75. The Long Drive Home

The Long Drive Home
Ca-Nevada-Idaho-El Big

Soundtrack from California to Nevada:
Newly purchased The Format
The Beatles
Seemingly endless Glen Gould mp3's
The Smiths imitators, Silent Gray
Guilty pleasure ELO
Tidbits of NPR around the cities
and Name That Tune to various statiic-filled Classic Rock radio stations.


Once again, goodbye California. Well, for now.


Artichoke fields, Salinas



Good bye behemoth ads on everything. I won't miss that part of you at all. No, not even...

...the ones I'm partially responsible for.


Goodbye insanely beautiful beaches with crazy looking Dr. Suess-like succulents growing wild everywhere...


Goodbye strange, California contradictions---Such as this car in front of us on our way out of the Bay Area. Yes, that's an anti AYE-SEE-EL-U (sic) sticker on a Preeus. Reminds me of an old boss of mine in SF. Anyway...!

The caricature artist, Juan Hijo de Sostenido.
Goodbye to all the gradeschool pals who you happen to run into while visiting the family. Nice seeing you after 100 years. Stay in touch, Juan!


Goodbye to all those fleshy pink brick soundwalls that snake along just about every highway in California...


...

...

Why, hello Nevada...


First things first. Some online research leads us to a perfect meal at Vietnamese restaurant that's tucked away just on the outskirts of town.


What the...? Hello eye candy.
With our good fortune, we roll into town the same night as the famous annual car show. Que scores an online discount room at one of the casinos...

We drop off our bags off and bolt out of the casino with cameras in hands...

Insert gurgled announcers voices blaring over the rumbling mufflers...





50's music...


...and the smell of car exhaust from the hundreds of old cars chugging by...












Wish I could stay longer, but we have to go. Goodbye Reno...

Hello Idaho!

...to be continued.

74. VSPD

Photo shot at the civic art gallery in Bakery Town, a small city south of El Big, pop. 9,000.

73. Wildlife Viewing Report

Onion County Wildlife Viewing Report

Morning Doves can be seen around El Big until the first frost, when they head south to the vollyball courts on the Florida beaches. Bambi can be seen in Farmer Doug's fields and near cover in the am and at dusk. Teenage Red-tailed Hawks are visable, bumming around out on power poles and irrigation structures. Young Osprey are seen in Onion County too.

Most of the teeny bopper Tanhill Cranes of the wildlife area are beginning to hang in large groups of 10 and 20. Watch out for them from the road near Football Road and Warm Lake Avenue and Nectarine Road. They can be intimidating.



Elsewhere, totally immature bald eagles can be seen from the boat pier at Poolchair Reservoir, about 10 miles south of El Big. Visitors to the valley can see both adult and youngster elk calves too, basically up to no good; downing J&B berry winecoolers and playing target practice with empty sixpacks of Pabst Azul Ribbon Beer.

Adult professors, usually noted for their broad brimmed, non-cowboy hats, prescription sun glasses, and summer plummage, can still be spotted wandering aimlessly around the undeveloped areas of the valley for approximately one month or so. Most species are considered fairly harmless unless provoked while uncaffienated and/ or discussing World politics.

72. UPDATE: Culture Shock Level Check

So, Que and I had two bees pass us up on the drive down to the pizza parlor yesterday.
I think El Big's suiting us just fine.

As ever,
Ms. Jane D'oh

***

71. VSPD

Once again, VSPD is "Very Special Photo Day!" An oldie but a goodie. Photo taken at Arbie's in 2005, The Daluz, an extraordinary rural community 2 hours east of El Big
***

70. Home Sweet Home

Classes I won't be signing up for this term...
>ANS216-Pregnacy Testin/ Bovine
Credits-1 Lab-1
This course is a "hands-in" course requiring
students to pregancy check a minimum of
fifty cows to become proficient. This class has
an open lab to accomodate students and give
all adequate time to develop a high level
of profiency.
Recommended preparation: AGM121, ANS122,
and instructor approval.

>ANS217-Artificial Insemination
Credits-3, Lecture-2, Lab-1
Basic consideration of reproductive physiology
and artificial inseminatin of livestock.
Emphasis in the lab is places on the application
of lecture material and developing proficiency in
the artificial insemination of cattle.
Recommended preparation: ANS121 and ANS122

69. Hello Pacific contin'

A surfer at Jules Fiepher (sic) private beach, Grande Monsieur.



This area was made famous by many a movie filming...
Two above photos by Que


... including the Brand'oh film, Una-Ojo Jacks, (1961)


More pictures of the 94 year old National Landmark, The Julie Morgan (sic) State Park Retreat, where Que and I stay for one week---


...where my mother spent her summers as a young girl of the Y-Dubya-CA in the 1940's, and where my father spent his summers in the 1970's training as president of *his* union.


The central meeting area in the Friendship Hall--complete with grande piano, pool tables, and ping pong. I cream Que in ping pong, btw. (I can't help it, it's in my DNA.)


It's also the one room in the entire retreat that provides wi-fi. Rooms include wood burning fireplaces...gorgeous balconies overlooking the grounds...

...but have no televisions and absolutely no telephones.

People watching is primo for my roving eye. Besides the interesting cross section of Que's good union folk, the retreat attracts family reunions, upper crust history buffs, middle aged ludites, and the lot of new agey California stereotypes.




The architect's signiature style has strong influences on the surrounding homes in the area, not to mention every new strip mall across the NorthWestern United States. (Stay tuned for my post on this very subject alone!)

***

While Que fights for health benefits along side the West Coast's finest 2007 teachers at the role playing bargaining sessions at the training conference...











... I gleefully sneak away for a dream drawing and painting date at the stunning coastal St Park reserve, Whale Bay, Pacifico G Reserve- dry ink brush pen on paper


(Things such as this sign remind me why I still love California.)

I want capture it all before returning to El Big, so I find myself taking more pictures than I expected...

Native yellow lupin on the dunes.
Wooden signs and literature pamphlets near the sand dunes notify beach combers of complex native plant restoration projects. Every time we go out, we see groups of deer grazing on the plantings.

Boardwalks gracefully snake around the new plantings and dunes, creating protective walkways to the beach.



The usual patches of barren sand with pretty but invasive iceplant have been replaced with pre-european native plant species. Each plant was grown in the resort's nursery and planted by hand.

Enormous progressive projects such as this remind me what a very special area it is.





















Sun drenched, celadon beaches at the famous Grande Monsieur.