Family business has kept us close to home for months, so we made a prison break this weekend and ran for the Eastern Sierra: Bridgeport, Twin Lakes, Bodie State Historic Park. And then turned right at Lee Vining to shoot through Tuolumne Meadows on the way home.
I went to Bodie about thirty years ago. I stayed in Lee Vining. And Mono Lake was close by! And I’m a native Californian. I took the same picture as you did of the tombstone. And yes...California is an absolutely beautiful state!
Can we take our state back from communists is the question...????
I lived in the Bay Area for about a quarter century. I remember when people voted to mandate vaccination for kids to attend school. I felt then that things were going very, very wrong... I left seven years ago and moved to WA State to be near my parents... another area, Western WA, near Seattle, along the coast, that is jaw-droppingly beautiful... and full of "woke" people determined to put the govt. in charge of medical issues. Is there any escape? I think I need to get the fuck outta here.
I am a Brit grannie, living on the south coast of England and I heard about the hell being developed in California a decade ago! Deborah Tavares, Rosa Koire (RIP) and others got the message out.... how is it possible that they were unsuccessful at alerting your community? I am so sorry.... maybe I should have tried harder to share the knowledge?
Good question, agree with Chris on this. The dems have completely changed the demographic of California from white middle class to extremely poor latino. They continue to import new voters and real people continue to leave. Things do not look good for California, especially in the short term. Right now, the establishment left if using that same playbook on the entire country, that is a bigger concern as they are getting away with it again.
yes, as Cali goes so goes the nation, and as we are living thru the Brazilifaction of Cali, expect it to be coming soon to a state near you.
(And by Brazilification I mean: an upper crust of wealthy elites (who live in walled mansions w private security and fly above our social chaos in helicopters and private jets), with a rising underclass and a dying middle class.)
Washington and Oregon suffered from Californication way back. It's not them it's us Californians, and they knew it. I visited Seattle in the summer of 1974. The weather was beautiful, sunny and pleasant the full 2 weeks I was there. When people found out I was from California, without fail, they said, "The weather is never like this! Don't believe what you see!" They tried their best to stop the Californians who made CA into what it is, but couldn't live with the consequences, so moved North and remade Washington and Oregon into CA at its worst. I only hope Texas, Tennessee, Florida, and the other states have vaccinated themselves against the California infection, because wearing masks and staying home won't prevent it. I feel the futility of living in the belly of the beast, but I still thump the stomach lining as hard as I can in the hopes of at least making it queasy.
Where are you? I live near Bremerton. I lived in CA for a long time, but left 7 years ago. I'm definitely feeling very very isolated, socially, but nearly ALL my friends from CA have stopped communication with me, with snark.
I live in San Diego, the least woke large city on the West Coast but getting much worse. They just voted to stop allowing homes with natural gas hook-ups, and they're busy trying to congest streets with bike lanes that nobody uses.
I can't help but be nostalgic for the old times when it was possible to believe your favorite bands were simply misguided and avoiding their social media feeds during election season would suffice in keeping you from hating them so you could still justify spending your last dollar to see them live.
It's still incredible to me how artists like Isbell & DBT were so willing to shit on the very people who would've supported them and instead catered to those who couldn't have cared less whether they were able to feed their families. #stayhomestaysafe 👍
I live in a not-so-beautiful blue state and have come to loathe it, too. Thoughts of escaping it are never far from my mind.
Is anyone else getting a July, 1914 vibe? Could the "assassination" of the pipeline be the Franz Ferdinand moment that future historians point to as the flashpoint for what's coming?
In a way, but I have felt something just gnawing right under the surface for the past 25 years. I’m one of those weird veterans who holds the oath to the Constitutiom I took as a blood oath. Old school style. At this point though, my givafuk prescription can’t be refilled. Everything is upside down and backwards and the only up side is that I’m on my downward slide.
Demoralization is what they want us to feel. It's hard not to, when surveying the landscape. Outrage over what's happening is my primary emotion. Well, there's a healthy dose of contempt for those behind it, too. I'll be damned if I go along with any of it.
Oh, I’m not demoralized. Not one bit. I’m not even angry with those who are making all this happening. I respect them as a worthy opponent.
I just no longer give a fuck. Why should I when all we are ever told is to not do anything. Anything except vote that is. Doing nothing is why we are at where we are.
I’ve been trying to wake people up to this whole thing since the mid 1990s when I had some verifiable things told to me by someone I respected very much. I had gone to Somalia after that bad skirmish we had there. I was part of the Marine unit who oversaw the retreating of American forces from Somalia. My initial WTF moment was when we had been in country less than two hours and came under sustained heavy machine gun fire and were ordered to not return fire. Three NCOs immediately did that before we could drop our packs and follow suit. Across the radio came the command to cease fire and for those individuals to report to the Expeditionary Unit Commander. All three were bounced from Somalia and given a nice home in Leavenworth for their efforts to defend their fellow Marines by offering cover fire for the rest of us.
My second WTF moment was still in country when I was checking on some Marines in my charge who were on an overnight post. This guy who spoke English came up and informed us he was State Dept. sowed credentials and everything then proceeded to try and coerce myself or one of the two Marines in the post to get a confirmed kill by shooting at a group of Somalis gathered around the entrance to where our area of operation was. I declined and told my Marines not to trust this guy. The way he was acting made my internal alarm go off. I reported the incident and was told that no such thing happened so why was I lying in my report. Even with my two witnesses. We were all told to drop it.
Ruby Ridge and Waco were the next events and I was having a hard time reconciling with those was when I was informed that Somalia was due to Yellow Cale Uranium and was never because of anyone’s starvation. Ruby Ridge happened before Somalia, but I had not heard anything about it due to my training schedule. It was the federal government pushing its anti freedom agenda onto people wanting to just be left alone. The firearms charges were just trumped up to gain access to Weavers land. Same with Waco.
It is around 1994 nearing Christmas time when I started putting the dots together I’ve been at in since and always informed others when I came across something that would affect everyone (the Kosher tax is a huge one, it’s not antisemetic to tell others about it. ). Call me a conspiracy theorist, that’s fine, but I prefer the title Scholar of History Specializing in Current Events.
My last great epiphany on what was going on was reading the entire Patriot Act back when they published it before they voted on it. Any of you ever read the entire thing? Remember the part about mandatory chipping of US Citizens so they could tell who was a Citizen vs who wasn’t? The proposal of limitations of economic transactions of citizens so as to not have another Oklahoma City event? Most haven’t seen that. But it said Muh Patriot Act so must be good ‘murica!!!!
Since then, nothing surprises me at what DC does, it’s the idiot citizens who do that. The last time there was push back was the BLM standoff. All those people must have died off because since then no one seems to care about what the government does. Except Free Thinkers and we are now potential domestic terrorists ??? Ok fine glad to west that one.
My final givafuk pill was taken when I realized every time someone stood up, it was not the anti Americans who opposed the person standing up. It was the people who are on my side of the political fence screeching stand down. Or throwing people as crazy under the bus. Then I realized it was for nothing but optics. They might hate Biden and his crew so bad they shake, but to speak out or heaven forbid, protest (talking post 1/6/22 here), they will throw you under a bus as a person with mental issues, a nazi, or whatever the reason du jour is. For nothing more than to look like proper Christian republicans within their social circles.
I’m not begrudging anyone’s faith here. I’m American, worship as you see for as long as it doesn’t affect me at all (except for paying hidden taxes on my grocery bill because you have special needs. Fuck you guys). But since you want to on one hand cry and bitch about issues of the day, yet eager to throw someone under the bus who will actually go and try to stop what is bothering you so you can show your friends the crazed madman? Nah ain’t having it. I’m done. C’est la vie.
Now I just prefer to troll both sides. The left aren’t fun because they will not engage in honest arguments without character assassination type screeching. Most on the right are still fun to mess with because it’s fun to show how woefully inept their politicians are at doing nothing but supplying cover for the Democrat party and their destruction of this great Republic.
I don’t troll here though. You people seem like honest Americans who honestly care. I know and have held dialog with people who are both conservative and liberal here and has been very pleasant. I think I can say that we all know that the Revolutionary War was started over smaller offenses than what we are enduring now, and until there are boots on the ground, there is no shrugging off the tyranny we live under.
Very, very interesting. I am embarrassingly late in my cynicism, only catching on to the full extent of corruption after seeing the government allow the perpetrators of the 2008 financial collapse to not only avoid prosecution, but to flee with their ill-gotten gains--bonuses included!
Indeed, the Revolutionary War was fought over lesser insults than what the Brandon administration is inflicting.
Is there a baby in the bathhouse bathwater that is the US?
Isn't the burning of all these food processing plants, killing of animals, and plowing under perfectly good crops kind of the same thing as the pipeline sabotage? Heat in the winter and food... We're in for some heavy duty survival challenges.
In 1964, my dad moved his entire family from Queens, NY, to California because the state had an excellent state college system which was affordable. Hard to imagine now…As a young teen and into my 50s we explored the gorgeousness of CA from San Diego to Crescent City. Fast forward to 2005 and more and more progressives in power and deterioration of the infrastructure. At first we decried the politicians in charge but on further analysis had an epiphany that really the problem was low info left leaning voters who put these clowns in office. (Okay; sprinkle in a little electoral cheating.) With Chris’s encouragement, I.e., badgering, we now live in Prescott, AZ and have for 3 1/2 years. I can’t possibly tell you how much I love it here! The kid was right.
But don't worry everyone, I live up in the hills, as I was chased out of flatland LA by repeated bum assaults on my family not to mention a home invasion.
But when I leave the lovely Santa Monica foothills to go anywhere first stop is the gas station, where even the cheapest gas here is now $7 a gallon! (yes, $7 not a misprint)
Guess I'll leave either when the power goes out for good, we run out of water, or I go bankrupt. Whichever comes first.
Years ago, we heard a lecture from Ray Bradbury where he talked about the wonders he saw in the world today, how a land where there were over a million certified airplane pilots would have freedom hardwired into our bones. He tried to provide the world with the right glasses to see the good fortune that had been achieved for everyone by freedom.
He noted that when he was a child, Sunday afternoons were reserved for visiting your dead siblings in the graveyard. Ever wonder why Henry Perot went by H. Ross Perot? He was named after his dead older brother (actually his father but his dead older brother had the name first). The same was true of my father-in-law. It was a common practice. When my wife saw the New Yorkers interviewed after 9/11 saying, "How could this happen to us?" her response was, "Who told you that you had your ticket punched? None of us are guaranteed tomorrow."
I've worked in California, servicing the Oil Refineries in LA and the Bay Area as well as most the power plants in the state. My son won a scholarship to Stanford Engineering and went there to medical school. I love the state for all it's beauty, unsurpassable weather, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Monterey, Half Moon Bay, Napa, Santa Barbara, Mendocino, Bakersfield (yes, even Bakersfield) Merced, Fresno and St Louis Obispo .... It was my favorite state to find a retirement spot - could just not afford the real estate, taxes and high cost of living. Will sanity eventually prevail? I hope so.
You could have head north up 395 to Reno/Carson City. Not in California, but still close enough to easily enjoy the Sierra, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, etc. Oh, BTW, no state income tax, that would be quite a pay raise I suspect. Beautiful pictures.
My escape last weekend was to a place I have driven by for thirty years and finally took the time to go and that was the Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence river. Friends have a little camp on Seven Isle that has been in their family for four generations and I have had an open invitation to visit for years but something always seemed to come up. Well, nothing came up this year and I went and for three days I sat on the point of Seven Isle and watched the activity in the bay to my right and on my left the stream of pleasure boats (more drop dead gorgeous wooden boats from the 20's & 30's than I could imagine) along with freighters from all over the world and lakers (freighters that work the Great Lakes & Seaway, always distinctive with their lower sides) on their routes. I had a hard time reading my book while contemplating the passing ships and boats. The movement of these ships is a constant reminder of how much has been achieved by the people of the US and Canada and it scares the hell out of me that there are people who want to destroy these arteries.
I think what I loved most about my stay was my friends and the pride they had in this little retreat built by the family over the years. Nothing fancy but very solid in what they had accomplished over generations as they showed what their Father or Great Grandfather or Grandmother added to the camp over the years. We went out on their pontoon boat on Saturday a beautiful fall day and as we went up and down the river they pointed out so many homes of families they know on the river who built like their family did little by little. Needless to say I went home rested, recharged and glad to know folks like my friends. Get out and go somewhere, go anywhere but just go...it's good for the soul.
One other thing, I live in NY state and it is similar to Cali in that it is an incredibly beautiful state that the government is working overtime to destroy. NY is not just NYC it is the Adirondack Mtns, my home for 25 years, Western NY with Niagara Falls and Buffalo my home now, the Great Lakes the Hudson & Mohawk Valleys and the government just pisses on the state every day.
I’m a lifelong traveler and it’s been my habit to stop in graveyards and walk among the graves. I feel a connection there to mankind and the world one can’t find anywhere else.
in the 60’s/ 70’s there was a ‘Death Valley’ show (diorama, sound effects) at Knotts Berry Farm about the covered wagon caravans and a little girls voice “i’m thirsty mama…”
🥹 This post hits me right in the feels (I guess it’s apparent I have two teenagers). 1) I hope you hit up the Woah Nellie Deli on your way there or back....world’s best gas station food; 2) I hope while in Bodie you paid your respects to Rosa May; 3) I hope you saw the Hunewell crew out in Big Meadow; and 4) I hope you poured one out for Doc & Al’s on your way to Twin Lakes. It has been a little over two years since I’ve been there and my heart aches thinking of it’s uncertain future. I’m so so happy that Jolly Kone is still hanging in there and hope Albert’s across the way is too - their meat is stellar. Thanks for this post Chris, I really needed it :)
You will be shocked something so good is hidden in a Chevron station :). Great grassy outdoor picnic area too with an incredible view. If you ever need any off-roading recommendations in that area we’ve done some amazing trails that will leave you wishing you were born in a different era to have seen the sites in their heyday (if you didn’t feel that way already!).
I'm with you on California. I lived there for 54 years, and I'm glad I left, especially after seeing what happened there in the last 2.5 years. But I love the Sierra Nevada, especially the Emigrant Wilderness, and miss it very much. I finally managed to do a backpack trip there last month, but it's too far away to do it more than once a year.
My dad had a pet theory about California being populated by "degenerates" (his word, but I can't quibble) due to its mild climate and fertile soil. I suppose the more desolate and craggy areas of the state might be less afflicted... but the borders are already drawn.
I went to Bodie about thirty years ago. I stayed in Lee Vining. And Mono Lake was close by! And I’m a native Californian. I took the same picture as you did of the tombstone. And yes...California is an absolutely beautiful state!
Can we take our state back from communists is the question...????
Near term, I doubt it very much. Long term, absolutely. But there's a whole lot of pain and decline still to come.
I lived in the Bay Area for about a quarter century. I remember when people voted to mandate vaccination for kids to attend school. I felt then that things were going very, very wrong... I left seven years ago and moved to WA State to be near my parents... another area, Western WA, near Seattle, along the coast, that is jaw-droppingly beautiful... and full of "woke" people determined to put the govt. in charge of medical issues. Is there any escape? I think I need to get the fuck outta here.
I am a Brit grannie, living on the south coast of England and I heard about the hell being developed in California a decade ago! Deborah Tavares, Rosa Koire (RIP) and others got the message out.... how is it possible that they were unsuccessful at alerting your community? I am so sorry.... maybe I should have tried harder to share the knowledge?
“My lonely heart beats relatively quit easy...” YEP...nowadays. Great song Chris! I enjoyed it...in a melancholy way. LOL!
Good question, agree with Chris on this. The dems have completely changed the demographic of California from white middle class to extremely poor latino. They continue to import new voters and real people continue to leave. Things do not look good for California, especially in the short term. Right now, the establishment left if using that same playbook on the entire country, that is a bigger concern as they are getting away with it again.
https://pdg4ff.substack.com/p/if-america-follows-the-california
yes, as Cali goes so goes the nation, and as we are living thru the Brazilifaction of Cali, expect it to be coming soon to a state near you.
(And by Brazilification I mean: an upper crust of wealthy elites (who live in walled mansions w private security and fly above our social chaos in helicopters and private jets), with a rising underclass and a dying middle class.)
"I loathe California, as a political entity, and I love California as a place."
I feel much the same about Seattle and western Washington.
Washington and Oregon suffered from Californication way back. It's not them it's us Californians, and they knew it. I visited Seattle in the summer of 1974. The weather was beautiful, sunny and pleasant the full 2 weeks I was there. When people found out I was from California, without fail, they said, "The weather is never like this! Don't believe what you see!" They tried their best to stop the Californians who made CA into what it is, but couldn't live with the consequences, so moved North and remade Washington and Oregon into CA at its worst. I only hope Texas, Tennessee, Florida, and the other states have vaccinated themselves against the California infection, because wearing masks and staying home won't prevent it. I feel the futility of living in the belly of the beast, but I still thump the stomach lining as hard as I can in the hopes of at least making it queasy.
Where are you? I live near Bremerton. I lived in CA for a long time, but left 7 years ago. I'm definitely feeling very very isolated, socially, but nearly ALL my friends from CA have stopped communication with me, with snark.
I live in San Diego, the least woke large city on the West Coast but getting much worse. They just voted to stop allowing homes with natural gas hook-ups, and they're busy trying to congest streets with bike lanes that nobody uses.
This ends when WE end it. It's gonna get dark for a while.
Have we all seen Putin's Speech? https://youtu.be/ZP69jld8XAE
I feel the same about my beloved Vermont ~ 😿
Seconded.
I wish I had a sad reaction button instead of a like.
I can't help but be nostalgic for the old times when it was possible to believe your favorite bands were simply misguided and avoiding their social media feeds during election season would suffice in keeping you from hating them so you could still justify spending your last dollar to see them live.
It's still incredible to me how artists like Isbell & DBT were so willing to shit on the very people who would've supported them and instead catered to those who couldn't have cared less whether they were able to feed their families. #stayhomestaysafe 👍
I live in a not-so-beautiful blue state and have come to loathe it, too. Thoughts of escaping it are never far from my mind.
Is anyone else getting a July, 1914 vibe? Could the "assassination" of the pipeline be the Franz Ferdinand moment that future historians point to as the flashpoint for what's coming?
In a way, but I have felt something just gnawing right under the surface for the past 25 years. I’m one of those weird veterans who holds the oath to the Constitutiom I took as a blood oath. Old school style. At this point though, my givafuk prescription can’t be refilled. Everything is upside down and backwards and the only up side is that I’m on my downward slide.
Demoralization is what they want us to feel. It's hard not to, when surveying the landscape. Outrage over what's happening is my primary emotion. Well, there's a healthy dose of contempt for those behind it, too. I'll be damned if I go along with any of it.
Oh, I’m not demoralized. Not one bit. I’m not even angry with those who are making all this happening. I respect them as a worthy opponent.
I just no longer give a fuck. Why should I when all we are ever told is to not do anything. Anything except vote that is. Doing nothing is why we are at where we are.
I’ve been trying to wake people up to this whole thing since the mid 1990s when I had some verifiable things told to me by someone I respected very much. I had gone to Somalia after that bad skirmish we had there. I was part of the Marine unit who oversaw the retreating of American forces from Somalia. My initial WTF moment was when we had been in country less than two hours and came under sustained heavy machine gun fire and were ordered to not return fire. Three NCOs immediately did that before we could drop our packs and follow suit. Across the radio came the command to cease fire and for those individuals to report to the Expeditionary Unit Commander. All three were bounced from Somalia and given a nice home in Leavenworth for their efforts to defend their fellow Marines by offering cover fire for the rest of us.
My second WTF moment was still in country when I was checking on some Marines in my charge who were on an overnight post. This guy who spoke English came up and informed us he was State Dept. sowed credentials and everything then proceeded to try and coerce myself or one of the two Marines in the post to get a confirmed kill by shooting at a group of Somalis gathered around the entrance to where our area of operation was. I declined and told my Marines not to trust this guy. The way he was acting made my internal alarm go off. I reported the incident and was told that no such thing happened so why was I lying in my report. Even with my two witnesses. We were all told to drop it.
Ruby Ridge and Waco were the next events and I was having a hard time reconciling with those was when I was informed that Somalia was due to Yellow Cale Uranium and was never because of anyone’s starvation. Ruby Ridge happened before Somalia, but I had not heard anything about it due to my training schedule. It was the federal government pushing its anti freedom agenda onto people wanting to just be left alone. The firearms charges were just trumped up to gain access to Weavers land. Same with Waco.
It is around 1994 nearing Christmas time when I started putting the dots together I’ve been at in since and always informed others when I came across something that would affect everyone (the Kosher tax is a huge one, it’s not antisemetic to tell others about it. ). Call me a conspiracy theorist, that’s fine, but I prefer the title Scholar of History Specializing in Current Events.
My last great epiphany on what was going on was reading the entire Patriot Act back when they published it before they voted on it. Any of you ever read the entire thing? Remember the part about mandatory chipping of US Citizens so they could tell who was a Citizen vs who wasn’t? The proposal of limitations of economic transactions of citizens so as to not have another Oklahoma City event? Most haven’t seen that. But it said Muh Patriot Act so must be good ‘murica!!!!
Since then, nothing surprises me at what DC does, it’s the idiot citizens who do that. The last time there was push back was the BLM standoff. All those people must have died off because since then no one seems to care about what the government does. Except Free Thinkers and we are now potential domestic terrorists ??? Ok fine glad to west that one.
My final givafuk pill was taken when I realized every time someone stood up, it was not the anti Americans who opposed the person standing up. It was the people who are on my side of the political fence screeching stand down. Or throwing people as crazy under the bus. Then I realized it was for nothing but optics. They might hate Biden and his crew so bad they shake, but to speak out or heaven forbid, protest (talking post 1/6/22 here), they will throw you under a bus as a person with mental issues, a nazi, or whatever the reason du jour is. For nothing more than to look like proper Christian republicans within their social circles.
I’m not begrudging anyone’s faith here. I’m American, worship as you see for as long as it doesn’t affect me at all (except for paying hidden taxes on my grocery bill because you have special needs. Fuck you guys). But since you want to on one hand cry and bitch about issues of the day, yet eager to throw someone under the bus who will actually go and try to stop what is bothering you so you can show your friends the crazed madman? Nah ain’t having it. I’m done. C’est la vie.
Now I just prefer to troll both sides. The left aren’t fun because they will not engage in honest arguments without character assassination type screeching. Most on the right are still fun to mess with because it’s fun to show how woefully inept their politicians are at doing nothing but supplying cover for the Democrat party and their destruction of this great Republic.
I don’t troll here though. You people seem like honest Americans who honestly care. I know and have held dialog with people who are both conservative and liberal here and has been very pleasant. I think I can say that we all know that the Revolutionary War was started over smaller offenses than what we are enduring now, and until there are boots on the ground, there is no shrugging off the tyranny we live under.
Very, very interesting. I am embarrassingly late in my cynicism, only catching on to the full extent of corruption after seeing the government allow the perpetrators of the 2008 financial collapse to not only avoid prosecution, but to flee with their ill-gotten gains--bonuses included!
Indeed, the Revolutionary War was fought over lesser insults than what the Brandon administration is inflicting.
Is there a baby in the bathhouse bathwater that is the US?
Ditto, ditto, ditto...
The pipeline sabotage is less like 6-14 and more like the reichstag fire. But both preludes to war.
Isn't the burning of all these food processing plants, killing of animals, and plowing under perfectly good crops kind of the same thing as the pipeline sabotage? Heat in the winter and food... We're in for some heavy duty survival challenges.
In 1964, my dad moved his entire family from Queens, NY, to California because the state had an excellent state college system which was affordable. Hard to imagine now…As a young teen and into my 50s we explored the gorgeousness of CA from San Diego to Crescent City. Fast forward to 2005 and more and more progressives in power and deterioration of the infrastructure. At first we decried the politicians in charge but on further analysis had an epiphany that really the problem was low info left leaning voters who put these clowns in office. (Okay; sprinkle in a little electoral cheating.) With Chris’s encouragement, I.e., badgering, we now live in Prescott, AZ and have for 3 1/2 years. I can’t possibly tell you how much I love it here! The kid was right.
Shout out from LA!
But don't worry everyone, I live up in the hills, as I was chased out of flatland LA by repeated bum assaults on my family not to mention a home invasion.
But when I leave the lovely Santa Monica foothills to go anywhere first stop is the gas station, where even the cheapest gas here is now $7 a gallon! (yes, $7 not a misprint)
Guess I'll leave either when the power goes out for good, we run out of water, or I go bankrupt. Whichever comes first.
Years ago, we heard a lecture from Ray Bradbury where he talked about the wonders he saw in the world today, how a land where there were over a million certified airplane pilots would have freedom hardwired into our bones. He tried to provide the world with the right glasses to see the good fortune that had been achieved for everyone by freedom.
He noted that when he was a child, Sunday afternoons were reserved for visiting your dead siblings in the graveyard. Ever wonder why Henry Perot went by H. Ross Perot? He was named after his dead older brother (actually his father but his dead older brother had the name first). The same was true of my father-in-law. It was a common practice. When my wife saw the New Yorkers interviewed after 9/11 saying, "How could this happen to us?" her response was, "Who told you that you had your ticket punched? None of us are guaranteed tomorrow."
I've worked in California, servicing the Oil Refineries in LA and the Bay Area as well as most the power plants in the state. My son won a scholarship to Stanford Engineering and went there to medical school. I love the state for all it's beauty, unsurpassable weather, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Monterey, Half Moon Bay, Napa, Santa Barbara, Mendocino, Bakersfield (yes, even Bakersfield) Merced, Fresno and St Louis Obispo .... It was my favorite state to find a retirement spot - could just not afford the real estate, taxes and high cost of living. Will sanity eventually prevail? I hope so.
You could have head north up 395 to Reno/Carson City. Not in California, but still close enough to easily enjoy the Sierra, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, etc. Oh, BTW, no state income tax, that would be quite a pay raise I suspect. Beautiful pictures.
My escape last weekend was to a place I have driven by for thirty years and finally took the time to go and that was the Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence river. Friends have a little camp on Seven Isle that has been in their family for four generations and I have had an open invitation to visit for years but something always seemed to come up. Well, nothing came up this year and I went and for three days I sat on the point of Seven Isle and watched the activity in the bay to my right and on my left the stream of pleasure boats (more drop dead gorgeous wooden boats from the 20's & 30's than I could imagine) along with freighters from all over the world and lakers (freighters that work the Great Lakes & Seaway, always distinctive with their lower sides) on their routes. I had a hard time reading my book while contemplating the passing ships and boats. The movement of these ships is a constant reminder of how much has been achieved by the people of the US and Canada and it scares the hell out of me that there are people who want to destroy these arteries.
I think what I loved most about my stay was my friends and the pride they had in this little retreat built by the family over the years. Nothing fancy but very solid in what they had accomplished over generations as they showed what their Father or Great Grandfather or Grandmother added to the camp over the years. We went out on their pontoon boat on Saturday a beautiful fall day and as we went up and down the river they pointed out so many homes of families they know on the river who built like their family did little by little. Needless to say I went home rested, recharged and glad to know folks like my friends. Get out and go somewhere, go anywhere but just go...it's good for the soul.
One other thing, I live in NY state and it is similar to Cali in that it is an incredibly beautiful state that the government is working overtime to destroy. NY is not just NYC it is the Adirondack Mtns, my home for 25 years, Western NY with Niagara Falls and Buffalo my home now, the Great Lakes the Hudson & Mohawk Valleys and the government just pisses on the state every day.
I’m a lifelong traveler and it’s been my habit to stop in graveyards and walk among the graves. I feel a connection there to mankind and the world one can’t find anywhere else.
hauntingly beautiful memorial sculpture.
in the 60’s/ 70’s there was a ‘Death Valley’ show (diorama, sound effects) at Knotts Berry Farm about the covered wagon caravans and a little girls voice “i’m thirsty mama…”
hope you got to get some Mono Cone!
Close!
https://www.yelp.com/biz/jolly-kone-bridgeport-2
🥹 This post hits me right in the feels (I guess it’s apparent I have two teenagers). 1) I hope you hit up the Woah Nellie Deli on your way there or back....world’s best gas station food; 2) I hope while in Bodie you paid your respects to Rosa May; 3) I hope you saw the Hunewell crew out in Big Meadow; and 4) I hope you poured one out for Doc & Al’s on your way to Twin Lakes. It has been a little over two years since I’ve been there and my heart aches thinking of it’s uncertain future. I’m so so happy that Jolly Kone is still hanging in there and hope Albert’s across the way is too - their meat is stellar. Thanks for this post Chris, I really needed it :)
All places we still need to go to, and I'm putting the Woah Nellie Deli on the family list.
You will be shocked something so good is hidden in a Chevron station :). Great grassy outdoor picnic area too with an incredible view. If you ever need any off-roading recommendations in that area we’ve done some amazing trails that will leave you wishing you were born in a different era to have seen the sites in their heyday (if you didn’t feel that way already!).
I'm with you on California. I lived there for 54 years, and I'm glad I left, especially after seeing what happened there in the last 2.5 years. But I love the Sierra Nevada, especially the Emigrant Wilderness, and miss it very much. I finally managed to do a backpack trip there last month, but it's too far away to do it more than once a year.
Nice post. Thanks, Chris. Hope to come visit soon.
My dad had a pet theory about California being populated by "degenerates" (his word, but I can't quibble) due to its mild climate and fertile soil. I suppose the more desolate and craggy areas of the state might be less afflicted... but the borders are already drawn.