Another Red Cross training behind us

We are parked on a dead-end side street off Component Drive in San Jose, California (map), just a few blocks from the Silicon Valley chapter of the American Red Cross and less than a block from the hotel where most of the other instructors were staying.

We actually parked at the chapter (map) from Thursday evening until late yesterday afternoon. Coming in after close of business gave us plenty of maneuvering room and our choice of parking spots, and we were able to find a space that was out of the traffic pattern and let us just barely get on-line through a narrow slot in the trees. The chapter was very accommodating and had agreed to let us stay until this morning, but with tight maneuvering room in the lot, we decided to clear out last night while the lot was empty rather than complicate things during business hours today.

We came here because it was close; this end of Component seems to be where lots of trucks park -- the planned commercial development at this end of the street came to a grinding halt in the downturn. In fact, the building immediately north of us is still vacant after ten years, and its parking lot plus this little stretch of street is where I taught Louise to drive the bus before we hit the road. Just south of us is eBay's campus, and two blocks from here is where I built and staffed Covad Communications' Network Operations Center back when that company was at the top of its game. (The NOC is deserted now, turned into a storage room after the function was outsourced to India.)

We had a very productive training event here, fully subscribed to capacity of 30 students. Some 20 more had to be turned away, some of whom will travel as far as Denver to take the training. Students in this class came from all over California, including Santa Cruz, Sacramento, and as far away as Butte County. One of our students was Peter, a regular reader here who chairs Communications for the nearby Bay Area chapter. Of course, between prep, teaching, and dining out with our fellow instructors, we've barely had time to brush our teeth, let alone update the blog. We finally got to catch up on our sleep this morning.

This is actually a quiet and comfortable spot, with an empty field to our west, and vacant buildings to the north and east. But we are almost out of water and our tanks are nearly full, so today we will move over to the Santa Clara Elks lodge, which has a dump station as well as nine RV spaces with power and water. Saturday marked two full weeks since we last dumped or fully charged the batteries, and tomorrow will make two full weeks since we took on water. Tomorrow evening we are due, with Odyssey, at our friend Jack's house for the regularly scheduled Tuesday night motorcycle group dinner. Jack and the gang have decided I need a belated 50th birthday celebration.