My first full day in Berkeley, California. It’s weird to not have to load up and ride 200 or 300 miles to wherever. It’s a culture shock.

So I woke up and just sort of milled about. Played on the internet and talked to Josh and Cole before they left for work. Josh bought cinnamon rolls (VEGAN cinnamon rolls) for us and they were delightful.

They both left for work and I decided to shower and watch American Gladiators online. Guilty pleasure much? Sure, but who cares? It’s Hulk Hogan and a bunch of people getting the crap kicked out of them. How can you not like this?

With nearly every show being shown on TV also being shown on the internet, I’m trying to figure out the need for TV (meaning cable or satellite) if you have a good internet connection. Now, wherever I end up moving, they’re sure to have some 3-in-1 deal where you get internet, phone and tv for $100 a month. It’s hard to beat that and I would probably take it. But seriously, TV on the internet is the way to go.

Cole called and asked if I wanted to meet her for lunch. So I rode out to where she was nannying, and we walked downtown to Long Life Vegetarian Chinese Restaurant. We were there twice before when I was here last. They make an amazing “beef” thing. Very good.

After foods, we walked around the downtown. Berkeley really is a great town. I don’t want to slag it off. It’s got great shops and the folks whom I’ve met are pretty nice. It’s also got a LOT of Volvo station wagons and more professors wearing socks with sandals than you would ever.. EVER want to shake a stick at.

Seriously folks, if you wear socks with sandals, stop it. Make a commitment. If it is cold enough to wear socks, wear shoes as well. If it is warm enough for sandals, forgo the socks. Are we clear on this?

The town also has its fair share of older women with long gray hair in bib-overalls.

Most the folks here are extremely impressed with themselves. Well, most of the professionals here are. The regular folk are fine.

Berkeley is great for pedestrians and bicyclists. If you are either, you’ll love this town. It’s not amazingly scooter-friendly, but most towns aren’t. I believe it’s because scooter friendly is also motorcycle friendly and nobody wants motorcycles in their town. Especially towns with a lot of bicyclists.

Bicyclists have to obey traffic laws. Yes, they get their own lane, which is great, but they still have to stop at stop signs and red lights. They can’t cross at pedestrian crosswalks (unless they’re walking their bike).

This all adds up to me telling the bicyclists of Berkeley that they are not pedestrians. If there are pedestrians waiting at a crosswalk (or more likely crossing at a crosswalk without looking in either directions - just dumb, people) I’ll, of course, stop.

However, dear bicyclists, you are not pedestrians. If you are waiting on your bike at a crosswalk (or just zipping across the street via a crosswalk), I’m not going to stop for you. And don’t give me that overly self-righteous look, ok? It’s completely lost on me. Go eat some free-range organic chicken and leave me alone.

There, I said it.

But really, Bekeley is a wonderful place. It’s beautifully laid out, sort of like Santa Fe, but green and without the Santa Fe style houses.

We walked up to Live Oak park and watched some squirrels (this is all happening with the kid she nannies for, by the way - she didn’t just leave him at the house). And then we made our way back to the house, hanging out there for a bit.

During the hanging out, we saw deer in the back yard. I snapped some pictures. These deer are much smaller than Pennsylvania deer. And the mother (we saw a mom and two fawns) would hop instead of run. It was freaky.

They were there for a good ten minutes and seemed pretty unafraid of us. That’s probably not a good thing. Of course, it’s not a good thing for deer to be in your back yard if you live in a city. It just means that the city is WAY too close to where the deer live. Which means the city is way too big.

Our deer friends then made their way to the street in front and then down the street to wherever. Again, not a good thing.

But cute. Oh my, cute.

From their porch you can see “the city.” Berkeley and Oakland are cities, but not THE city. THE city is, of course, San Francisco. This is a weird place. But you can see the Golden Gate Bridge from their porch. I bet you pay a lot of money for that.

So I rode back to Cole and Josh’s house and wait for them to return. They do to discover that Josh’s bike has been stolen. A filthy yegg had creeped his or her way into their fenced-in area and burgled the bike. Dastardly, for sure.

But the bike was gone. Two bikes in three weeks. I promptly went and locked up my scooter. Covered it too. First time I had to do that this whole trip.

Josh’s family had invited us over for some dinner and so we went. There, we tried to think of five non-George Lucas/Steven Spielberg films that Harrison Ford had been in. We also discussed many other important topics.

His family is pretty cool. Huge family, with the aunt and uncle and cousin or two there. They even had great dogs. Weird, huh? Weird!

It was late when we got back and soon after, we were sleeping.

Great first day in Berkeley. Thanks!

Miles today: 5
Miles total: 4976