I have spent the last two days in La Quinta at Lake Cahuilla and the surrounding area (Indian Wells, Palm Springs).
I can’t remember the last time I have seen so many brick walls surrounding homes. All these gated communities with cookie cutter homes, golf and polo clubs. Driving through these towns was not particularly interesting. That was until I didn’t make that left turn, but continued going straight. Deep down I knew that I was not on the right road, but I was glad I didn’t turn. Only ten miles from these manicured lawns and this unreal desert life did I stumble across the other half of society. I had found the agricultural side. Groves of huge date palm trees with their fruits wrapped in paper or some kind of netting, orange groves, fields of bell peppers and tons of farm workers at work. The groves and fields were bordered by the trailer communities of the farm workers, no paved roads and most trailers were run down. I can’t bring myself to take photos of these kind of places. The dead dog on the side of the road didn’t help.
I was fascinated by the palm trees. I had never seen a palm tree farm, never even thought about where dates came from. The trees were at least three stories tall and just below the crown was a ladder attached to the trunk, but there was no climbing help from the ground to that ladder.
I had to back track a few miles to get to the road I needed to take.

Salton Sea beach covered in barnacles and dead fish

Highway 111 along the east side of the Salton Sea to Niland. There wasn’t much traffic on this one lane highway, which I always prefer over the busy highways. Hwy 111 runs right along side the Sea. The Salton Sea is California’s largest lake, larger than Lake Tahoe. It looked beautiful from the highway, blue water against a great mountain back drop. Hey, I had some time, and I needed to make myself some lunch (on the rare occasion I eat more than just a banana and some cookies).

Salton Sea - dead fish

I pulled into the State Park and parked at the beach. A quick bite to eat and off I went to take some pictures. Great white pelicans on the lake. I don’t think that I had seen white pelicans in the US before. Usually you see the brown variety. As I made my way to the water I got stuck in mud and soon realized that there were hundreds upon hundreds of dead fish everywhere. They were small fish all dried up. Not a pretty site. I checked the Salton Sea website, but could not find anything about the dead fish. Only a National Geographic Magazine article mentioned the mass fish die-offs. Pollution, increasing salt levels and low water levels are some of the culprits. So much for a nice afternoon at the beach.
I continued my drive south on hwy 111. My final destination for the day was Slab City.

My neighbors - Slab City

Not really a city, more (sometimes temporary) home to the traveling kind and squatters on the abandoned and dismantled Fort Dunlap World War II Marine training base. No hook-ups and no fees.
I had my reservations to stay overnight, but decided to stay anyway; after I called a friend to let at least someone know where I was. I think I might have ended up across the street from Slab City. Not that there is a big difference, just that there are no concrete slabs on my side only dirt. The land is now owned by the Teachers Authority, go figure, and they have no problem with people staying here for free.

Salvation Mountain

Unfortunately, people don’t always take good care of their surroundings when it is free. Some areas are pretty badly littered. On the other hand, I saw a beautiful sunset through the back window of my camper. This place is in the desert, mountains on two sides, the Salton Sea to the west.

Salvation Mountain - Yellow brick road

Just before Slab City is Salvation Mountain; the life’s work of Leonard Knight. A monument to God and his universal love.

This is my first travel related post in a very long time, sorry about that. I started some posts, but haven’t finished them. Hopefully, I will be able to catch up now that it is getting dark by 5 PM.
Just briefly, I spent several days in Death Valley, followed by a visit to my friend John in LA and most recently I visited Bob and Faith in Laguna Niguel.

It was the trunk, not the branch

As of Monday I will be without my camper for one or two weeks. I will stay in hotels for the time being. I can’t quite get use to the thought of not being in my home for so long. Why am I “abandoning” my home? Not because of the weather.

Bad luck

On my way to Laguna Niguel I met a tree. I was pulling into a parking strip and a tree was ever so slightly leaning into the road, bang. I have a decent size hole on the front edge of my roof. I am just glad that I have insurance, even if it comes with a large deductible.
It costs the insurance roughly $4,000, including my hotel allowance. Maybe this way I get around to writing a little more. 🙂

P.S. If you thought that Southern California is nice and warm during the winter months, you are wrong. I woke-up to 21 F, yes 21 F (-6C). It did warm up to 60+ (18 C) during the day.

Thank you to all my generous donors who supported me this year.  I managed to raise $1,695.  Unfortunately, I fell short of my goal to raise $4,000.  However, it is not too late if you still want to make a donation (click here).

With my running partner Faith

I ran the 4 miles with my friend Faith in Dana Point in Southern California.  We were lucky, the rain finally stopped in the early afternoon.  Temperatures were comfortable in the low 60s.  Not what you would call typical California weather.

We ran along the lovely Dana Harbor Point and a bit along the Pacific Ocean.  My high altitude hiking in Utah and Arizona paid off, I finished the run in just under 39 minutes.  Not bad for someone who only pulls out the running shoes once a year.

West Coast Race to Deliver - after the race

Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving.

Only 4 more days until the big race for God’s Love We Deliver in Central Park.
I will be running / walking somewhere in Southern California. My goal is to complete the 4 mile course in less than one hour. I think I will meet that goal; however, I am not sure if I meet my fundraising goal. I have only raised 1/3 of my goal to raise $4,000.
So, please do not wait any longer to make your easy online donation now. Visit my personal webpage to make an online donation. Tax season is not far off; make your year end tax deductible donation now.

I know all about the economy and I understand if you cannot contribute as much as you did in the past. Just remember, $5 will go a long way providing life sustaining meals to people living with serious illnesses. $5 is better than no dollars at all

Thank you very much. I really appreciate your support!

Jicky

P.S. Regular posts to come soon again 🙂

Again, rewind mode.
I found a very nice spot here in Bellingham at a dock facing the Bellingham Bay. I am sitting at an old picnic table typing away. It is bliss, sunshine, water, ships, the smell of the harbor (a little garbage smell too 🙁 ), no noise, except for the crying of seagulls; my kind of place.

Good place to write

I started writing this post a week ago and had to stop because the computer ran out of battery juice. Now I am sitting indoors, watching the rain.

Before I left San Francisco I had planned on driving up highway one along the Pacific Coast and then turn inland to Sonoma county. As so often, things don’t always turn out as planned. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The day I left SF was a work day for me and I knew I wouldn’t make it too far in half a day. My departure was further delayed because I had a lovely lunch with my friend Priscilla and her daughter Evyn. I might have been procrastinating as well. After spending time with friends it is always a little difficult to get going again. Priscilla mentioned several spots along the coast that I should see and also pointed out that highway one was very curvy just north of the city, never mind the occasional rock slide. Given the time of day and this bit of information, I decided to drive north on US 101 instead. I would back track along the coast the next day or so. Good decision, only 30 miles north of the city I started to feel sleepy. I cannot imagine how I would have managed in that condition on a windy road. One good thing about leaving San Francisco was that I would finally get back to nice warm temperatures, at least for a little while. Wearing a wool sweater at the end of July is just not my idea of summer attire.
I spent the night at a campground in Healsburg. Unfortunately, the traffic noise was a bit much and the next day I moved on to Cloverdale, just up the road.
Cloverdale is located in the northern part of Sonoma County, wine country. The campground is beautifully located on top of a hill overlooking vineyards and fields. I posted a photo in one of my previous posts.
Coverdale is a lovely big small town.

Cloverdale - Friday night

On Friday evening one block of downtown was closed off for an evening farmers market with a playground for the kids, just a handful of local vendors and restaurants. People gathered at the plaza for live music and dancing; a mini version of concerts in Central Park, NYC with picnic and all. Here you are even allowed to drink alcohol on the street, progress! Never mind that you can buy wine all along the west coast, (California, Oregon & Washington) in the supermarket. Don’t remember if that was also the case in some of the other states I visited.
It must have been a Saturday when I decided to drive back to the coast. After getting stuck in traffic at the last weekend outing I avoid driving in popular areas on Sundays. I checked with the campground manager on some local roads before I headed out. It still surprises my how little local people often know about nearby roads, especially when you deal with travelers all the time.
This coastal trip promised to be a nice one, nothing but blue sky all around. There are not many roads that lead to the coast and I picked the smaller of the two in the area.

Skaggs Springs Road

When you look at a road map you see the big fat lines for the interstates, red, black and gray lines for other highways. I prefer the black ones. You can be quite sure not to run into too much, if any traffic, and they usually run through untouched areas. Red roads can be a mixed bag, hwy 58 and 46 in southern California were awful, but hwy 26 in Oregon is beautiful, both traffic and scenery wise. Gray roads are dirt roads and require a special mind set and often a robust vehicle. Enough about lines on the map.
So I took the Skaggs Springs Road just south of Cloverdale which first lead through vineyards (beautiful)

Vineyard and Lake Sonoma

and past Lake Sonoma (gorgeous) before it made its way through my beloved golden rolling hills (do I need to say more?) and then through some forests (great pine smell, narrow & windy) before ending at the Pacific (once again jaw dropping).

Pacific coast - wow

The sun stayed with me throughout the day and I did not encounter one traffic jam.
The coastline was not always visible from the highway and there was lots private property and no “beach” access. Some of the trails leading to the water are well hidden and if a car wouldn’t have been parked at the side of the road I would have never known that there was one. I must have spent more than 2 hours taking pictures of the coast and walking through tall sticky grass. The grass looks beautiful and soft from a distance, beautiful gold color against the blue of the sky, but when you are standing waist high in the middle of it with no clear path out of it, it is a very different story.

Salt Point State Park

It is scratchy and has these very annoying seeds that just stick to you. In some areas the grass was tall enough that I hadn’t seen the buck until it jumped out of the grass some 50 yards ahead of me.
When you take a closer look at the rocks that make up the Pacific coast it is amazing that the coast has not been completely washed away. The sandstone is so soft that it just crumbles under the lightest touch.

Fisk Mill Cove

Some of the iron containing rocks “grew” in layers which can easily be dismantled by bare hands. I only did this with pieces of rock that had fallen to the beach. Not to worry, hwy 1 is still safe.
The coast became rockier the further south I traveled. Big rocks and arches stand of the coast in the ocean. Every time a rounded a corner I thought I saw something new and had to take a photo. At home I quickly noticed that I over shot, the same rocks from slightly different angles, oh well.

Arched Rock Beach

It is an amazing site and a drive that should be on everyone’s bucket list. North south works for me the best. I cannot recommend driving hwy 1 up or down in a RV or similar. Yes, it can be done; I saw plenty of them, however, some of the turns are mighty tight and you are just not as flexible as you are in a car and you have to focus on the road much more leaving little time to look at the scenery. Even driving in my big truck, without the camper, was at times cumbersome. All I have to say is – convertible 🙂

Wright Beach

From time to time I scan through all the photos I took at this trip and I have two reactions; oh my God, I have to edit all these photos and I can’t believe I have seen all these places: sandhills and hot springs in Texas, VLA in New Mexico, great waterfalls in Alabama, awesome canyons in Oregon and so much more. FYI, I will write about all this in more detail in future blogs.
I finished writing this sitting in Carol’s backyard eight days after I started it. Sometimes it just takes a while, no wonder I am so far behind with my posts. One more trip to the coast, a quick one, and we are moving to the northern California mountains and closer to present time.

Rewind a month. I can’t believe it has been that long. I am still trying to take it all in.
I had promised myself to rent a convertible when I get to the Pacific Coast and I kept my promise. The day after the garlic festival I drove to San Jose to pick-up my Ford Mustang convertible. Wow, what a nice toy. As I mentioned in a previous post, the night temperatures had fallen to the 60 F mark. Well, now they were in the 50s and I knew that the day time temperatures along the coast are usually not that high either. So along with my beachwear I also packed a sweater and my lined fall jacket.
The skies cleared just in time when I put down the top of the car.
What a thrill it was to drive a car that accelerates effortlessly, no raffing of the engine and all that with a gas mileage of 21 mpg.
Did I mention that it was a convertible?

Jicky in Carmel-by-the Sea

I had picked a little road that led to the Pacific (hwy 9). Turns out that it was a beautiful mountain road, with lots of fun curves. It took me through several cute small towns, Boulder Creek was one of them. I was glad that I didn’t drive the truck on this stretch of road. It would not have been a problem, just much less fun. A lot of bicyclists took advantage of the beautiful day as well. I don’t know how they do it, climbing up these steep mountain roads.
Coming down the road and seeing the Pacific Ocean spread out in front of me was just one of those moments. It could be comparable to coming to New York and seeing the city skyline either from an airplane or from the New Jersey side. It just leaves your mouth wide open.
I drove through Santa Cruz and asked for directions to the beach houses I had seen in that photo at the garlic festival. They are in Capitola, a cute, slightly touristy beach community just south of Santa Cruz. Finding parking was almost impossible. I made it to the beach and was lucky to have ten minutes of sunshine.

Capitola

I could not believe that people were actually lying at the beach; it was just above 60 F. I was wearing long pants and a sweater. Since I was parked at a 24 minute meter I couldn’t spend much time walking around. Off I went zooming down California highway 1. At least I thought I would be zooming. After just a few miles, traffic came to a halt. What was supposed to be a quick drive down to Carmel (40 miles) took one and half hours! That put a little damper on having fun. Not that I was in a rush, but I wanted to return the car before dark. I am not a fan of driving in unfamiliar territory in the dark. Also I was looking forward to driving really fast, of course within the speed limit.
Highway 1 runs inland between Santa Cruz and Carmel and you can’t see the Pacific which was the whole point of this excursion. I figured I’ll have early dinner in the lovely town of Carmel-by-the-Sea and than head down to Big Sur only 20 miles south. I remember having driven down that way before about twelve years ago. There are these great bridges along the way and I remember not being able to stop in time to take a picture of the Bixby Bridge lit by the perfect late afternoon sunlight. Well, I didn’t have much luck this time around either. Not that I couldn’t stop, but ever since I left Capitola I had not seen the sun. The coast was shrouded in clouds, not fog. At this point I was wearing my jacket as well, I did not want to put up the top.
Once I reached Bixby Bridge I decided to turn around. Good thing I did. Once again traffic very quickly came to a stand still. It turned out that there were three events taking place in the area; a wharf to wharf run, some motorcycle event and a huge flea market. The lesson of this: Don’t travel on Sundays.
At least I saw an incredible sunset sky while I was in the traffic jamb. All in all I spent about three hours in traffic, not ideal. It turned into a very long day and I was not back at the campground until 11 PM.
If I had to chose between driving a truck or driving a regular car (convertible preferred – BMW Z4 specifically) I would go with the car. Driving is so much more fun. Yes, you sit high up in the truck, but that’s about it.

To find out if I had more luck on my other excursions to the coast you have to tune in for the next episode of “Jicky’s trip to the coast”

Just to keep you updated on my whereabouts. I have been spending the last couple of days in a crazy beautiful area in northern California. The Scott Valley is surrounded by great forests, mountain ranges and rivers. I have been staying in the very nice small town Etna with a population of about 800. Going on crazy curvy mountain drives. Driving 30 mph feels like speeding. If you tend to get car sick easily, these roads are not made for you. A 100 mile drive takes a good four hours, pack lunch, there are no places to eat for at least 60 miles. A full tank of gas is not a bad idea either.
Off to Crater Lake in the morning. More detailed reports from the coast and the mountains to follow. I know I have said that in the past. Eventually they will follow.

Yes, it has come to this. California is so expensive that I am now sleeping on the street, no more campgrounds. OK, let me rephrase that; no campground in San Francisco.

NOT my accommodations!

After the garlic festival I was heading to San Francisco to visit my friend Priscilla and her family. I had figured I would find a campground just outside of SF and that way avoid driving with the camper up and down those lovely steep streets of the city. Priscilla, however, suggested I should save my money and just park on the Great Highway and Lincoln Street. Lot’s of people do it, e.g. homeless people. That part I did not like.
So we decided that I would park in front of her house. Priscilla had given me a route where I would avoid the really bad inclines. That worked until I made a wrong turn and ended up on a very narrow and then a very steep street. OMG, I told JD, let’s do it and up we went. I had been avoiding mountain roads with less steep inclines.
Parking in front of her house had just one little problem, low hanging tree branches. Off we went to look for a flat parking space. Flat is not that easy in San Francisco. We got lucky and only two blocks from her house was the perfect parking spot, long enough, no trees and flat. I just had to make sure to move it the next morning for alternate side street parking. I had stayed in friends driveways, but never on a public street. This would be fun.

That's my place

The weather was great, blue skies and mid 60s. It was nice enough to have lunch in the backyard.
San Francisco is a neat city. I love the views from above down onto the city.

Hillside living

I had been to San Francisco twice before but I never fell in love with the city; I don’t really know why.
So, you ask, how was the first night on the street? Not bad at all. By 11 PM the bus stopped running and the street got quiet. It was very strange to take a shower under someone’s apartment window. Remember, I have that big skylight in my bathroom. I felt safe in this place. I had met the woman in front whose house I was parked and by the next morning I had met two more of my “neighbors”. Very friendly neighborhood.
Instead of leaving after just one night I decided to stay one more night. I enjoyed a great breakfast at Chloe’s on Church and 26th Street; basking in the sun. Don’t get me wrong, it was not that warm. I was wearing jeans and a lined jacket.

Even a day of walking around the city could not change my mind about this city. There are lots of great neighborhoods, but I miss the electricity you can feel in New York. I am not trying to compare the two cities, but I think that’s what I miss.

Victorian houses (Painted Ladies)

Crazy gas prices

Leaving the city the next day was a little adventure in itself. Again, Priscilla helped with the route out of the city. There was just one steep part, Divisadero from Broadway to Lombard Street. I thought I had seen steep. Most roads I traveled had warning signs for 6% down grade. This was at least twice that steep. The mean thing is that they make you stop every block.

Steep Divisadero

Once again, I enjoyed the company of friends. Thank you for your hospitality! The next friend stop is 1,400 miles away…

Sorry about the long break between posts. Remind me never again to drive 1,200 miles in seven days! That is way too much with no days of rest in between. The good news is: I made it to the Gilroy Garlic Festival ahead of schedule. But, I have to say that it was not really worth the rush. Gilroy once used to be the largest garlic producer in the world until China took over. Garlic is still big business in Gilroy and when you drive past the food plant you can smell the garlic from across the street.
Let’s start by telling you how I got to Gilroy. After I left Boron I continued traveling on highway 58 towards Mojave. I had read about this airplane graveyard out in the desert and I wanted to take a look. This is just another strange thing on my list of things to see just like the garlic festival. If I wanted regular stuff, I’d go to Disney World.
Well, there is the Mojave airport and there are some big old commercial airplanes, but there is no way to get close to them. I was told that the former owners don’t like people to take pictures. Since I had the camper on my back, I couldn’t drive down the dirt roads that would have taken me closer to the fence. Oh well.

That's life

FYI, while I am writing this, I am sitting at my campground in Sonoma County on top of a hill under a nice old oak tree covered with Spanish moss overlooking some lovely rolling hills and a vineyard. Instead of drinking wine, I am scooping some of my pistachio ice cream. Damn, life is good.
Back to driving. Leaving Mojave was interesting. From a distance I had seen this cluster of big windmills up on top of a mountain range. I hadn’t realized that I would be driving right through them. I had seen some large wind farms in Texas and even had gotten very close to them, but I never saw this many windmills up close.

Windmills

Even more amazing was the change of scenery. I had been driving through desert for the most part since Texas, with some exceptions in northeast Arizona and New Mexico. Now all of a sudden the desert changed to golden colored rolling hills with little green trees dotting them. I was at awe. There was no gradual change, there were no signs saying “Watch out trees and rolling hills coming up” it just happened.

Rolling hills

Not just trees but also farmland was added to the picture. To me these hills have a very gentle look to them, no jagged edges just covered with yellow straw like grass. It is hard to explain, they have something comforting about them, I call them gentle giants. You just have to see them yourself.

Golden hills

California does not have many back roads. Even the secondary two lane highways are crowed with trucks in both directions. I don’t feel comfortable driving on them, too much pressure to keep up with the speed, especially uphill. The lanes are narrow and the oncoming trucks are wide. I have to focus so much on the driving that I have no time to look left and right or to pull over to take pictures.
I called it the quits in Lost Hills, west of Bakersfield. I couldn’t make it to Paso Robles anymore which was only one hour away. I was too tired to do much of anything. It was only Wednesday and I only had less than 200 miles to go to Gilroy or to my campground in Hollister.
The next day I past the James Dean Memorial site at the intersection of highway 46 and 41 without incident.
In San Miguel I pulled over for lunch, something I seldom do. The nice people at the deli helped me figure out if I could take some of the back roads I had picked without getting myself into any trouble, i.e. really steep roads. We figured it all out and I was happy as a clam when I finally drove on a beautiful, quiet two lane road. People always say: “No, you don’t want to take that road, you can’t go fast on that.” My reply: “You bet I do.”
Friday was a day of rest, a look around town and some grocery shopping that’s it. The overnight temperatures had dropped to 60 F, I was freezing. Had to pull out my sleeping bag to stay warm at night.
Saturday was the big day, Garlic festival here I come. I had no idea what to expect. I had only read that this is the world largest garlic festival. This year’s event drew almost 100,000 visitors over three days!

Gilroy Garlic Festival

The first thing you see when you enter the festival grounds are food stands and more food stands. Chicken, beef, some fish (fried), pasta, Asian, American, you name it. Garlic bread and garlic ice cream were also on the menu.

Yes, garlic ice cream

Food wasn’t the only thing you could get. Arts and crafts vendors were equally well represented along side the toe ring booth and the henna tattoo place. There was a big stage for the cooking competition, which took place before I arrived, and some cooking demonstrations.

Showing off

Climbing walls for young and old. Oh yeah, you could also buy some garlic. Did you know that elephant garlic is best used for roasting? Or that it is closer in taste to onion than to garlic? Did you know that garlic only gets harvested twice a year? Early harvest is in June and the late harvest is mid-end July. So all the garlic you buy in May in the supermarkets is almost a year old, who knew.
Well, I bought some great garlic bread, one bulb of just harvested garlic (I still had another bulb at home) and some none garlic related spices. It was too hot (even for me) to eat any of the hot foods. One of the best things at the festival; I saw a really nice photograph of beach houses and the photographer told me where she took the photo. You can read about that in the next blog.
Now you ask, would I go to the festival again. Not really. If I happen to be in the area, maybe.
More to come about sleeping on the streets of San Francisco and the Pacific coast.

I am sorry; I don’t know where the time has gone.  I haven’t had a chance to write the Gilroy Garlic Festival report, but it will come soon.  Too much traveling in to shorter time period.

Gilroy Garlic Festival

Marion (l) and her partner Carmen

My friend Marion passed away last Sunday after a long battle with cancer. She was a fighter.