What a wonderful rainy evening in Sausalito with Steph and Jared and a photo bomb by Bill Geist 😉

Dining at Poggio, we laughed, ate, drank and had a dandy time for hours! And, in the Bay Area, when you go out for an evening, you expect to travel a bit. Steph and Jared went from Oakland up to Richmond and then down into Marin County – at least 45 minutes each way – in the pouring rain! Thanks you guys – it was so nice spending time with you both.

When it was time to come down from the Muir Woods, we decided to start early and make certain we would be on time for our 5PM reservations (don’t judge here, we’re seniors now and maybe we get a discount!). So, given the troubles of the past day, we logged in to get our Uber at 3:30 PM.

First tried Uber Black since that was the only one that came up the night before. After 5 minutes of the app spinning looking for a car, I decided to try Select. Within a minute, Elly popped up. Now, Elly was one of the drivers that bailed the night before.

So, I immediately asked him…’Are you really coming this time?’ He replied 👍, so I replied ‘Thanks’, to which he responded again 👍 and I proceeded to watch his progress. Sure enough, he called shortly and asked where we were! Well, Elly showed up and if you look at the photo of him, it must have been taken 30 years ago!

Turns out, he was a charming man who has lived in SF for 50 years and the entire time in the car all he could talk about was if we have ever been to Burning Man. We said no, and he told us about going alone one year and then taking his 28 year old daughter the next and how it was such a life changing event for them. Not for the drugs or partying, but for the connections to other people wanting to be together for all the right reasons. Very sweet.

He told us to call him for a ride back up, so we did and this time the conversation was about Italian Soap Operas on a special channel on TV. Then, driving back up in the rain and fog and deer and all the eeriness of crazy curvy mountain roads with NO streetlights, we realized we were quite lost and heading deep into the Muir Woods on the way to Stinson Beach. None of us had cell service at this point, and finding a place to turn around was difficult as well. Now the windows are fogging and he is cranking the heat up to the point where sitting in the backseat after tons of food, wine and laughter, we’re at the point where we might need airsickness bags!

We retraced our steps – we were at least 5 miles off the correct path and finally found our way back to cell service and directions to our guest house.

Hanging in the woods for another day, then tomorrow we need to store the Westy on Treasure Island, the tiny island between SF and Oakland just before you cross over the Bay Bridge. From there to the airport and back home tomorrow.

Not sure when we’ll be back, so I ordered a cover for the Westy and Steph and Jared will receive it and go tuck our baby away for another day.

That’s all there is from the wet woods, with the exception of all the ants we saw this morning carrying our food off the counter 😳

Listening to Linda Ronstadt sing Adios as I head home to Minnesota was a fitting end to part one of this trip.

I did stay the entire time in this campground even though it was quite crowded at first. Once the Cinco de Mayo celebrations were over, the place cleared out, with the exception of the folks directly to the left and right of me!

The family traveling in the retro trailer was from 5 miles away in Ventura and they come to this campground frequently as their 20 year old son loves it there. He is autistic and spends much of his time on a scooter or bike going round and round in the campground. Really sweet family and in two years when he reaches the end of his state sponsored activities, they will buy a new motor home and hit the road full time.

On the other side was a husband and wife who just sold their house and belongings and have decided to live on the road full time. They just purchased a new trailer and off they went. Staying in places like this, you very quickly hear too much information about their relationship and pretend you don’t.

Got to LA in time to get my baby washed and waxed…the guys were proud of their work and had to take a photo or two.

The return trip with Linda!

Our itinerary for this trip gets us out of LA quickly and up to the Santa Barbara hills where we’re staying on this lovely property. Multiple buildings on a bunch of acres of beautifully landscaped grounds. We were in a studio above one of the buildings.

Now, for most travelers, going from LA to SF is a day trip, maybe two at best. In the Westy, it’s a 3 to 4 day trip, weather permitting. Stayed here for 2 days as we looked at weather reports up the coast (all rain) and reconsidering whether we could get to Big Sur in a day to camp – impossible! So, we hit the road Wednesday morning for San Luis Obispo and accommodations in a guest house behind our host’s main home. Cute little studio and perfect for one night.

One of the highest rated dining spots was a mile or so walking distance from our place. Cute family run restaurant where they would bow gracefully when you enter and leave and if you tell them how much you enjoyed the food, they would bow again and pat their hearts! Totally enjoyable!!!

Oh – one minor problem – about 3 hours later, boy did we get the heebie jeebies – you know the leg and body twitches that tell you something in your food dish caused this feeling. And here we thought the curry and pad Thai were healthy choices!

The HWY 1 run to Carmel Valley

We left SLO in the morning with high hopes for the next part of the journey – from San Luis Obispo to the Carmel Valley / Monterey Peninsula. This is a spectacularly beautiful section of HWY 1 that winds and twists along the coast. I haven’t driven this one since the ’60’s and it brought back many memories! It poured buckets and buckets of rain and was actually a bit of a white knuckle day.

The rain stopped long enough for us to get a couple photos of the Elephant Seals basking on the shore. No, they are not dead! Although it smelled like they were! Check out the video.

By mid afternoon, we made it to Carmel Valley, about 15 miles inland from Carmel by the Sea to stay in another lovely home in the hills.

Friday morning, I wake up and look at email and find a note from the host with this message ‘I think you left your lights on.’ CRAP!!! I run out and sure enough, I did and sure enough my battery is as dead as can possibly be. There is no buzzer when you leave your lights on and shut off the engine so I can only blame myself. There is no way I am going to call AAA or the owner of the property for a jump.

The good news is, I’ve seen this movie before. If you notice from the photos, since we’re staying up in the hills, I felt no need to panic. We simply went about getting ready to leave, packed the bus and I told Linda to help push a little and hop in! Coasted down the hill, turned the ignition on, put the bus in second gear and POP, she fired right up. Of course, we didn’t stop for an hour so we could charge up the battery. Stupid Boy!

On Friday, we made our way into SF and across the Golden Gate Bridge to our home for the next few days. We’re staying in a guest house in the Muir Woods above Mill Valley – incredibly beautiful location.

Showed this photo to Becca and she asked…’did someone just move out?’ It’s the California minimalistic vibe.

One problem staying up here…Uber drivers hate coming up. Last night 4 drivers accepted and then bailed on us. The app would say they were on the way and show 10 minutes. And 15 minutes later, it would still show 10 minutes and then it would simply drop. So, I figured I needed to move up the food chain and kept selecting a higher priced ride. Finally Joseph came for us in his black Suburban for 3 times the price of the Uber X. Live and Learn!

Tonight we’re having dinner in Sausalito with Steph and Jared, Becca’s good friends and we will plan on leaving 3 hours earlier to ensure we get there in time!

Oh, it’s still raining and will be for the next 2 days!

One more thought…don’t you love how they design houses to fit in with the environment instead of cutting trees down that are in the way?!

Bye for now!

If you got the Tim Buckley reference, good for you!

Parts of LA actually still do look like this album cover, which was released in 1972. That’s the bad news, all the rest is good 👍

The Much Awaited Wednesday Lunch

When you wait for people you haven’t seen in 50 years, everyone that walks by looks somewhat like what you think they may look like. Maybe I should not arrive 45 minutes early – it was exhausting! Alan and Fredde were easy. The rest not so.

Around the table from left front.

Sol, Alan, Mike, me, Fredde, Susie

Fredde organized the get together and she is the creative advisor, historian and documentarian of the Teen Center group.

She is also the person that when the kids heard we were having lunch said ‘That Fredde!’. This is due to a photo Fredde and I took in 1973 or 1974 when she came to Minneapolis for a shoot or TV spot.

We updated the photo.

Sol is part of a multi-generational family business that produces some of the finest invitations for some of the most important people and events in LA and other parts of the world. What a great market and reputation these folks have. Go to http://www.lehrandblack.com They just finished doing 14,000 invites for the memorial of Nipsey Hussle.

Alan continues his law practice focusing on the entertainment world. He was formerly with Disney for many years.

When we were at the Teen Center, card playing was always on the agenda. Here they are recreating a photo that Fredde brought from around 1966. Sol in lower left corner and Alan on top left.

The shopkeepers thought this was a rather weird event going on in their doorway. It was some place called Goop. I thought their shit was weird.

Mike is still in the fire extinguisher business – over 35+ years. In high school, Mike always had this swagger and confidence about him. I think he was the first one shaving by 2 to 3 years!

Susie was the hot girl down the street that we knew none of us could ever date. What made matters worse for us was in 1968 her parents got her a brand new Camero – the white one with the big orange stripes running from hood to truck. Totally untouchable for us. She has recently retired after 35+ years teaching elementary school.

This was over way too quickly, but we all did agree to meet again in 50 years at the Roxbury Teen Center.

On Saturday, I was able to connect with Doug, Mike’s younger brother.

Doug lives in Encino in a super house he’s renovated over 25 years or so.

This is inside the courtyard, after he opened the gate for me 😉

Little pool in the back.

Doug got into IHOP’s a long time ago and owned a number of locations in the LA area. Pancakes have been berry berry good to Doug (although he says he’s never eaten in one – I call BS!)

Doug started laughing and asked me if I remembered the oversized plastic liquor bottle in my folks bedroom that my Dad kept his coins from work – he knew right where it was as I was stealing from it to pay my poker debts to Doug. I though my Dad would never find out as he always brought home tons of coins from the bar each morning, but when you’re 14 and strung out on gambling (so to speak), you don’t cover your trail well. My Dad was putting a very small dot with a sharpie on the container after getting suspicious.

Saturday Evening

Dandy, dinner at Dan Tana’s with nieces and nephews Kevin and Johanna, Mandy and Hesher.

If you have not eaten here, do when in LA. You must have a reservation or they will tell you on the phone when you ask ‘Can I get in at 7:30 PM tonight?’…’Yes you can’, they say. What they say as an afterthought or don’t say at all is you can come in at 7:30 PM, but we won’t be able to seat you till 9:30 PM! And the restaurant is really small and everyone is virtually on top of one another.

Hesher, Mandy, Kevin, Johanna and Gary (who looks like his head is ready to twist off)

Then we went next door to the Troubadour to see the Cactus Blossoms. Can’t begin to tell you how much fun it was to get together with these guys – good times!!!

Tidbits

Stayed in a great little back house up in Pacific Palisades right above Sunset Blvd.

Lovely, peaceful and secluded right in the city. Perfect for the few days in LA

Arrived this afternoon at Hobson State Beach campground in Ventura County. Every picture tells a story – don’t it!

Now a slight reverse angle for the rest of the story! Looks like when everything gets smashed together after a Tsunami!

Supposed to be here for 3 days – maybe, maybe not.

More if anything happens!

Leaving Phoenix on Monday around noon created some potential issues. The weather was forecast to be in the 90’s, which would mean I would have to carefully manage driving at higher speeds (60 to 65) due to my engine oil temp heating and thus back it down and drive in the 50’s. Knowing this, I decided it was best to find a campground in Blythe, CA along the Colorado River as that was only 150 miles out of Phoenix and not too aggressive as attempting to make Joshua Tree by sundown.

Good choice, although it wasn’t the desert heat that drove up my engine temperatures – it was the wind. Pushing through a headwind not only drops speeds, but it really kicks up the engine temps. I found that dropping to 3,000 RPM would keep the oil temp at a stable 260 degrees and shy of the danger zones above 275 to 300. It also meant I was limited to about 52 MPH the whole way. And, it was, as always, a white knuckle event with the gusts trying to blow you off the road.

The campground was about 15 miles north of Blythe on the Colorado River and very picturesque – but that really depends on how you frame your shots.

This lovely shot was right in front of my campsite.

What more could a person ask for? Well, how about a little extra space?

This is the shot from inside my bus looking at the next TWO campsites! Fortunately nobody filled the center spot and the one on the right was a long-term occupant in an old trailer.

Speaking of old trailers and those who choose to live in them…and I say choose lightly. RV / Trailer parks all over the country are filled with long-term occupants who cannot afford to be anywhere else and you typically can’t move many of these old trailers once they’ve been set on the slab for years.

I met this fellow, I’ll call him Jet Ski, and he used to work in Irvine, CA, an upper class community in Southern Cal. Well Jet Ski injured himself at work and needed 3 discs fused or something like that and he is now on permanent disability at 59 years of age. He could not afford the $600/month rent for a single room in a shared house in Irvine, so he packed up and is now living in one of the trailers for $350/month.

This is his life now as he expects to never go back to work. So when I met him, he was launching his Jet Ski into the river for a day on the water. I asked him what he does all day and he said Jet Ski. I said OK, but do you fish from your Jet Ski, or camp on the shoreline or …? And he said, no, I Jet Ski all day. All day, every day.

It certainly made me wonder about the dire financial condition so many Americans are in right now. At 59, that’s a lot of Jet Skiing yet to come and no real way out.

Then you read about these Investment Capital firms buying up many larger mobile home parks and jacking the rent because this captive audience has no alternatives to move or decline the increase – they simply must pay. All in the name of capitalism so I guess it’s ok 😳

Onto Joshua Tree

This campground was simply beautiful!

The last time I was here was in the 60’s and my memory of the Joshua Trees was that they were so much more animated, colorful and even talked to me!

Great location, 4,000+ elevation and freezing at night! Time to get to LA!

I found a AirBNB in Venice for the night. Now, don’t judge. My criteria was where can my bus be safe and not on the street. So, I found a great little studio in the back of a house with off street parking.

Sweet spot – hidden from the world!

And here is my lovely room…

The part I forgot to research was ‘does this place have a bathroom?’ Well no, not in your room. The main house has a bathroom you share with the homeowner. Yuk! But all good. Homeowner was gone yesterday and last night, so all was good.

Main house is small and cute and it is so interesting how many of these bungalows now have guest houses in the rear for this type of rental.

Thinking this place is about a $700k home in this area.

Heading out for my reunion lunch which is up the coast from Venice to Pacific Palisades. More later!

…there was an event that occurred at the same time I arrived in Phoenix last October. The Arizona Bus Club was having their final get together which involved a show on Saturday and the next day many in the club would go to a reservoir for an overnight of camping. And, since I conveniently planned my trip to arrive on Friday afternoon, in time to get my baby washed, I was very curious about how I’d fare with all these Arizona busses and bugs.

That’s me in the back of the 3rd row – nice way to treat an out-of-towner!

Lot’s of really fine vehicles and really nice folks. Never sure what to say as I’ve never been to a show before…’Nice bus. You too.’ Pause…

Most folks at this event traveled all the way cross town to get to here. Then, they will caravan to the resevoir in the event anyone should have a breakdown. Actually I knew I was headed in the right direciton to the show when I started seeing some vehicles broken down along the way. I’d ask and they’d say they have it covered or someone was on the way. Almost all at the show were blown away that I had just pulled in from Minnesota the previous afternoon. ‘You drove here?!’ Well, yes I did – isn’t that the whole purpose???

So, to cut to the chase – here is the bus that took 1st Place. Similar to mine, not an original color, safari windows that pop out in front (had them and got rid of them because they leak). She also had period correct surfeboard straps on top. Actually, my 64 bus in high school had them, but we designed them to be on the roof inside the bus so nobody would steal your board.

First and Second Place went to local club members, but I did snag Third Place, the admiration of many fellow enthusiasts, some gift cards and swag and, of course some hardware!

About This Trip

I’m on day 2 of about 12 or so. Leaving Joshua Tree shortly for Los Angeles and tomorrow, I’m getting together for lunch with an interesting group of people I’ve not seen in 50 years.

When I first moved to LA in 1965, we lived in an apartment in Beverly Hills. I found the Roxbury Teen Center a few blocks away and became fast friends with about a half dozen other kids from the neighborhood. After 2 years, my folks moved again and by 1969 I’d all but lost touch with them, except Freddie Duke, whom I’d email every year or so.

Well, the Teen Center group is having lunch tomorrow and Fredde, Alan (her brother), Sol, Mike, Doug (brothers) and Susie will get together for the first time in 50+ years! Should be very interesting!

I’m also going to the Troubadour to see the Cactus Blossoms along with my nieces and nephews Kevin, Mandy and Johanna. Then up the coast for a few days on the beach in Ventura County and back to LA for a flight home. Take a day to celebrate Mother’s Day and Cathy’s birthday and Linda and I will be heading back the next day to go from LA to SF along the coast. We’ve got campsites in Ventura, Big Sur and an AirBNB in Mill Valley. We’re also going to see Steph and Jared.

Good times ahead!