Day 9 - Upland CA to Santa Maria, via the coast highway and Ojai

     There is one cool coffee shop in the town where my mother lives.  It's called Boomers and has great 50s decor and run by some local babyboomers I think I should have been in High School with but wasn't...

     That's where I started my day.  I did not want to go anywhere near Los Angeles so I took highway 214 through Pasadena then I was able to pick up the Ventura Freeway which brought me to highway 101 around Santa Barbara.  I wanted to check out the little town of Ojai so I drove the 30 miles inland and got out of the truck for a little walk.  Spendy little town with a Nigerian necklace of silver selling for 165 dollars.  (Absurd.  Fortunately I was just looking.)  There was also this really cool chair made from beads...beautiful to look at and photograph but I didn't even bother to ask the price.

    I walked up the sidewalk and a young man who said he was a journalism student took my picture then wanted to get my name.  I told him about the road trip and that I was from Eugene.  His face lit up as he pointed to himself saying "11th and Polk."  I responded "17th and Polk".   It was a high five moment on 'High Five Day' (according to my friend JJ). 
    On the way in to Ojai I noticed two things (other than the traffic)  There was a place called the "Blue Iguana Inn" and another called the Psychic Boutique.  There's an older movie starring Daryl Hanna as a stripper called 'Night at the Blue Iguana' and I wondered if it was filmed there.  Sandra Oh was also in that movie but more about her later.  Here's the picture....

    Way to spendy for me, I could tell just looking at it.  But across the street hidden in the bushes was a small house had obviously been there before all the rich people and the vineyards came in 20 years ago....

      This is "California" for shack.  I bet it cost more than 500 grand too. 
     I left Ojai for the Pacific Ocean dreaming of a walk in the water.  The road was curvy, mountainous; a nice place for a Sunday drive.  About 30 minutes later I was headed north on 101 the ocean waves rhythmically curling into white foaming tops then flattening as they broke on the shore.  Surfers and bikinis laid about the beach.  I spent 6 yrs in southern California during high school and the only thing I miss is walking in warm ocean water.  Years ago we used to go camping at El Capitan Beach on a whim.  (My father was the impulsive type).  Now my friend Colleen, who lives in Solvang, informs me that you need reservations 9 months in advance.  It also costs 10 dollars just to take a walk on the beach.  Thankfully I asked if they gave discounts to disabled veterans and I got in for free.

    I was so happy to be on the beach walking in the water that I took about a hundred photos.  I will just post the ones I really like...

    And then I took a little self portrait in the water just for kicks...

    The water was cold but the salty smell of the ocean and the song of the waves moved through my spirit like the teenager I once was.

     Gaud I miss the ocean...
    I spent a few hours combing the beach for shells and rocks then I got back in the truck and continued north through the one long continuous vineyard from Buelleton to Santa Maria.  By this time it was 8pm and I needed to stop for the night.  I figured Santa Maria would be cheaper than the other options but I didn't realize it would also be loud and obnoxious.  At about 11pm I went to the front desk and complained about the noise.  The woman, thankfully, put me in another room.  I watched Bill Maher hoping television would put me to sleep.  It worked, but 8 o'clock this morning the family next door hollered me awake.  So I am starting the day off grumpy.
    Tonight I am headed to my old friends' Jennifer and Bertina's house in Colma just south of San Fransisco.  I haven't seen them since the film festival last year.  It will be nice to catch up...  yona c. riel

Day Eight - Joshua Tree and the road to Victorville...

     First let me say thank you for following my road trip virtually.  It really makes a difference when I stay connected to the people in my life that I know and love.  That said, I am going get all floral on you today.  Joshua Tree had an amazing number of plants in bloom, which is what I had hoped for when I scheduled this trip.  There were so many deserted shacks on the way into town I couldn't possibly shoot them all so I decided against shooting any of them.  I started to wonder what happened, did they run out of water, go broke, what?  It was very depressing to see which is another reason I didn't take pictures of the shacks.

     Instead I focused on rock formations and blooming plants, a beautiful pursuit in the desert in the middle of April.

    Everywhere I looked there was amazing beauty.. especially if you like the contrast of the living among the seemingly dead.

    When I see cactus growing out of rocks I am amazed by the determination of the plant's will to live.

     It's a little hard to see (because photography flattens everything into two dimensions) but I am standing on huge rocks looking down upon Hidden Valley.  

      The next mini walk was to an old gold mine called the Queen Mill Mine.  Apparently a lot of gold came out of this place at one time.  All that remains are the filled in mine shafts, the remnants of a stone building and some old equipment.  Why someone drug that old bed frame in there who knows, but it made for a fun picture...

      Something about lives once lived....  legacies.... the thought of which strikes me with a mixture of awe and fear.  Are all artists like this?  After all it's legacies, our history and the works of art we did in our lifetimes that will remain after we are gone. 

     The rock formations were another spectacular aspect of Joshua Tree.  The unusual one below brings to mind a Tom Waits song, "Whats He Doing in There?" mostly because the cave in the center of it looks large enough to live in....

         The next one captured my interest because of it's size.  Enormous rock formations remind me of lives that are much older and wiser than my own.  (Yes, I believe that rocks witness the life that happens around them and that those memories are stored in the textures and shapes of the rocks themselves.  I am an old Rockhound after all).  Again I am awed and made to feel small (in a good way)...

     I left Joshua Tree around 2 pm and decided I wanted to get to Victorville, California.  Leaving Joshua Tree I found 'Old Woman Springs Road' (highway 274) which went straight to Victorville.  And on it I found the most beautiful old shack of the trip (so far).

      I could tell it was really old not just because of the 'patina' on the wood but because the one inch cedar boards were actually one inch thick.  These days one inch cedar is really 3/4 of an inch or less. Of course I had to take a shot from inside.  You can just barely make out the fields of yellow flowers that covered the valley. 

 

    When I was 15, having gotten inspired by my 500 mile Arizona ride, I headed out alone on my bike along the back roads towards Victorville.  I had a girlfriend at the time that lived there and I was determined to get there.  I remember it was pretty hot outside.  I had no water, no helmet and no food.  Between where I started in Upland and Victorville there was El Cahon Pass with an elevation of 4000 feet and about 50 miles.  I did finally make it but I called my mom that night and told her I wouldn't be coming home.  I hadn't been to Victorville since I was very young and since this whole trip was revisiting my past I had to include it. 

     I went through Victorville without even stopping because en route I decided I was close enough to my mom's house for a quick visit.  She, being 85 and a woman of few visitors was happy to see me.  (I hadn't seen her since my head exploding incident in December of 2007).  We went out to dinner and hung out for awhile but she is very hard of hearing which made conversation difficult.  Also my oldest brother (whose 56 and who I do not get along with) still lives with my mother.  This morning before I left she asked me if I wanted the old dresser that I had as a child so her and I struggled it out of the house and into the back of my truck.  I hugged her 3 times (she's not the touchy-feely type) and then I came to Boomers cafe to update the blog.   It's the only interesting cafe in all of Upland.  Besides it's beautiful 50's decor it also has wifi...

 

   Today I am going to take the back roads and try to get to Ojai.  As always your comments are welcomed and encouraged...