Road Trip: California Coast – 1500 Days to Freedom

I meant to write more about my road trip, but FI Life got in the way. Our trip has been a series of adventures; hikes in state parks, walks around urban areas, live music, beaches, one very cool Taco Bell, and meetups with old friends. No time to write! But here I am. We’re in Los Angeles now, near the end of our trip.

Life Is Good

We left on August 9th, so have been on the road for almost 2 weeks. At my first job, I had 2 weeks of vacation time. Total! It’s really nice to meander.

Other Random Thoughts:

Taking life slow is the way go to. Or at least slower than I would have done in the past. I’ve driven over 1,000 miles in one day. I’d sprint from one place to another, looking longingly at the brown signs on the side of the road announcing sites that I didn’t have time to stop at. I really did have the time, but I was focused on optimizing everything except the actual enjoyment of life! I’m still learning, but in a better place now.

Road trips in an electric vehicle (EV) are pleasant. If I’m traveling at highway speeds, I have to stop and charge about every 3 hours. While these tops are more frequent than in a gas car, I’d have to stop and pee anyway. So the journey take a little longer, but not much if you plan to pee at the same time you charge. A couple of the hotels we stayed at had free charging, so we arrived on fumes (minimal electrons?) and then had a full charge the next morning. I also brought my own charger to fuel up (electron up?) at Airbnbs.

Travel with friends is a lot more fun. We stopped in Craig Colorado for a night to stay with friends. We also met up with friends in Reno, Santa Rosa, San Luis Obispo (SLO), and Los Angeles. I’d much rather catch up with an old friend on a walk around town than hang out at a tourist attraction.

Almost all of the friends I saw were from the FI community. In Reno, I met up with a friend I had met at JL Collins’ Chautauqua back in 2019. I had met the friends in Santa Rosa and SLO through the MMM HQ Coworking spot. FI Life has been awesome and the best part is the awesome community of people I have met. It’s hard to make friends as an adult. Even harder if you’re a dorky, introverted nerd! 🙂 Thanks FI!

The trip hasn’t been expensive. For lodging, we’re stayed with friends and used points for all of our hotels. The only stay we paid for was one Airbnb. For EV charging, I had referral credits from Tesla that paid for it all.

Trip Stats:

• Miles driven: 2,464 (!)
• Watt hours/mile: 252.0
• Body weight squats: 1,360 (I do these when stop and charge and randomly on walks)
• FSD interventions: 3 (This is when the car is driving itself and I have to disengage because the car is doing something stupid.)

Roadtrip

While we’re on the topic of farts, there is a fancy Taco Bell on the beach in Pacifica. This is the view from the patio:

And here’s a golden butt at the Hearst Castle:

We saw an old friend, Sam Barsh, play a show in downtown Los Angeles. Sam is an amazing player. Next time you’re in L.A, on a Tuesday evening, go see him play at Shoo Shoo Baby.

Soon I’ll drop Older Daughter off at school where she’ll start her next adventure. Meanwhile, I have an adventure of my own waiting for me back in Longmont. Life is never boring!

More 1500 Days!!!

You can also find me (and the dinosaurs) at: