Getting Organized

Getting Ready

The temperatures in our area of New England will remain mostly below freezing for the next week 

Darksky forecast (in degrees Celsius, where 0C is freezing)

So I'm getting excited about heading out on the road for our spring 2019 sabbatical at UCSB.

Photo Credit:  Matt Perko
(via: http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2018/019277/cited-excellence)

Notice the bike path roundabout in front of the bell tower.  The foot paths have designated skateboard lanes.  In between classes in the late morning, both paths are typically filled with students commuting to class.  In the background you see the student union and the Pacific Ocean.

Itinerary

We've pretty much settled on our itinerary and stops: Erie, PA; Terre Haute, IN; Tulsa, OK; Santa Rosa, NM; Sedona, AZ; Scottsdale, AZ; Santa Barbara, CA.  During our 2012 experience, it was nice to limit the driving to about 500 mi per day.  It meant we weren't totally exhausted by the end of the day.  And also, by the time we got to Santa Barbara after 7 days, we were also ready to be done with driving.  Given that it's winter, the southern route through New Mexico and Arizona seems more advisable than crossing the Rockies in Colorado or Wyoming. 

Planned Itinerary 2019

The image of the map links to a dynamic version with the overall itinerary.  The places where we plan to stay overnight are a little different from the last trip (see Roger's "Santa Barbara Journal" for details about that trip), in part because we're bypassing Louisville in favor of Indianapolis.  As a result, we'll be spending most nights in new-to-us locales so that there's still an aspect of novelty to the trip.

A Dharma friend of ours in Sedona AZ (Red Rocks Zen Circle) has invited us to stop over.  Here's a picture of those red rocks from their web site:

Red Rocks, Sedona, AZ. Photo credit: https://redrockszencircle.org/ 

We will plan to spend an extra "rest" day exploring and enjoying the area around Sedona.  Maybe head on to the Phoenix area to spend the night, so that the last day's drive to SB (which includes the L.A. area) remains manageable.

A look ahead: Our place in Santa Barbara

To find a place to live we again used SabbaticalHomes.com.  Sadly for us, the nice condo with the perfect landlady close to the ocean where we stayed before at the Eucalyptus Grove was not available, as she has moved back into her home.  In the end, we settled on a small 1-BR apartment in the area close to Westmont College which is further away from UCSB up in the hills.  It felt challenging this time to find something on the affordable side and in a convenient location.  So it's about a 20 minute commute by car in clear traffic (or 1.5 h by bike, mostly downhill on the way to UCSB ;-)  ).  Here's an impression of the living room.

Source:  sabbaticalhomes.com