A very special first stop on my trip, Mariposa, CA checks just about none of the boxes I outlined as must-haves for a home. I don’t think Amazon Prime has even heard of this place, let alone their urban-focused grocery variant Prime Fresh. I’ve had zero cellphone signal this week, and the AirBnB’s self-described “Zoomable” WiFi (a term invented post-COVID), was no match for my workload. It was on average 40° outside, and it rained for more than 24 hours in a row on the last day.
And yet, it was quite an amazing week.
The main living area was spacious, reminding me that the cramped closet-sized studios that are common in San Francisco are not the norm in the rest of the country. Once outside, there were just trees and mountains, enough to make you think this was the only house in the world. You can tell people measure their property sizes here by the acre.
I spent the majority of my stay in the hot tub outside, because that single amenity convinced me to go slightly above my self-imposed $100/night limit. Gotta get my money’s worth.
Unsolicited foot pic 
I think string lights are my new must-haves 
Black Mirror s3e2, the perfect red wine pairing
Work went pretty smoothly, or as smoothly as they could with 6mbps down and like 3 bits up. While my video signal was several times described to me as “potato”, I could see and hear everyone, and I had more of an excuse to do some work off-camera and focus. I bounced back and forth between the dining table, recliner, and bed whenever a change of scenery was called for. I ate really well, too, decisively proving that I picked the right appliances to bring with me on this trip.
I already finished the flan.
Having Friday off from work was a really nice reset, letting me do all of my laundry, relax a little (gotta wind down from all that hot-tubbing), and prepare for the next chapter of the trip. I think I’ll take more Fridays off in the future. Next stop, Las Vegas, where I’ll be for at least two weeks.