I have always appreciated when people make a collection of tips, hints, or hacks which encapsulate lessons they have learned in short, pithy statements. I really enjoyed Kevin Kelly’s Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier. Glen Van Peski has numerous “Pro … “Travel Tips, Hints and Hacks”
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This post has been extracted from my Camino page because the most common question we have gotten from friends was about what we carried. They already knew something about the Camino itself and most wanted to understand how we managed to “go so light”. FWIW: We … “Packing for the Camino”
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I have carried the Vagabond Trail more than 1500 miles over last year for EDC, done in a day outdoor activities, and onebag travel which included walking 500 miles of the Camino Santiago Frances route from SJPP. Since January 2023 I have basically lived out of … “Vagabond Review”
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TL;DR. If you are looking for a small, light, fast drying towel to use while backpacking or traveling, I recommend the PackTowel Ultralight. I found I can effectively dry my body with a 25″x35″ towel, but the body size lets me wrap the towel around … “A Tale of Four Towels”
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For the next 2-3 years we will be traveling. partially to explore the world, partially to determine where we will spend the next season of our lives. We decided not to sell our home in Mountain View, but to rent it out given the high … “Traveling Begins”
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I think of trekking as travel which involves a significant amount of walking while carrying all the gear you will need. Nights are typically spent in huts, hostels, guest houses, inns, yurts. Sometime treks involve sleeping in a shelter you are carrying, but I think … “Trekking Packs”
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Jackie and I had hoped to walk in 2020 but COVID happened. Shortly after my retirement in 2022 Jackie and I simultaneously realized we could walk the Camino. We completed the 500 miles / 800km from SJPP to Santiago de Compostela along the Frances Camino … “Camino de Santiago”
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TL;DR I became intrigued by the digital nomad lifestyle in the 1980s. I got to know a number of the early digital nomads, and follows many more via blogs and websites. My minor claim to fame was that Rolf Potts noted one of my travel … “A “Digital Nomad” Experiment”
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If you listen to popular culture and the ads which “inform” us about acceptable conduction you would be inclined to believe that there are numerous specialized products and activities that we must engaged in for the sake of properness. I ran a series of experiments … “Personal Care Heresies”
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The following is a reference I use when selecting the next hiking or backpacking destination with a bias toward Northern California. I make it in 2002 and just now moving it from my old site so it is easier to fix broken links and add … “Hiking Destinations”
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Updated December 2023 My packing list for trips than range from a few days to several months. Items “*” are optional. This list was extracted from my Packing & Traveling Light post. For a more complete description of these items see my gear for life. Packing … “Packing List”
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You can get commercial information from NapaValley.COM. For years, I found The Best of the Wine Country to be a useful guidebook to the area, but it’s out of date now. Wine Wine is the first order of business. There are more than 400 wineries in the Napa … “Wine Country”
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San Francisco is a beautiful, world class city. There are numerous museums, places of nature beautiful, great food, and well known tourist spots. You could easily spend several weeks exploring San Francisco and only scratch the surface. The SF City Pass can be a good … “San Francisco”
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Part of my visiting northern California series. I would recommend taking two days to explore the area around Monterey. If you had a lot of time you could make it a four day leg and continue down Route 1 to Hearst Castle / San Simeon, … “Monterey Penisula & Big Sur”
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Monta Loma (MLN) is a great neighborhood which has a real community. Long before nextdoor, the community had a website, mailing list and later a wiki. We have block parties, a gardening group, CERT team, etc. There was (and maybe still is) a babysitting coop. … “Monta Loma Neighborhood and the Mid-Peninsula”
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I tend to prefer mildly spicy food with complex combinations of tastes. Southwest, Mexican, Indian, Thai, Fusion, Californian, and especially Pacific Rim. I can enjoy classic French and Vietnamese, but the subtlety is sometimes lost on me. Great meals involve more than food. It also … “Great Meals”
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I think most people would be best served packing light, and using a carry on size “travel pack” which is a cross between a backpack and soft-side luggage. Travel packs will often have light weight internal frames to make them easier to carry, handles on … “Travel Packs”
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I recommend clothing that can be comfortably worn day after day for a wide variety of activities while still looking good. When in the outdoors no one cares how you look, but in urban environments it can make a difference in how people treat you. … “Recommended Clothing”
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