set, but was just too bushed - so I headed out. 

Getting back to the camper, I considered staying right where I was parked on 18th Street.  I crawled into the loft bunk, and a few cars zoomed by.  And then a few more.  Ugh... it was just too reminiscent of the night before in West Sac when I got NO sleep.  So...  I decided to head down to my usual spot in Dogpatch.  I exited the camper to come around to the driver's door, but... as I opened the side door, it just kind of "exploded."  The frame came apart at the seams. Arrgh!  Fiasco #4. 

At this point (now about midnight) I was so pissed that I decided to just pack it up and drive back to Sacto so I could get an early start on the repairs - not that I had any idea how to actually FIX anything.  Of course this totally negated the whole reason for taking the camper in the first place.  If before I had left I had made the decision to not stay over and drive back after the party, I wouldn't have taken camper - and saved on gas.  Duh!  But then, if I had actually driven the car, none of these "Fiascos" would have happened and I wouldn't be needing to make the repairs so then I would've wanted the camper to stay overnight... Oy.  That's Fiasco Catch 22:  Boomhauer's Postulate. 

The drive back to Sacto was predictably hellish.  Although there was no traffic, I was fighting to stay awake the whole way.  I considered pulling off to the side of the road at some random point, but I just wanted to be back in my familiar environment so I could get started ASAP in the morning.

On the way back to the Hallmark spot, the street makes a fork to the right and it split off just before a Sobriety Checkpoint.  Not that it would have been a problem in any way:  I am still alcohol free since Jan 2011.  But part of me really wanted to mess with the cops.  I imagined being pulled over, and they would of course ask, "Where are you was coming from?"  I 'd love to see their face when I said I was "coming from a party in San Francisco."  Ooh, they would be salivating for a wet one!  Then I'd love to mess with them some more, like refuse to answer when they would predictably ask how much alcohol I'd had.  I'd love to say "I don't need to answer that question," being stone cold sober!  They'd make me do the roadside tests, etc. and then when I blew into the breath-a-lizer, it would be ZERO.  Hah! 

I actually thought about going back to go through the check point, but then I realized it would open up a whole can of worms about where I was going, where I was currently living, etc.  Best not to antagonize the cops. Yes, best not to. Especially when living on the street.  Some fantasies are best left unfulfilled. 

I cruised by where the Subaru was parked on the street and - oops - mini Fiasco #5.  I had parked the car next to a grass strip with a sprinkler system and it was a spotted mess.  I hate that!  Really hate it. 

After a good night's sleep, I decided to attack the repairs. 

With a trip to the local Home Depot, I was able to pick up some supplies and few necessary tools at the cost of about $35.00.  I was able to do decent repair job on the rear molding.  It would be nice to eventually replace all the molding and do the job right, but in the meantime I am at least "back together."  As it turned out, the side door was not as bad as I thought.  It just needed to be snapped together.  I added a couple of screws to secure the corners and it is fine.  

But try as I might, the spots just won't come out of the Subaru.  I've tried a couple of detailing spays, but no luck and I can't for the life of me find a DIY coin-op car wash anywhere in Sacto.  What is with this place?  Must be the State's powerful Car Wash Lobby, keeping the coin-ops from encroaching on the regular car washes, insuring all those high paying jobs with cushy benefits.

Almost good as new. 

Yes, it feels good to be in the Air Conditioned Starbucks.  It's 95 on the streets of Sacto, but luckily All the King's Horses and All the King's Men actually DID put the Dolphin back together again.

Phew. What a couple of days!

The Whole Darned Dolphin, parked on Hallmark, between Ethan and Howe, Sacto.

A Trip Home

Ah.... finally got a couple of trips home to Calabasas.  First trip was on the weekend of May 5-6 and then again for Mother's day May 12-13.  It had been 5 weeks since I was last home. 

Route 99 is my new friend.  It is the older road down the middle of California, to the east of the newer more boring  I-5.  CA-99 goes through all  Mid-CA ag-towns like Modesto, Fresno, Bakersfield, etc.  My new favorite truck stop is "Bravo Farms." They have a great little shop there with really excellent Western Deco doodads.  I've picked up a few cast iron decorative items for the camper. Cool stuff - bucking broncs, cowboy boots, stars, etc. I will have to stop stopping there, otherwise I'll keep buying stuff until the insides of the camper are covered with cast iron and the thing will weight an extra ton!

Mother's day was sweet.  Spent the morning with Justine, then up to SB for the afternoon with my Mom, Julie and Jasmine.  A nice time.

Then back to Sacto.  All is still well on the street, though I've been moving Dolphin Manor more to keep from staying too long in one spot.

This weekend, I'll be heading down to SF for rehearsal with G-Men and The Agency, then party for Melina at Scher House West - ie the Parlor Tricks folks.... I think I'll do a little urban camping - that will get Dolphin Manor out of the neighborhood for couple of days.

Life on the Road.

Hobo Miscellanea and A First Brush With The Law

Well, nothing much of any significance has happened in the last few weeks, so initially my aim was just to recount some of the highlights, marking the passage of time, but then last night I had my first little brush with the local lawman.  I’ll get to that in a minute.  First the trivia.

As I’ve already let on, the last two weeks have been pretty routine, settling into the new job.  So far I’ve been sitting in on a class that I will eventually be teaching; the class on conducting the “Driver Performance Evaluation” or as most of us know it, the drive test that we all took when we first got our licenses.  It is a fun test to give and I think it will be a fun class to teach.  It has been a hoot to see the students and their reactions – their “aha moments” - as they go through the process of grasping the test scoring criteria.  I’ve been experiencing a bit of a personality conflict with one of the lead trainers of the class, but maybe I am being a bit too sensitive or overly judgmental myself.  I’ll reserve further comment until this escalates…

The weekends have been mildly eventful.  Two weeks ago I picked up the Subaru from the body shop, and I must say they did an excellent job.  It looks better than before it went in.  I then spent the weekend in San Francisco.  First, I met Audrey for lunch.  We ate some memorable grilled calamari at a fancy taco joint in the Mission, then hit a few thrift stores before she had to get back to Berkeley to work on a paper.  I then met up with my friend Colleen.  Some highlights include dinner with her and Ron at “the chicken place” in North Beach (definitely worth a return trip), reacquainting myself with Bushman on Fisherman’s Wharf (you’ve got to love the reaction he gets as he jumps out from behind his “bush,” scaring the living daylights out of passersby) and The Classical Guitar Jukebox Monkey at the Saloon (a guy in a full monkey suit, sprayed silver, who actually plays classical guitar pretty well).  San Francisco:  no place like it!  What a collection of characters. 

And then back to Sacto, the farthest outpost of the Middle West, right here in gold rush country.  What a contrast!  SF and Sacto may be only 90 minutes apart by car but the distance in psychological profile/mindset is immense.  Light years.

Last weekend brought two gigs for Agency EL84, my surf/spy instrumental band.  Friday night was at the Old Western Saloon in Point Reyes Station, then Saturday was a benefit party at a really interesting space, NIMBY in Oakland.  NIMBY is a do-it-yourself workshop space for people creating custom motorcycles as well as sculptures and other objects for Burning Man.  Really cool work.  They had built a nice big stage in the main – cavernous - workspace but unfortunately the only people in our audience were Mark Gartland and family and the guys from the band going on after us.  The other band was a heavy metal act, but they seemed to really enjoy our show, rushing the stage, head banging, giving us the devil horns, blowing wafts of pot our way.  Too bad there were only four of them.  I’ve got to commend them for their prodigious energy though – must’ve been drug enhanced.   When they took the stage, the place was still empty, but they were up there with Marshall Stacks, banging away at Spinal Tap volume.  The Agency did not return the favor of being a good audience.   We made a quick exit.  Unfortunately, overall it was another disappointing experience audience–wise and we vowed to never do another gig like this.  Which I am sure we will stick to, until we are offered another gig like this… because, bottom line, we just like to play together.

Talking after the gig with Scott, I found that a mutual friend, Pete, will be buying Scott’s customized van conversion with the intention of “going mobile.”   Now, Pete is a guy with plenty going for him:  good, well-paying job, owns a condominium in Pacifica, and quite the par-tay-down lady’s man (I wonder what the van living will do for him in THAT department).  I was also interested to learn that Scott himself has a considerable yen for the mobile lifestyle.  When I mentioned a bit of road weariness myself, he seemed a bit bummed, as I blew the cover off his freewheeling fantasy. 

I suppose it’s a mid-life thing.  Living on the road, no kids, no commitments outside of your own - sounds pretty darned attractive when you feel hemmed in by life, job, bills and other’s agendas.  Of course life on the road has its moments, good and bad.  One day I suppose I’ll come back “inside.” In the meantime, I continue to live someone's version of “the dream,” "free to ride our machines"  without being hassled by the man” blazing the pathway for the vicarious thrills of other more stationary souls.  Not that I’m so brave…

Over this same gig-filled weekend I stayed at Bart’s, hanging out with the kids, going to the various ball games that Bart was coaching.  We ended the weekend with a nice little backyard BBQ.  The pool was open, kids playing.  Picture perfect.

Then once again back to Sacto, gateway to the Midwest….

Throughout these weeks, Dolphin Manor has been parked in the same spot on Hallmark, between Ethan and Howe.  As noted before, there are no parking restrictions and not much in the way of pedestrian traffic.  The only thing I have been concerned about is an office building right across the street.  I’ve been afraid that someone might complain that the RV, continually parked in the same spot, is an eyesore.   Well, last night (Thursday) as I returned to The Manor, I noted a man walking a dog adjacent, so I parked my car in the lot at the office building to observe.  I wanted to let him pass before pulling up and essentially announcing that I am the guy who lives there.  He walked to the corner, let his dog do his business, then walked back up the street to a storage facility located on the block and went inside.  Or so I thought.

Believing he was out of sight, I pulled the car up in front of The Manor and started to unload some stuff.  Looking up the street, though, I noticed the fellow out in front of the storage facility, looking my way.  Afraid that he might be scoping me out to see if I was the low-life homeless derelict living in the RV (parked in the same spot for the last two weeks), I kind of froze and acted like I was fiddling with the car, rearranging some luggage or such.  I then looked over my shoulder to see a gorgeous sunset.   So, I’d say that he was more interested in the display behind me rather than my relationship to the RV.  Maybe.

But…

As I sat in my car waiting for the guy to go back inside, I saw what at first seemed to be a security guard’s car pull up and stop across the street from the camper.  He was facing the sunset, but that show was now past its prime – its glory had faded.  He waited a while and then pulled away. As he left, I saw that this was a Sacramento County Parking Enforcement Vehicle.  Hmmm…  Were they documenting my presence on the street?  Had there been a complaint from the office building?  Or maybe a complaint from the guy at the storage facility that, by the way, rents storage space for RVs – so he would have a motive to not want people parking for free on the street.  Hmmm...

Well, today is Friday, and I am leaving to go south to LA for the weekend.  This morning I got up and moved Dolphin Manor around the corner and down the street for the weekend.  It will be parked there for less than the three day maximum that most cities have as a limit, so I expect that there should be no problem for now. 

But what about in the future?  That’s the question on my mind.  Sound paranoid?  Well, that’s one of the downsides of life on the street.

Gee…  I started this entry thinking nothing much had happened.  Trivia indeed.