"I move to Cupertino -- tale of the journey" United States of America Travelogue by rwlittle

"I feel it in the water... I feel it in the earth... I smell it in the air."

It was time for a change.

So, I gave notice at work on October 17th. Two weeks, and then it's on to a new life.

I'd worked with a lot of good people in the past 8+ years, and I will miss many folks greatly. But now, it's time to think a little bit of my own career, and future, and family, and to try something new.

So, westward ho! On to Cupertino, California!

I go into the West, but I am not diminished.

I move to Cupertino: the route

Day 1: Franklin, MA to Painesville, OH
Day 2: Painesville, OH to Coralville, IA
Day 3: Coralville, IA to Cheyenne, WY
Day 4: Cheyenne, WY to Salt Lake City, UT
Day 5: Salt Lake City, UT to Berkeley, CA
Day 6: drive down to Cupertino, go to work

The route took me through Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and into California...12 states and rughly 3100 miles in 5 days. The route's not all that complicated...efectively, I drive along I-90 until I reach I-80 in Ohio, then I get off I-80 in Berkeley.

my old comrades

After the movers packed up and carted off my stuff, I had very little to do at home. At work, things were in a very similar state; other than preparing some notes on my last project, I had little to do except say goodbye to folks. Many folks dropped by my office to wish me luck, or to give me a jovial hard time about leaving them behind, and others wrote me emails wishing me the best, or expressing their shock at my departure.

Friday the 28th of October was my last day at work. As a nice gesture, I was taken out for lunch...I chose a local Chinese buffet. I was touched and flattered by the number of people who showed up: I estimated about 50 people, about 25% of the size of division I worked in who were locally situated. People exchanged stories over lunch, and asked me about my plans. Then, at the close of lunch, my (now former) boss gave a little speech, and he and members of our engineering group gave me some going-away gifts, which included the usual logo-ed memorabilia, but also some thoughtful items: a toy lightsaber (something about Star Wars), a document stamp reading REQUEST DENIED (one of my well-known sayings at work), a Boston Bruins shirt (because I'm a Canadian hockey fan), and a mathom that has passed between myself and one of my co-workers, backwards and forwards, over the years (The Freedom Sessions). Here is a photo from that lunch.

(You can perhaps tell I had been growing out my facial hair for a few days, in anticipation of a drive across a cold country.)

After lunch, I returned to work, made a few rounds to say my final goodbyes, and then cleaned out my office and made my way out the door. In doing so, I left behind eight years of memories, some of good times and some of rough times, a place where I really learned to do my job well, and learned a lot in doing so, and a good number of friends, with whom I hope to remain in contact in the coming years.

After work, I met up with some of my co-workers at the local pub, for dinner and some drinks and some parting stories. Then, I made my way home to my empty condo, and spent the night on a barely-working, ancient air mattress. (It was the mattress' last stand; it made its way into the trash come the morning.)

All in all, a fitting send-off. I am very appreciative.

"It's been such a long time...I think I should be going..."

How appropriate that Boston's "Foreplay/Long Time" is on the radio as I pull out of town?

A slow start--it took longer than expected to pack the car and take out the trash. I hit the road at 10:30am instead of 9:00am. As I pulled away from the condo's parking lot, snowflakes were falling...I got out just in time!

Along I-90 in Massachusetts, the trees were in full fall foliage colours...very eye-catching. In Upper New York State, though, the colour, and the leaves, were already passed.

It wouldn't be Upper New York State, apparently, without White Zombie's "More Human Than Human". For ten years, I've driven up and down the NYS Thruway, between Albany and Syracuse, countless times, and I swear I've heard the song on the radio each time! Nice song and all, but still!

Near the Canadian border, I pulled in a Canadian radio station. Gowan's "Criminal Mind"...haven't heard that in a while...

Ended the day in Ohio, as planned. Dinner: McDonald's Chicken Club...actually passable.

Changes in scenery mark this day. Ohio had fall foliage colours on display. Iowa, on the other hand, features lots of farmland, barren because of the time of the year, yet still giving off all of the usual farm smells.

Amusingly, the temperatures have been in the 60s (Fahrenheit) as I've driven westwards. I'd grown a scraggly beard to offer myself protection against the cold weather I was expecting, but now it seems unnecessary.

Out here, radio is dominated by country music and Christian music, with the occasional classic rock station, so I pulled out a couple of CDs when I got desperate (Christina Aguilera and Fiona Apple).

Had lunch at Hardee's, and dinner at Arby's. Both were fast food, but a bit better than McDonald's, I thought.

night falls on Wyoming

A good chunk of the Day of the Dead was spent driving across Nebraska. This was a change from the previous two days, which featured a change in state every two hours or so. I expected Nebraska to be flatter, and straighter, than it was.

At the east end of Nebraska, there were hills for a while. There was also a big military airbase (perhaps a part of SAC?), which gave me an opportunity to see a military jet in flight, close-up, for the first time in many years.

After the passing of the hills, the road straightened out somewhat, and traffic was light enough, but a heavy wind out of the north kept me on my toes, and not so relaxed, for most of the day.

Again, I played my "find the radio station" game, to keep myself occupied. There's an acoustic version of Roxette's "Listen To Your Heart" out on the radio right now; whoever is singing it, it sounds pretty good. The current single from Green Day, "Wake Me Up When September Ends", has really grown on me, for some reason, as has Bon Jovi's "Have a Nice Day". (They're still around?) When the radio selection failed, I pulled out some Smashing Pumpkins.

I hit the west end of the state, and its foothills, right around sunset. I stopped to snap a photo of the sunset, and then continued on into Wyoming in the dark. Temporarily all fast-fooded out, I snacked on granola bars for dinner.

Tree in Wyoming

This day was the shortest, driving-wise, of my cross-country trek. This was planned and deliberate, in case I had to deal with mountain snowstorms or the like. Instead, I got a real treat, in terms of scenery, and I used some of that extra time to stop and take photos.

I started the day in Cheyenne, and drove over the first mountain range (The Laramie range) as my first order of business. Halfway up, there was a rather picturesque tree in the middle of the freeway, so I stopped and took a photo of that, also capturing some of the signs of uplift and erosion in the surrounding mountainside. Continuing on, I came down into the next valley, which contained the city of Laramie in a valley shaped like a bowl, surrounded by mountains. Surrounding the city were ranches with lots of free-range cattle.

Onwards, past Laramie, my car and I climbed up and down mountains, over and over again, with me stopping to take pictures of electric-generation windmills and tabletop mountains (including the one I believe was in Close Encounters of the Third Kind). The roads were steep, and it was pretty windy at times, so it made for tricky driving at times.

Mid-afternoon, Wyoming changed over to Utah. The driving conditions didn't change much, but the amount of traffic picked up as I approached Salt Lake City. The hotel I stayed at in Salt Lake was near the airport. It was the first hotel on the trip to feature room service, which I ordered happily, including a bottle of a local beer (Snake River Ale, I believe). I thought Mormons wouldn't be drinking beer...??? I then relaxed for the evening, readying myself for that last push through the mountains and into California.

salt lake flats, looking towards Nevada

I made an early departure out of Salt Lake in the morning, making a stop to snap some photos of the nearby mountains, the lake, and the salt flats, before continuing on into Nevada. The border between Utah and Nevada occurs right at the end of the salt flats, and moments after you cross into Nevada you spot a casino, right off the freeway. Once you are past the casino and the adjoining town, you hit the time zone change--I guess Nevada wanted the casino to be in the same time zone as Utah, for the benefit of its customers.

Nevada featured the same hilly and windy challenges for my fully-ladened Corolla. The landscape changed, though. The scrub was often pretty barren, and the wind pushed up a lot of dust into the air. Halfway across Nevada (or thereabouts), I stopped in a place called Battle Mountain, supposedly the "Armpit of America". It was pretty threadbare, but the fast food was as good as anywhere else.

Continuing on, I eventually reached and passed Reno, and Lake Tahoe, and crossed into California. Thermal shock was associatd with the transition: as I climbed into that last mountain range, just across the border, the temperature dropped from the low 70s I had been in, an hour before, to just above the freezing mark, and snow was apparent on the treetops. The road was winding, and narrowed by freeway construction, and it was getting dark, all of which made for slow going. Once through the most difficult parts, however, I could tell I was definitely back in the full grasp of civilization, as I was able to pull in radio stations from Reno, Sacramento, and San Francisco.

From that point on, it was just a slow but sure crawl through rush hour traffic, as I made my way to my destination for the evening: M's place in Berkeley. After 5 long days of trekking across the country, I was glad to be there!

I awoke early in the morning, and drove from Berkeley to Cupertino, a two-hour (as expected) commute from my temporary residence with M to work at Cupertino. Once there, I had a full day of work, getting to know people and the ongoing projects and so on. It's a very friendly group, and they seem happy to have me there, which is nice!

Day 9: November 6th. Flag transferred to Cupertino.

Nine days after my departure from Franklin, I finally "transferred the flag" (it's a naval term) to Cupertino. It didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. The movers and I had arranged to meet at my new apartment at 9:30am, as that's when the apartment complex management staff had indicated I could get the keys, but they didn't actually show until roughly 10:30am, so the movers did the best they could, and staged all sorts of boxes right in front of my apartment while we waited. The movers did a great job...not a thing was lost in the move, nor was there any damage of note.

Once the movers were gone, my friend from Palo Alto came over for a while, and helped me unpack the kitchen and living room, and re-arrange some of the furniture. We then grabbed a bite to eat, and then I got to enjoy my first night's sleep in Cupertino!

So, that pretty much concludes the major portion of the tale of my move to Cupertino.

The loose ends?

My condo is still up for sale, back in Franklin.
I still have bank accounts in Massachusetts.
I have to get a California driver's license, and license plates, and auto insurance.
I still have several "I've moved" address updates to make.

But, all in all, I'm in good shape!