Stuff about him: Joe is an East Bay native and loves the area. He is currently unemployed (but looking hard for a job) after being layed off when The North Face got bought out last year. He worked for them for 11 years. He has a 1971 VW bus (white), a dog named Mavis, and a goatee (pictures coming soon).
Stuff about travel: He loves it and has done a fair bit of it, especially since his new found freedom from The North Face. He has gone to Turkey the last 5 years or so, just got back from Argentina, and spends time on the Thorn Tree and The Well helping/participating with folks on his areas of expertise. His first travel experience was at age 15 on some ocean liner...interesting stuff.
Random thing about him/Boots: I have known him for several years online. I saw him upside down for the first time - I was under the bus working on the starter and he came strolling down the street. He is a great guy - he is also a big dude and got on his back to have a look at the starter - his belly rubbed up against the engine (which is covered in oil) - so his shirt was pretty dirty within 5 minutes of meeting him.
Joe is a good guy and very helpful - I'm happy to have finally met him after all these years.
We have been meeting lots of folks on this trip that are full fledged BootsnAll members - or at least avid readers and travelers...so maybe I will start to publish some profiles of folks we meet.
Name: David Baker (I'll get a picture soon)
Age: I think early 20's
Stuff about him: he graduated from Berkeley last spring and is currently a lab manager at the school. His girlfriend Patricia (who is Polish) introduced him to BootsnAll as a good resource for RTW trips. He e-mailed me today and met Nick, Joe E., and I for lunch.
He is an avid homebrewer.
Travel Stuff: He wants to do a multi-continental trip starting June 2003 - It entails going to Poland with Patricia and learning Polish in a school there. He then wants to jump over to London to visit his bro (works there) and then onto Guatemala for some Central American stuff until his money runs out.
Even more other stuff: he is gonna meet Nick, Joe E., and I at the Albatross this evening...recommended by old friend and BootsnAll Consulting client Tara Weaver tonight at around 5:30 or so.
Random sidenote: While searching for that link on the Albatross - I came across a whole bunch of Berkeley blogs - 'uck yeah.
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I knew a David Baker...but he was from Rhode Island. Last seen in California. Asleep.
Stuff about her: I met her at the BootsnAll booth this morning at SF State. The conversation started like most others do. What is BootsnAll? Do you sell boots? - And she had headphones on and a hooded sweatshirt. But after a few minutes of talking about travel - she was really into it, as was I.
Travel Stuff: Her pops is Argentinian and her mom, Italian - she has a Yank accent though. So she has been to both places a few times as well as several others. She is amped about travel and wants to do more.
School: She said she still has 3 years left cuz she is taking all art classes - Dance and music especially. Which lead to....
What she wants to do: Travel - She is considering going to Europe for 6 months or so as a nanny, travel here, there anywhere. But she also said she feels this need/pressure to finish school, so she is a bit torn.
She was very cool and inspiring. I feel lucky to be able to meet folks like Leslie as part of my job.
Gregg Butensky - co-creator of Madnomad.com - Greg is an old member and friend of BootsnAll - He is a cool looking dude and I have known him and his wife Evelyn for a few years, but had never met him in person. When he walked in with his leather jacket, long goatee, and motorcycle helmet - he looked like a bad arse, but with a friendly smile. It was great to hang out with him.
Like Nick, he is a travel nutter. He was also a dot com-er...and still works in the hi-tech field as a freelancer. He is going on a trip to Asia for a few months. As a freelancer, he described how he was recently able to work from the Philippines - He is tapping into the potential of more freedom and flexiblity in where and when one works. Cool stuff.
Nick and I met up with famed BootsnAll writer and Board participant last night at The Fox and Hounds.
She is a very spunky and cool person and we were amped to meet her.
Travel Stuff about her: She was about to go on an RTW trip recently, but she broke her ankle. Now Delara is again planning to go within the next year. She says she could be gone for upto 4 years since she wants to go to grad school in Oz. (that's Australia for you yanks or whoever is wondering). Oh yeah - she is also going to Ireland this December for a few weeks to visit friends and sample the local versions of Guinness.
Other Stuff about her: Has a cool tat on her left arm — not preserved and likes Newcastle Brown beer.
She has met a few BootsnAll members over the years and we had several people to talk about that we both knew through BootsnAll. Fun stuff.
Delara also took a seat in the BootBus — not preserved before we took off for the evening.
Age: Born sometime after World War II. (Just kidding Laurie! - She is thirtysomething)
Travel Stuff about her: She is full on into travel as is her boyfriend, Lou. We met up with them at a place call World Curry last night in the Pacific Heights area of San Diego.
She has lived and worked in Asia for 5 years. She taught English among other things and was able to travel extensively throughout the area. Lou and Laurie will most likely be going to the United Arab Emirates this winter and they seemed very stoked about it. I would be too.
Other Stuff about her: She lives in the LA area and Lou lives in San Diego. They communte to spend time together and seem to enjoy both cities. Both Lou and Laurie have this excitement about them...kinda happy to be alive and living fully. It is fun to be around both of them.
David is the friendly guy who pulled over to the side of the road yesterday in his VW rabbit and helped us out for a few hours. I don't know much about him, but I will share what I do know.
Stuff about him: He has owned a VW van or 2 in his life and he is very comfortable working in them. After he went home and changed out of his church clothes and came back with suitable rags for working with our oil wreck, he got right into it and within 15 seconds diagnosed our gas line leak.
He is married with a daughter and used to work in the lumber business. About 14 months ago he thankfully received a kidney transplant and the doctors say he shouldn't work in the sun anymore cuz the meds he's on make it 10 times more likely that he will get sun cancer.
There is that special something about David. This guy really went out of his way to help us. He met us after church, went home to change and get his clothes and tools, then left and came back again with a new gas line. And Nick and I were not begging him to do this, he just has that honest to goodness helpfulness about him. Nick and I were saying that Karma was paying us back.
Coolness under pressure: When David was changing out the gas lines, he had to disconnect the line...and gas was spurting here and there, through no fault of his own since our tank was full. At one point, the gas squirted in his eye. Now, that hurts and burns. But David stayed cool under pressure. Instead of jumping up and letting his finger off the gas line (which would have really opened up the flood gates) - he closed his eye, kept his finger on the line. Nick and I grabbed a towel and some water and flushed his eye out while he leaned back (while still keeping his finger on the gas line). He was fine and got back to it. Definately cool under pressure.
Thanks for your help David and we were lucky to meet such a friendly and kind individual.
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I agree. There "is" something very special about David. You may say he's rare, but I wonder.... These are the people we don't hear of or read about often enough. And they surely do exist. And they inspire us. They boost our energy and re-establish our faith in the goodness of a human being. To me the moral of this is that a kind act can be karma (as Nick said). It can also be the lever that pulls
Jack is the tow truck driver that towed the BootBus from just south of Gilroy to the Bus Lab in Berkeley. The trip was almost 100 miles so we got to talking...
Stuff about Jack - married for 26 years, 3 kids, youngest is 14. been a tow druck driver for 5+ years...likes it, but hates the hours...on call all the time. It gets old he says.
Stuff we didn't ask about, but is interesting anyway - Jack is gonna divorce his wife in 4 years. Once his youngest son turns 18 and he doesn't have to pay child support to his wife he says he is "outta here...moving to Montana to drive a logging truck for 2 bucks an hour, fish, hunt and chase Indian women"
So he is not happily married, but said he wants to support his children' educational endeavors so they don't have to drive a tow truck like him, he says. He said he got married 26 years ago cuz it seemed "fun". He didn't seem to be living with any regrets, and I hope I am not making it sound like that. He just knows what he wants. He already has bought a plot of land in Montana that he will build his A-frame on (he was in construction in his early years).
The A-Frame Dream - As I mentioned- he already has a 20 acre plot to build his home on. He said he will build the A-frame with a huge open area in the middle so when his family is up, they can talk across the house without a problem. He will also build and deck and room for himself on oneside (so he can retire at night and get some peace and quiet) - and the exact same on the other side so guests have there space as well.
His Attitude: It was refreshingly honest and he always had a smile on his face as he told stories. I thought it was cool that he knew what he wanted from his life and was going for it. And his honesty extended to his wife...he told her that he is going to divorce her when the youngest turns 18. He said that she does not believe him. And he did seem happy - with the smile and the knowing of where he wanted to go in life. For Jack, there is no alternative - he knows what he wants.
Towing Stories: Wow - From turning over semis - pulling up cars from 200 ft cliffs to hauling 49er's fans to Candlestick when their Camper doesn't work, Jack does it all. I could go into more of these, but I gotta run to the buslab in a few minutes.
Jack was another friendly and interesting dude. I feel lucky to have met him and David today
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Any chance your wife will accompany you, Jack? Sounds great.
Mary · November 11, 2002 09:51 AM
Ma, Nope - the whole purpose of moving for Jack is to get divorced and into his own thing. Love you ma, Sean
Last night joe e and I went out for a few drinks and a feed. He took me to his Monday Night regular place - Nizza La Bella. We sat on the corner of the bar and talked for about 2 hours with Evelyne...
General Stuff about Evelyne: She is a partner/owner of this restaurant with Eleanor. Evelyne is the hostess and Eleanor is the Chef. The restaurant is located in Albany, CA - 825 San Pablo Avenue.
Other random stuff: She is french (born in) with a NY accent, and worked for Andy Warhol at one time.
Her Business: Eleanor and Evelyne (Double E's) started the restaurant 3 years ago just as the tech boom was ending. Business has been a bit slow since the meltdown, but they are still kickin' arse and taking names and shes says they will make it through this. In fact, many of her customers have been coming to her, looking for a job. That's how you know the local economy is bad.
Pizza Expert: Evelyne is an writer for the Magazine Pizza Today - this said, we got into it a bit over who's pizza is better - Chicago or NY (keep in mind that she is from NY) - We agreed that the best thin stuff is in NY, but she conceeded that the best thick stuff is in Chi-town. Yer baby! Victory feels great!
Her Favorite Pizza: Well, the gentleman that made it, is now dead. But he was based on Coney Island and only opened on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and stayed open until the dough ran out.
How she judges the quality of a pizza: Evelyne said that the best way to test a pizza is to have a slice of sausage pizza. Too many ingrediants can over power the quality of the 'za (though she did say that she loves lots of ingrediants, just not in the eval process). With a sausage pizza, she can taste the quality of:
1 - Dough 2 - Cheese 3 - Tomato Sauce 4 - Sausage
Evelyne was a friendly (I know this is a recurring theme in these profiles - but it's true) and joe e and I felt great as we left the restaurant.
