San Francisco, visiting Chris and Karen.
I drove to San Francisco in January 1999 and stayed with Chris and Karen. We had dim sum and went to the Pig & Whistle pub for Guinness and bangers and mash. I went to the Apple expo at the convention center, which at that time meant seeing what Steve Jobs was going to announce, which at that time still felt like an event rather than a livestream.
I had the Pinzgauer by then. I’d bought it and first driven it up in Walnut Creek, then had it shipped down to Vista. This was the trip where I drove it north for real, and I was deeply pleased with the truck. “Cars are a lot easier to deal with than people,” I wrote from the Outback Steakhouse in Beaumont on the drive up.
I was thinking about moving back to San Francisco. The city has that effect — you visit and it makes itself seem like the answer to whatever problem you’re currently having. The problem I was currently having was largely about work and the prospect of the Cybertel deal and whether any of it was going to resolve into something better.
I didn’t move to San Francisco. I drove back to San Diego in the Pinz and got on with the work trip to Louisiana.
The dim sum was good. The Guinness was better. The Apple expo announced what I think was the iMac updates. The Pinz got on the freeway and handled itself like a Swiss military truck of a certain age, which is to say deliberately and with character.
San Francisco in January is cold and clear and makes you feel like you should be doing more interesting things with your life. I recommend it.