It’s Thursday. Early. Construction workers enter the building where we sleep (on the ground floor of which Brainsilo is located). We decide to head off early, and start the long journey to San Francisco, California. It is going to be a long drive. Instead of taking the direct route, we opt for the scenic route along the 101. Little do we know that we’ll be driving for 15 hours.

After a couple of hours we set down for breakfast in the Beach Dog, a cozy little place in Lincoln Beach, Oregon. The pacific is just a mile away. It is here that I start to experience American life in the little towns. Friendliness abound. When we are done, we shortly stop by Radio Shack for a phone charger. Behind the counter is a rack of shotguns for sale, off to the back is the handgun department. Even Flyko is surprised to find firearms at Radio Shack.

We continue down the 101. It’s not long before the freeway takes us to the coast, along which we will meander our way down to California. It is a beautiful route, taking us through the mountains at one time, driving along cliffs that veer down into the pacific ocean the other time. The weather is not ideal, but still we get to enjoy spectacular vista’s of rocky coasts and splashing waves.

As it gets later, the weather worsens. In total darkness and pouring rain we finish the last 5 hours of hour drive. Finally, we arrive in San Francisco where we stay at Travis’ place (well actually, it is in Oakland). He is a very generous host, and has prepared for our stay. To my delight, he has even put a few bottles of mate in the fridge. It is the first mate I will drink in the states. I will not see mate anytime soon, the USA is a seriously mate-deprived country. Which is really a shame if you are doing 15-hour drives.

The next day, we head out into town. The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport) is a delight. After some initial confusion about the ticket system, we head down to the platform and board the train that takes us into San Francisco. We briefly enjoy the upholstered chairs and carpeted floor, before we disembark. After wandering around in the less attractive parts of town (where poverty and drug-abuse seems to be all prevalent) and the obligatory visit to the Golden Gate, transported there by a bus operated by one of many bus companies, we head down to Noisebridge.

Noisebridge is a large and interesting space. A large variety of work areas, ranging from sewing to welding, and soldering to culinary. An impressive library, a vertical bike-rack and more. I talk with Frantisek about tastebridge, a weekly workshop about brewing all kinds of fermented beverages. The beverages taste good. Initiatives are on the way to create an incubator to create even more complex beverages that require 30 or more microorganisms and their corresponding ideal temperatures.

The day after, we head into chinatown to meet up with people from openPCR and biocurious. It is interesting to hear about biohacking. OpenPCR is a project akin to makerbot, but for building a DNA sequencer. Another interesting development is bio-computing. When bacteria or other organisms form the basic computing unit, a bowl of goop can contain a supercomputer fit for attacking large combinatorial problems.

We don’t linger any longer, and continue our travel southwards along the west-coast. Our next stop is in the middle of Silicon Valley, the birth-place of modern IT. David Weekly, one of the founders of the Hacker Dojo kindly puts us up in his impressive Californian apartment. We cook dinner, and talk about launching stuff to the moon, the hacker dojo and other subjects. Silicon Valley is impressive, but i somehow feel out of place. These are the really smart kids.

The hacker dojo is a really huge hackerspace, but somewhat different from ‘traditional’ hackerspaces (if such a thing exists). It has an almost business-like atmosphere. Several offices are used by various groups working on projects ranging from the afore-mentioned garage-based moon-landing missions to a gaming conference in the large room. While the hackerspace is a place to meet, to share ideas, it is not uncommon that such projects evolve into businesses.

After one day in the area, we head down to LA. By now, it is officially Halloween and on our way we stop briefly in Santa Cruz. After a short stroll along the beach there, we find an arcade. I briefly play a game on one of the pinball machines there (Revenge from Mars), but it is poorly maintained. On the way to a beach-bar I see a teenager dressed as Freddy Kruger, and I am surprised that kids these days still watch Nightmare on Elmstreet. I had oysters as an appetizer, forced upon me by Flyko (who by the way sprays lemon juice in my eye).

After that short interlude, we continue on our way to LA. Our destination: 23b. It is one of the three hackerspaces in or around LA, and we have arranged to sleep there while exploring the other spaces. More on that later!