We are in the process of initiating the next phase of our
lives. We are planning to list our home for sale after the 1st of
the year and will be moving into Colectiva as our permanent home – at least for
a while – to see how much we like it (or how little).
So, step one is to store everything we can’t fit into
Colectiva, but that we don’t want to part with. No furniture being stored, just
memories. Here is our first 4 boxes of memories in the corner of our 10X10 foot
unit. Hope it is big enough – we have an awful lot of memories!
I also learned what happens if you don’t pay your monthly
rent. The round silver lock is the one that the unit renter puts on the unit to
secure it. The red lock is the one that the owner of the rental facility puts
on to prevent a delinquent renter from removing their stuff!
While
biking around the Fairplex area I discovered another hidden gem. The Wally
Parks National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Museum sits on the grounds and was
luckily open on the day we were getting ready to move on.
Wally
Parks was born in 1913 in Oklahoma, but later relocated to California. By the
post-Depression era was he was an avid automobile hobbyist, active in modifying
stock vehicles to enhance their performance. In the 1940’s he founded and
became the first editor of Hot Rod Magazine, and was later instrumental in the
founding of Motor Trend Magazine. He used these platforms to promote hot
rodding safety, trying to get drag racing off the streets and onto organized
tracks, launching Safety Safaris where he toured the country promoting
organized racing as opposed to street racing. In 1951 he founded the NHRA,
today the largest sanctioning organization in racing in the world.
The
museum has a fantastic collection of vintage hot rods of many different kinds.
Classic stock vehicles modified by their owners, full rail dragsters, some
NASAR vehicles and several that set speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats
all grace the floor. I liked the collection of funny cars, bringing back
childhood memories of the Mongoose and the Snake – driven by Tom McEwen and Don
Prudhomme. I remember them more from the Hot Wheels than from actually watching
them race however.
We
found the most interesting part of the museum to be the huge display room
dedicated to Gale Banks. We know Gale Banks because he and his company provide
RV engine performance enhancement products, claiming to boost horsepower of
both gasoline and diesel engines. Our good friends Ron and Teresa have Bank’s
equipment in their RV and swear by it.
I
pick on California and LA a bunch, but I have to admit, when you spend some
time here the attraction is clearly apparent. In Pomona I am less than 30 miles
from the Pacific and the center of LA. And yet regardless of being in a densely
populated residential area, probably less than a mile from a Walmart and an In
and Out Burger, you are also in the midst of mountains, hiking trails and open
spaces. While the official population of Pamona is only about 150,000 it is
just essentially a suburb of LA. Out hiking a mile from Colectiva I saw this
hillside of wildflowers with the snowcapped mountains in the distance.
A
mile in a different direction I found a hiking trail to the top of a
considerable mound that appeared to have several geocaches hidden on it. I made
my way up to the top and discovered a radar transmitter for the local Pomona
executive airport. Again, you wouldn’t expect to find this essentially remote
hiking experience and these spectacular views in the midst of some 13 million
people – more than 18 million if you consider the combined statistical area.
Biking back to Colectiva I wandered through some
residential historic districts. I had always considered myself a pretty good
dad when Nick and Karen were young sprouts. At least I thought I was pretty
good in crafting some play forts both in our home in the Twin Cities and then
in Vegas. But after spotting this fort, I guess I was pretty “meh” as a dad.
The
Woman’s draw to the ocean brought us here. Our only plans was to park right
next to the ocean, hope for decent weather so we could hike and bike and have a
nightly campfire, and then let the thunder of the crashing waves lull us to
sleep. We got lucky on the weather front and had several days doing exactly
that.
Ventura
County runs a long stretch of beach about 6 miles north of Ventura. Two small
county parks, Hobson Beach and Faria Beach, each have day use parking and a
limited number of camping spots, along with a small food shack. But what
attracts us is what is between Hobson and Faria. The original Pacific Coast
Highway runs between them, still just yards from the surf. The County has
marked 127 45 foot long parking spaces where you can park a trailer or a
motorhome – no services but you are so close to the ocean that when the surf is
really active you can hear occasional spray hitting Colectiva!
The
routine was pretty much the same daily but we absolutely loved it! Walk the
length of the beach stopping at each of the small parks. Then bike along the
Pacific Coast Bike Trail that runs along the water all the way from Ventura to
Carpentaria.
On the
bike path in Seacliff we found a small budget type inn that we had always
ignored in the past. This time we noticed that they claimed to have a
restaurant and we decided to stop and check it out. What a find! While the
hotel was very modest, they were located on a point that jutted out into the
Pacific. They used a good portion of that point as outdoor seating, and had a
very nice menu, and a very nice selection of local wines. Except for having to
keep an eye on your food due to the always aware and occasionally aggressive
gulls, this was an absolute gem of a find. Bike in, dine outdoors on the ocean,
and bike out!
The
crashing waves this morning have been washing both Colectiva and the Equinox
with blankets of waves. When locals see our Nevada plates many have said to us
“don’t ever turn your back on the ocean!” I thought it just a clever phrase, like
just a common greeting between folks on the coast. Having to change my wet
clothes from being drenched as I was putting away some chairs – yes, with my
back to the ocean – I decided it wasn’t just a casual greeting.
So even
if there is a sea wall and a whole mess of huge boulders between your yard and
deck and that little bit of sand which shows itself only at low tide for a few
minutes, it is nothing that a bunch of lumber and concrete can’t manage.
There
have been two massive slides in La Conchita, one in 1995 and again in 2005. The
1995 slide damaged 9 homes. However, the slide in 2005 destroyed 13 homes,
damaged another 18 and caused 10 deaths. So, what do you do in California? You
put up a warning sign. You would think that a sign like this in a neighborhood
would destroy property values. Not here. We saw a 2 bedroom 1,350 square foot
home on 41 feet of ocean front footage - $2.5 million. Go figure.
Check out
who’s driving this cute little motorhome. We have been walking by this rig
several times a day but they never come out to chat. What a bunch of stiffs!
At the
turn of the century, H. H. Heller built a hotel and saloon in Casmalia, a town
that was exploding due to the combination of the new rail lines and the local
oil booms. In 1920 Palu Vaglia and his wife purchased the facility and opened a
restaurant to help fill the hotel, providing their guests with home cooked Italian
meals.
25 years
later Palu’s son, Mario, converted the restaurant and hotel into a steakhouse.
The Hitching Post opened October 12, 1946 and has been serving what are claimed
to be the best steaks in California. In fact they claim to be the best
steakhouse west of the Mississippi.
The
Ostini family bought The Hitching Post in 1952, and has been opening it 7
nights a week for the last 64 years. As we took in the ambiance we heard couple
after couple ordering various steaks. But there was one consistent theme – all were
ordered medium rare! You wouldn’t hear that anywhere that didn’t have excellent
steaks, but honestly, we didn’t hear even a single table (other than ours) that
ordered other than medium rare. Here is my rib eye being tended to by the chef
on the original hickory grill.
I now
know why. In most towns RV parks are nestled amidst the industrial corridor. Or
they are right next to the active rail corridor. Or they back up against the
freeway. In Paso Robles the RV parks are completely surrounded by huge fields
of grape vines. In fact, that is pretty much what you see everywhere around the
town. There could easily be a hundred vineyards within a 5 mile radius of Main
Street.
While
most of our time spent here was visiting several of the smaller family run
wineries, we did manage to find the local bike trail. The Woman had become
really unhappy with her bike. As our bikes hang on the back of the car day in
and day out, they are exposed to all the elements 24/7. The grime and the
accumulating rust all take their tolls. While my bike has toughed it out fairly
well, the gears on the Woman’s bike really don’t operate very well. So, a visit to the local Target resulted in the
Woman having a new Schwinn bike. And we had a nice peaceful ride for a change –
no shouts by the Woman as the gears slipped and she reacted to avoid a spill.
Just down the road a bit
was the Estrella Adobe Church. Long before Paso Robles was established the town
of Estrella built up along the Estrella River. In 1879 the first Protestant
church in San Luis Obispo County was built. While not open to visitors, the
church still stands nearly 150 years later.
Alongside the adobe
structure is the original cemetery. Surprisingly most of the headstones are
still quite readable, even though most of them date back to the 1880’s. Sadly
as we see in many old cemeteries the number of child graves is considerable. We
don’t know if Josephine lived several days or several months, but in either
case, it was all too short.
So this vineyard was
nowhere close to the Estrella Adobe Church. But regardless I find it not to be
the most compelling name for a winery. Maybe I am wrong and the name attracts
folks just to check it out. But we chose not to.
Thanks again to La Mesa
RV for making the Woman happy again. The new washer/dryer seems to work
perfectly. It has several new settings that weren’t available on the old one,
so smiles are everywhere inside Colectiva today. And quiet! It makes maybe half
the noise the old washer/dryer made. Simple pleasures!
When we arrived we got
Colectiva set up at the Ponderosa RV Resort and marveled that her windshield
looked out right onto the American River. Apparently it is an active kayak and
rafting river, so we grabbed our picnic lunch, a bottle of petite Syrah and sat
down to take in all the activity. What an idyllic setting!
The vortex phenomena
continue. We soon learned that maybe two miles away from us is the location of
John Sutter’s lumber mill where gold was discovered in 1848 and set off the
infamous gold rush. I say vortex again because when John Bidwell first arrived
in California he got a job at Sutter’s mill, his first employment and where he
learned to prospect for gold.
Being 1848 there was
really only one source of power for a saw, a water wheel. Sutter placed his saw
next to the American River and built a trace to supply the fast moving water to
power the water wheel, which powered the saw. A trace is a diversion of a fast
moving river to channel the water to where you need it – we had seen many a
trace visiting the DuPont family gunpowder factories back east. Anyway the
wheel wasn’t providing enough power to the saw, so Sutter’s partner James
Marshall emptied the trace of water to try to diagnose the issue. As he walked through
the rock filled canal he caught yellow glinting reflections of the sun on some
rock. Assuming they were pyrite or fool’s gold, he picked some up and hit them
with a hammer. Instead of shattering like pyrite would, the yellow stones were
soft and bent. He knew immediately what that meant – Gold!
The State Historic Site
has a recreation of the mill and the trace where Marshall’s discovery changed
the course of California development. We hiked up a nice trail to the location
of the Marshall monument. Local historians felt it only fitting to erect an
appropriate monument on the bluff overlooking the site of the discovery. We
found it interesting to learn latter that Marshall himself is buried neath that
monument.
Also on the grounds is
the actual cabin that Marshall lived in while he built and operated the mill
site. While it has been subject to considerable refurbishing, most of the cabin
is original, and probably still has Marshall’s DNA all over it.
We headed for the
American River Trail. It was really pleasant and held many more surprises than
we originally expected. We maybe biked 20 miles or so round trip, much of it
right on the banks of the River. The weather was spectacular, and being a
weekday the Trail was not too crowded.
It turns out there are
many forks of the American River and 3 of them converge near Auburn California.
We set out to hike the North Fork trail and immediately strolled under the
highest bridge in the state of California, the Foresthill Bridge. Built in the
early 70’s its bridge deck is 731 feet above the raging waters. This is the
bridge Vin Diesel drove his Corvette off of in the 2002 film "xXx".
We hiked the North Fork until
we got to the North Fork Dam. Built by the CCC in 1939, the North Fork Dam
created Lake Clementine, primarily used for recreational boating. 
The Dam is
unique in that it was built as a debris dam. Rather than just holding the water
and diverting flow in some way under the dam, the water of the North Fork
spills over the center of the Dam creating a wonderful spectacle. The force of
the waters crashing over 150 feet as it flows over the Dam created such mist
that a permanent rainbow graces its base.
Then we headed the other
direction from the confluence on the North Fork of the American River. Another
reclaimed rail bed the first thing we came to was the magnificent Mountain
Quarries Railroad Bridge. Built by the Portland Cement Company as a spur to
bring material from a nearby quarry to the main rail line in Auburn, this
reinforced concrete bridge was at the time the longest railroad bridge in the
world. This bridge was just a bonus on what otherwise would have been a great
hike. We actually came to 3 other bridge locations along the hike, but the
bridges in these areas were wood trestle construction and only the concrete
foundations are left. But the 1912 bridge still stands proud, even though other
bridges near the confluence, including the original Highway 49 Bridge, have all
washed away at times due to floods and dam breaches. Locals call it the “No Hands
Bridge” nicknamed for an avid rider who used to show off by riding his horse
across the bridge without holding onto the reins.
Since we biked the American
River and hiked both the North Fork and Middle Fork, we decided to hike some of the South Fork
as well. In a BLM managed section of the historic Cronan Ranch we hiked quite a
bit, taking advantage of the many geocaches hidden in the area. As we made our
way to the South Fork we stumbled upon an old movie set we had heard rumors
about. In 2003 some of the movie “Love Comes Softly” directed by Michael Landon
and staring Katherine Heigl and Corbin Bernsen. While we had never seen this
movie, now that we have been to the set we may have to check it out.
Since we were so near to
downtown we paid a visit to the California state capitol. Built in 1874, it is
a truly impressive building. As we had learned in the past the state’s capital
changed many times over the early years, first in San Jose in 1850, then
Vallejo in 1852, and finally Benicia in 1853. The first state house built in
Sacramento in 1854 eventually was replaced by the current capitol. We had
actually visited the old Benicia capitol a few years back on another trip to
the Bay Area and found it really interesting. We got really lucky and caught a
guided tour which had just begun.
The guide was
outstanding, bringing up lots of interesting facts for example about how the
capitol was chosen (legislators at the time didn’t want to deal with the hubbub
of San Francisco, and Sacramento offered all the nicer amenities of a big city
– i.e. taverns - without the hassle.) We were told about interesting features
of the capitol like the fact that Lincoln’s portrait hangs in the House
gallery. That is mainly because of all he did for California. The completion of
the transcontinental railway meant agricultural products could be shipped to
the rest of the country in 7 hours rather than many months, the food supply
from central California that now makes up some 50% of what all Americans
consume found new buyers.
We got to see the hall
of portraits of California Governors, which includes some famous names. And
yes, when I say some famous names, I also mean some scandalous names. Get to
the chopper!
Finally visiting the
Governor’s office was a treat. During Arnolds term he was skiing in Vail – the
guide was quick to point out he could have skied at Mammoth in California but
chose to ski instead in Colorado – he saw this great brass bear. Knowing that
the grizzly is the state’s symbol he bought it and had it mounted outside his
office. Apparently nobody had the heart to tell Arnold that it was actually a
black bear, not a grizzly. Apparently Jerry Brown has decided to put up with
it.
Also we learned that
term limits in California provide that a governor can only hold the office for
two four year terms. However, Jerry Brown is now in his fourth 4 year term.
That is because the last time he was governor the term limit was not yet law.
Once the law was in place he could only serve two terms, but the terms he
served before don’t count. I wonder what kind of portrait he
might go with when he leaves office the second time! Who knows, maybe Arnold can come back for a couple more as
well!
OK, so now for the
unexpected repairs. Our combination washer/dryer was behaving badly. In its
spin cycle it was rattling so much that I was seriously concerned about damage
to the structure of the coach. The Woman had to run one more load of wash, and
when we got back to Colectiva we found one of the buttons you press to set the
wash cycle had literally sprung from the face of the machine. I tried to
replace it but to no avail. Also, the day we left Vegas I hooked up the newly equipped
Equinox to Colectiva. When I went to connect the emergency disconnect cable that
automatically applies the brakes on the car in the event the hitch fails, I
learned it was not there. Findlay had put the tow bar on the Equinox, but had
failed to wire it for the emergency disconnect! There was nothing to do except
to drive without that safety feature as we had reservations and time schedules.
