The Maiden Voyage of Taku-san, Part 1 (Patreon)

The snow and ice was getting a bit annoying in Baltimore, and I realised a trip south would probably alleviate any need to run heat. The previous RV trip I wrote about was my "test trip" to see what it was like being in the RV for a month, away from home, but near friends. While I didn't expect it to be bad, I found that exploring was pretty great. It was better than expected to get out and reconnect with everyone who was available.

My original goal was to go to Austin, though, and you know what, I hadn't been to Orlando since Nerdapalooza in 2011, when I introduced Brandon Hood, the Chiptunes=WIN guy to Erin aka ChipMOM, his now-wife. I had been at the museum for a month and gotten some inventory, cleaning, etc done, so I began to plan my trip south.

I really didn't get much time in Charlottesville for my previous trip, so I decided that would be my first stop. Parking with my friends Andy and Alicia, I got some much-needed catch up time with a few friends. Thifting hijinks with my friend Jen, tracking down another of our mutual friends named Jen, grabbing food with various folks including my friends Greg and (yet another) Jen from VGM jazz act The Hard Modes (who are playing a show on the 18th, if you're in or near Charlottesville). I got to catch up with my old buddy Roope who is livestreaming now (you can check him out here), and I also got to catch up with Gopal, a music buddy of mine that had a pile of sound chips for me, and I had some game hardware for him.

It's always interesting to see how places you've lived change over time, and Charlottesville has certainly grown. There was also a stop at one of my favorite Goodwill locations (may it rest in peace, I just saw it was shut down when passing it a month ago). I found a 99 cent subwoofer for my truck, and someone perked up when I mentioned it ran on 12 Volts. They were going solar in an airstream, and off-grid. We exchanged notes. One of my first meetings with full-timers. Neat!

Post-C'ville, I was headed down to NC. I decided to take a scenic route and swing by Lynchburg on the way down, helping my friend Ashley learn to track and hopefully make more authentic chiptunes as a result. It was just a quick stop for tutorial and not much else, so we caught up a bit and I got back on the road.

Soon, I arrived in Winston-Salem at my friend Tony's place. If you've been to MAGFest, he's one of the crew that brings arcade cabinets to MAGFest, especially Japanese "candy cabs". He's also a big fan of Naomi and obscure games and media, and he knows all the local thrifting stops, of which several were made! Since I rarely get to see him outside of MAGFest, I planted myself in his driveway for a few days. We got some great eats while I was there, including a place called "Mr. Barbecue and Miss Fried Chicken", some decent local pizza, and Tony's favorite Mexican joint. Also, I redeemed some free movie tickets (from coke points, no less) and we went and saw Alita: Battle Angel, which I thought was terrific! Oh, and speaking of watching things, I finally began to catch up on The Expanse, which I had been meaning to do.

No trip to that area is truly complete without a stop to Lost Ark Videogames in Greensboro, so Tony and I made a stop up there where I picked up a game to play on Valentine's Day:

It was eventually time to leave Tony's, and I headed west to my Mom's place next. This stop wasn't going to be quite as long, but I did want to make some time to organize things in my RV a bit, as there was still very little room from when I moved in. We got things sorted, and I mailed some stuff back to the museum, as well as a few things to other people that I had been meaning to get to them. I also did a little bit of tech support, got some opinions/advice on getting solar on top of my rig, and got my propane refilled and fridge serviced. My fridge actually got cold! Further south I went. 

On the previous trip, I met up with my friend Phil, who I originally met online through music and pydance, and he went on to administer servers at Google. We didn't have much time the previous visit, so I stopped in Lenoir this time, and he introduced me to JD's Smokehouse, his favorite BBQ place, which ended up being really good! I thoroughly stuffed myself, we rolled around and saw the town, and thrifted a tiny bit. I didn't find a whole lot, but it was fine. That evening I was introduced to Race for the Galaxy, a fun space colonization tabletop game, and then I headed out in the morning. Overall a good time.

Also on my previous trip to NC, I pondered ending up in Asheville for a bite with Clint, also known as LGR. He and I are mutual fans; obviously I'm into weird retro computer things, eating, and thrifting, and so is he, and of course his videos are great. He's also into chiptunes and liked my work, so we talked and I told him I'd let him know when I was in his hood. That moment was quickly approaching, and we arranged to get more BBQ at a spot with a good rep. I headed straight there, and while waiting in line, Clint and I got talking about modems and old telecom gear. The guy next to us in line, in overalls and casuals, pokes his head into the conversation and says he used to do tons of telecommunications stuff back in the day. Just goes to show you never know who you'll meet or what people are into! Very cool.

While eating with Clint, I figured I'd pop him the big question. No, I wasn't going to ask him out. Well, I was, but I wanted to go out........thrifting. He returns my curiosity with, "The real question is, do you want to go to South Carolina?" Perhaps seeing my confused face he realised I had forgotten geographically where I was. "It's only 20 minutes away", he added. 

Before I knew it, I was in Clint's car, and we went to a place that supposedly had boundless amounts of laserdiscs. And wow, did they have a few! Sadly, the store owner had changed his mind and they weren't for sale when we got there, but I did find a new-old-stock, unopened, digital readout (?!) 8-track player for a car. It was just too weird, so I had to buy it. We also made a few more stops at other shops, where Clint found an Atari calculator and a Unisonic game, and I found some more games and weird stuff. No hangout with me is complete without a strange beverage, so we finished off the visit with a Passionfruit Lychee Cider something or other that I had picked up while hanging out with Tony. Great times!

Continuing down an extremely foggy road, I went down to Sylva NC, which is apparently working on world record for the largest microbrewery per capita. Well, okay, it shouldn't be that hard, considering there are only maybe 2000 people there and I think they're only one microbrewery short. Plus, there is one currently being built. Anyway, what's up in Sylva? One of my coworkers from the computer store I mentioned from the previous post now lives there, and I hadn't seen him in basically 20 years. It was great to catch up with him! There are some cool spots in Sylva to eat and drink, and although my visit with him was pretty short, we got some good catching up in. I also got to perpetrate some demoscene things on him, as he had been around for the era, he just didn't know how deep the rabbit-hole went.

My next stop? Down to South Carolina to visit with two of my fans, one of them doing some far-out art and the other a livestreamer. Option one was to go all the way back up the interstate and then back down another, but I decided to take the scenic route through the national park/forest. Great choice! I did have to climb some hills in the RV, sometimes at a very grueling pace and probably pissing off a handful of vehicles behind me, but it wasn't so bad as there were pull-over lanes for trucks. 

I was also rewarded with some pretty amazing views. Apparently, you can see NC, SC, and TN all in this shot:

Visiting with fans is like visiting with friends for me. My artist friend had not seen Orville, so we made that happen lickety split. Also, I accidentally got her addicted to BANG. Whoops!

A quick visit with Linty on my way out, and I was headed south to the Atlanta area. Atlanta is home to a few friends of mine. This trip I was able to get a hold of Larry Oji, aka Liontamer of OCR fame, and my buddy Ethan Lee, also known as flibitijibibo, who ports games to Mac and Linux, and developed FNA.

Larry has an awesome wife and an adorable daughter, who instantly identified a hodgepodge pita pocket sandwich thing I made as a "Toomey". We hung out and did some much-needed catching up. While they were at work, I hung out with Ethan, and he showed me his development area and some of his cool oldskool dev tools.

Also, I made a trip down to World of Coke. If you haven't been, it's basically a Coca-Cola and Coke-product museum. The whole thing was pretty neat, but at the end of the tour, there's a "Taste it!" room where you can try over 100 different coke flavors, half of which are from other countries and not just random freestyle flavors. 

This, my friends, is my vice. I had to try every single one. I got 20 minutes worth of video of me trying an ounce of each. Then I made 20 minutes worth of restroom visits getting my hydration levels back to normal.

Larry is also a huge sci-fi nut, and we talked about how I had been getting folks into Orville and The Expanse. He strongly recommended I check out Star Trek Discovery, with a note to stick with it until the end of the first season. He mentioned he watches Star Trek with his daughter, and she calls it "Fancy Star Trek", which I thought was hilarious. Then I watched Discovery; she was right!

It was time to head south again. 

TO BE CONTINUED... (if you're just joining us, part two is here)

Hey, I've been experimenting with and asking around about the length of posts people would prefer. Do you think this is a good or bad length? Do you like the amount of pictures in these posts? Is the content any good? I really appreciate your support here on Patreon and I want to make posts you like. Posts do require a lot of effort, so if you can give me less than a minute of your time for some feedback -- even if it's just to hammer on the like button -- I would appreciate it. I have no way to see who has read the post, otherwise!