7 November, 1999
Well, we are back from SEMA and Steve has finally finished up at work enough to where we can start our trip in earnest. Yesterday was the first day that we really felt like we were "free". Odd feeling, not having anything that we had to do. Went to see American Beauty (Jocelyn liked it, Steve thought it was just ok) then had a bonfire on the beach with Cris and Sonja who also put us up for the night(Thanks, guys!).
Right now it's 2 PM and we are sitting on the beach enjoying a lovely 70 degree San Diego day. Steve is having a little trouble adjusting to the idea that there really isn't anything that we have to do…thus the webmaster-on-the-beach routine. Jocelyn, on the other hand, is doing just fine with it.
Tomorrow we take Sandy back to All-Pro to get her new bumper and nerf bars, very exciting.
8 November, 1999
Celebrated Damon's bday a couple days early last night. He made a fabulous dinner for us and then we went for one last hot tub with him and Jenn. Jocelyn did okay with the cats, but she's a little more tired than Steve this evening.
Long day. We started out at about 7 am, bleary eyed and hoping that the sprinkles on our heads didn't turn into real rain -- our windshield wipers were still disconnected from painting the car. Up to Hemet we went, excited about beefing up Sandy's bumpers. Much to our disappointment, All-Pro was really backed up from Jon being at SEMA last week and couldn't fit us in. The rain had picked up so we spent an hour or two repacking Sandy (after digging around for the motor to the wipers) and putting in the wiper motor. We thought we'd head back to San Diego and to Joel's (Euro-Tek) to finish up the paint job but a quick phone call to Joel stopped those plans short. His staff had not shown up to work today. There was one guy there, but not the painter. Being the incredibly scrupulous businessman he is, Joel told us to bring Sandy in anyway and he'd get the work done since he'd promised us he would. Jocelyn told him not to be ridiculous and we'd bring her in when he had a staff present. Thanks, Joel, for having so much integrity.
Needless to say, we didn't go to Joel's, but we did drive back to San Diego to pick up our stuff from Mike's. His lab (Murphy) and retriever (Buddy) were super friendly and entirely convinced that we had some incredible treat for them (unfortunately, we did not). Finally, at around 3:30 we headed over to Mike and Damon's work to pick up an old cell phone of Mike's. We've decided being homeless is fine, but being without a phone has really nasty effects on our dispositions -- due mostly to the ridiculous ritual involved with using a pay phone frequently (pay money, dial number, money comes out, dial number, add lots of coins, busy, repeat above… and that's only if you remember to bring the phone book and the coins on the first try.
And now we drive on the miraculously moving 405 freeway headed to Long Beach, G. Love, and our cousins Dave and Haven. (G. Love and Special Sauce is a great band that moved from Philly out to Long Beach a little while ago -- BeeBee keeps hoping she'll run into G. Love in the supermarket there).
Jocelyn also has great fears that rather than telling her children that she had to walk uphill in the snow both ways to school, she'll be telling them that really and truly, people used to be able to drive 60, 70, 80 miles an hour on the freeway, unencumbered like so many "lemmings [packed] into shiny metal boxes" by the consuming and hellish demands of the Jones's suburban race to nothing.
9 November, 1999
Not much to talk about today. Woke up when we felt like it (didn't even look at the clock!) and got ready to get rolling. Looks like our lack of phone may be fixed- Dave and Haven have loaned us their cell phone for the next couple of months. Now we just have to figure out how to get it activated to the plan that we want, but that should be pretty do-able.
Got on the road some time before noon and have been driving north all day, first on the 5, then the 99. Lots of farmland, not much else. 
It's Jocelyn's turn to drive all day and she is pretty sick of it- crossing the Grapevine in a heavily loaded FJ60 is a tough way to start a long day of driving.
Quote of the day: "Nothing like putting on your blinker to make the car next to you speed up a little bit." - quoth by Beebee while trying to get out from behind a slow truck.
11 November, 1999
Nice slow day hangin' out at Jocelyn's father's lovely mountain home. The weather up here is a surprisingly warm 70+ degrees. Not what we expected in November, but we aren't complaining.
Steve read all day. Beebee beaded all day. No stress. No worries. Life is good.
The sunset view from RK's deck is lovely, this photo doesn't even begin to do it justice but it's all we've got.
15 November, 1999
The weather cooled off a little today, only 65 or so. Steve's getting a birthday massage (his bday's tomorrow) and Beebee has been writing email and shopping for Steve all day. Beebee's sister and her boyfriend drove over from San Francisco on Saturday and hung around until late Sunday, eating good food, sitting in the hot tub, playing Clue and beading.
The fam (L to R: Greta - Dad's girlfriend, Cristie - J's sis, Jocelyn, Steve, Eric - Cristie's boyfriend, and Dad) enjoyed, okay devoured, a breakfast on the deck of bagels and lox Sunday morning.
16 November, 1999
Steve's birthdayday was spent sleeping in and staying in bed most of the day until RK and Greta came home and everyone took Steve out to dinner.
We 
did manage to rouse ourselves for an hour or two to drive around on a nearby fire-road where we watched a controlled-burn across a valley. Looked especially eerie with the clouds and late-evening light. Saw some nice-looking trails off of the main road, but darkness was coming and rain was eminent, so we headed home.
The rain started coming down around 6 p.m., 
just as we were leaving for dinner at the Snowshoe Brewery in Sonora. On top of a great meal, we surprised Steve (no small feat) with some cool gifts and an incredible cheesecake.