Haight Street at Night, San Francisco

Before we got to L.A., we stopped in San Francisco to see old friends and reminisce about our life back in The Day. Veering from our usual frugal routine, we splurged and stayed at the Red Vic Inn in the Haight, just around the corner from the old party house where I spent the better part of my 20s.

Back in 1995, I was a slacker with five roommates inhabiting a non-stop party house. Jim was a long-haired biker posing as a responsible marketing guy in a Saab. One night Spoonie played matchmaker, and brought us together. Despite the vast differences in our lifestyles, our lives converged and we were never the same again.

In December, thirteen years later, we were back where we started, at least for a night. After a walk through the city and several cocktails, we returned to our room. I promptly climbed out onto the fire escape overlooking the scene on Haight. I had to take it all in again, at least one more time.

The energy below felt exactly the same as it did in 1995. All of the same characters were there. Street punks with their dogs, musicians playing on corners, bicyclists coming home from work, and strolling tourists. Nothing ever changes.

I sat outside, barefoot and hoarking down an Anchor Steam. My mind played back scenes of our life together; they went through my brain like the pages in a flip book.

The Gold Cane on Haight, Where We Met

We’ve been through so much together, and come so far from where we started. It’s been a wild ride getting here, and after all these years, it just keeps getting better. I can’t wait to see what’s around the corner when we hit the road again in a week or so.

For anyone who wants to see what it costs to live a (relatively) frugal lifestyle on the road for seven months, here’s our last Expense Report of 2008. It shows December numbers, along with totals from June to December. The most surprising finding? We actually lived on $23,597. That’s $11,799 each. I think the last time I lived on that kind of dough was back in high school.

Our Top Six Expenses from June to December 2008 were as follows:

1. Food: $3,725 total / $532 average each month (about the same as last year, same timeframe)
2. Truck: $3,621 total / $517 average each month ($2k was for the hideous brake system overhaul)
3. Insurance: $2,709 total / $387 average each month (our State Farm agent is really good)
4. Fuel: $2,364 total / $338 average each month (not as bad as I thought)
5. Rent: $1,745 total / $249 average each month (workamping rocks!)
6. Booze; $864 total / $123 average each month ($100 more than last year…can I blame it on the economy?)

For you detail oriented readers, here’s a PDF with all of the gruesome details.