Steve, Author at Nomadic Research Labs

It’s hard for young network denizens to understand how it was back in the Olden Days, before the Internet. We had to choose an online information service, based on its culture and resources, and accept the fact that the boundaries between it and the others were at least as significant as those of the geographic…

by Steven K. Roberts Eureka, California December 20, 1986 “You reeka,” I want to shout at the guy beside me — a greasy specimen of street life who has elected to spend this sunny Saturday in the library devouring a book of The Family Circus cartoons instead of shuffling around outside with palm outstretched. He’s…

by Steven K. Roberts Eureka, California December 15, 1986 We have just spent three weeks in Humboldt County with old friends — old friends whom we first met three weeks ago. Such is the time distortion of the traveling life. We’re living as a family of four, and the time before our arrival seems vague…

by Steven K. Roberts Trinidad, California December 6, 1986 I have often called this journey a lifestyle sampler. If that’s true, then when does the wild experimentation of the gourmet become the wretched excess of the glutton? Can there be too much? With a mighty intellectual belch I lean back in this old dog-scented recliner,…

This was a memorable visit during our trek down the coast… the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology at Humboldt State University. As visible users of solar panels, powering computers and communication tools, we fit right in; the campus paper did this story about our adventure. We had paused for about 3 weeks to spend time…

This is one of my rare appearances in the tabloids. At least they didn’t take the story into the normal domain of such rags; it’s generally pretty accurate except for the assertion that I built a computer at the age of 13. I love the photo, though… that was taken during the Winnebiko II adventure…

We fell in love with Humboldt County… not just with the place itself, but with the delightfully brilliant artists and kinetic sculpture racers who became our circle of friends. We landed there enroute south, bearing contact info from interesting people we had met at Expo 86 in Vancouver, and left reluctantly nearly 2 months later.…

by Steven K. Roberts Eureka, California November 28, 1986 After the 18 miles of insanity, we rode on to Arcata, “where the 60’s meet the sea,” and immediately began finding friends. Another of those surprises: there (and here, and here and there) prosper the values and attitudes that made the 60’s what they were —…

18 Miles of Insanity by Steven K. Roberts November 20, 1986 Do you ever read my stories and wonder what it really feels like to be out here, exposed to the world, unsure from one day to the next where I’ll sleep, who I’ll meet, what pleasures and pains will strike with the whim of…

I remember this phase of the journey well. We had taken too long to leave the temporary lab on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, and suddenly found ourselves hurrying south before winter. In heavy rain, we slogged south into Oregon, then had a very difficult 2-day ride over the Coast Range from Eugene. But then it…

Posts by Steve

Computing Across America on GEnie

25 Years in an Afternoon

Computing Across Humboldt County

Humboldt County Play

High-tech nomads – Humboldt State Lumberjack

Super Bike Has All the Options – Star

Computerized Cycle in Kinetic Sculpture Country

Adventures in South Ecotopia

Klamath to Orick

Free-wheelers write all along the road – Bandon, OR