Valerie and I are on the way from Charlottesville, VA, to Carlsbad, CA. Here’s an update from our new home!

Prose by Robert, photos by Valerie

August 14

Driving to Gila Bend, AZ

From Marfa, TX to Carlsbad, CA, was too long for a single day of driving, so we broke it up. The landscape can best be characterized by conversations like this one:

• “Whoa, look at those big, dry mountains way out there!”

• 1 hour passes…
• “Whoa, are those mountains just ahead of us those same ones?” “Yep!”

• 30 minutes pass…
• “Whoa, are we driving through those same mountains that we saw so far in the distance?” “Yeah, I think so!”

• 30 minutes pass…
• “Whoa, look at those big, dry mountains way out there!”

• You can guess where this is going!

Actually, there were several of such basins which were very interesting:

Somewhere in west Texas, we saw this strange blimp:

Turns out, it’s an unmanned craft that looks for drug planes.

Anyways, lots of Texas, followed by a little New Mexico,

and then a little Arizona.

Interestingly, we found NM and AZ to be much greener than TX – lots of irrigated fields. Night fell in Arizona:

We didn’t have a hotel reservation, but Valerie found a great spot along the way:

The Space Age Lodge. It’s a Best Western whose first owners were supporters of NASA in its early days. The motel is decorated accordingly, with lots of space-y photos and art.

August 15

Carlsbad, CA

We woke up early – we were both eager to get to our new home. Along the way, we learned that there are mountains in southeastern CA:

We were tired when we got here. Luckily, our belongings arrived the next day – we were rested up and excited to move in. We worked quickly – here are a few pictures of the new place during the process:

The weather here is always amazing, so we eat on the porch!

Our new address is:

2352 Hosp Way
#247
Carlsbad, CA 92008

Planning Center Online

I’ve started work at Planning Center Online. I arrived at an interesting time: It’s “free week.” All staff members have a week to invest a company project that interests them specifically. Except for occasional urgent fixes, the team is working on a handful of new features, new product ideas or other PCO-related side projects.

I love working here. Here are a few reasons why:

• It’s just like the video.
• All the teams usually take lunch together. I’ve had a lot of great opportunities to meet the other guys. It’s a lot of fun and a satisfying break from the computer screen.
• The work environment is loaded with creative energy. A great example is PiCO, the chat bot: As with many development teams, ours has a chatroom where the team members are encouraged to socialize and collaborate on their work. Our chat room has an automated participant (a bot) named “PiCO” who moderates the discussion in several ways:
  • He’s hooked up to the office coffee maker and announces "FRESH POT!" when the coffee is ready.
  • The front door is usually locked, but if a visitor needs to be let in, the door can be unlocked via chat room (“pico open door”).
  • PiCO adds flavor to conversation. For example, today was someone’s anniversary, so someone said pico gif me happy anniversary and PiCO returned this image:
    

  

  
  Awesome!

  • Oh, yeah, and PiCO is hooked up to the web servers and bug trackers, so he can issue reminders and announcements about those :)

(By the way, PiCO is a customized Hubot)

Wrap-Up

Ok, that’s it for our travel log. Feel free to drop us a line (and thanks to those of you who already did!). Love,

Robert and Val