So I’ve been on a personal voyage of discovery recently. As part of that, I learned to drive (on the other side of the road, in an automatic – I’m used to standards (UK: manual), and didn’t drive in the UK anyway) and have been driving rentals (UK: hire cars) until I get around to picking up a car (and the $3200 insurance quotes I have received for the pleasure, thanks MA!…though in theory I’m in favor of state regulation…). I’m not buying a new car (well, it’s not likely yet) but I am thinking about getting something not too crappy. Perhaps a pre-owned Prius, VW Jetta, or maybe an RSX (if the insurance won’t kill me over and above the $3200 minimum). I have seen the light that is driving and I like it too much. I don’t want to destroy the environment though, so no SUV for moi.
Last Tuesday was the first time I’d ever driven alone anywhere in the world (not that unusual amongst youngish technical types who have lived and worked in and around London, where driving is often nuts anyway…US readers, think NYC), and I decided to brave driving down to NYC for the weekend, which I managed (albeit with an unscheduled stayover in CT after I underestimated the amount of time it would take, and left Boston way too late – assembling furniture with more than 100 pieces will do that to you). In the end, I drove around 800 miles last week…just returned the rental this morning…and discovered the addictiveness of random driving. I have a “need” to drive vast distances now. Vast distances. Think transcontinental US road trip distances.
To kick things off, I’m going to take a little road trip in CA. I’ve reserved a Ford Mustang convertible for a week (May 14 to May 21) – picking it up in SFO a week Monday and dropping it back off there a week later. I am at a conference in San Diego Tue-Fri of next week (as a speaker) and then headed up to San Francisco for the weekend to hang out with Sven and the guys (going sailing on the Bay, hopefully under the Golden Gate Bridge again, hoping to also get some time to see Alcatraz…I always miss the last Ferry or something comes up to stop me seeing it). I will drive from San Francisco out to Yosemite for some hiking on the Tuesday, down to Los Angeles for FreedomHEC on the Thursday and back up to San Francisco on the Saturday morning, for some sailing/camping up in Tamales Bay. All that will happen within the space of a week, if things go according to plan. My schedule goes something like this (subject to change, depending on friends I’m meeting along the way):
* May 8 – Fly out to San Diego. Hang out on the Beach.
* May 9-11 – Speaking at the Red Hat Summit in San Diego. Giving a lecture on “Handling asynchronous driver updates in RHEL5 and beyond”. I will talk about my Utopian visions 
* May 12 – Fly up to San Francisco. Hang out downtown. Catch up with Sven and other friends – go sailing (hopefully).
* May 13 – Hang out in San Francisco. Potentially more sailing, cycle around and bike the Golden Gate Bridge (again), visit Alcatraz Island.
* May 14 – Pick up rental at SFO. Drive to Yosemite. Stayover in a B&B somewhere along the way and hike in the park during the day. Avoiding being a bear mauling statistic is fairly important
* May 15 – Drive back to San Francisco. CA Route 120.
* May 16 – Drive down Pacific Coast Highway. Stayover.
* May 17 – Drive down Pacific Coast Highway. Arrive in LA in the evening. Hang out with friends in LA/Anaheim. Depends who’s around.
* May 18 – FreedomHEC in Los Angeles. I will share my Utopian visions for the future of drivers and get beaten with a big pointy stick by Greg for his general pleasure Hang out in LA on Friday evening with friends. Depends who’s around.
* May 19 – Drop off car at LAX. Fly up to San Francisco. Pick up another rental and drive up to Tamales Bay (late).
* May 20 – Recover from beer/Oysters.
* May 21 – Return rental. Fly.
Jon.
For non-US readers:
CA – California state abbreviation. A Long, but narrow state I’ve been to many times in the past. But I’ve never driven over there…not yet anyway.
CT – Connecticut state abbreviation. In this case I had a choice between New Haven and Stamford on the (New York City) MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) Metro North line, and chose Stamford due to its non-stop 30 minute express train service into New York’s Grand Central train station. Not a whole lot of nightlife there…think provincial market town, and don’t try seeing a movie after 10pm
MA – Massachusetts state abbreviation. Where they don’t understand how to paint lane markings on the highways (UK: A roads) or Interstates (UK: Motorways). And where auto (car) insurance is state regulated so the price you pay is not set by free market economics, but by the state. Benefit is that they have to insure everyone equally, but it’s expensive.
NYC – New York City. I wasn’t insane enough to drive in the City itself.
PCH – Pacific Coast Highway. California (CA) State Highway Route 1 (RT1). Only officially known as the Pacific Coast Highway in specific counties along the route…otherwise a mixture of eclectic naming.
RSX – Acura RSX. Think suped up Honda Accord, on steroids. Really.
SFO – San Francisco International Airport (US FAA code).
VW – Volkswagen. Obviously.
As it turns out, ’sein noted that an RSX is more like a Honda Integra. Bah. I’m not really a car person, but the shocking thing is…I could become one eventually.
Steel yourself for driving in and around SF, it is teh suck.
RSX is actually a follow-up on Integra, but uses Civic’s components. It’s a very nice car for a discriminating Sport Compart enthusiast, but unfortunately it was expensive and thus Civic Si killed it in the market.
Please make sure that Yosemite is not closed to cars when you’re going to be there. These people keep trying these plans, every year, certainly for the valley floor.
BTW, I can’t resist mentioning that my SUV has the same fuel burn rating as Mustang convertible. It doesn’t have the same handling qualities though, or performance parameters.