Wherein We Accept Elvis As Our King

Two years ago, I took my niece on a cross-country roadtrip to celebrate her graduation from college. She was content to let me plan the whole trip, but there was one place she was insistent that we visit: Graceland. I wasn’t enthusiastic. You see, I’m too young to remember the vibrant, rock ‘n’ roll Elvis. By the time I was listening to popular music, he was a fat, washed...

Still Thinking Roadtrips

My Skywatch post. See more skies from around the world at the Skywatch site: http://skyley.blogspot.com/ Once I get behind the wheel of Old Paint, it seems it’s hard for me to take my foot off the gas. So I’m already thinking about what my next roadtrip will be. Several things are going to govern the choice of my next destination: 1) The economy. After the blow-out at the...

Playing Hookey on the Cabrillo Highway

I should have roadtrips out of my system after our epic trip down the Central Valley to San Juan Capistrano and back. But it took me less than two days of doing chores to hop back in Old Paint and head for the open road. It sort of came under the category of chores since I’d been directed to Santa Cruz Hydroponics for the best selection of organic, non-GMO seeds and starts. So...

Wrapping Up That Roadtrip

One of the highlights of the trip, the unscheduled stop at San Antonio de Padua, the one Mission that still looks much as it did in Padre days, thanks to its isolation. Call me an unrepentant English Literature Major, but I always like to have a theme to my roadtrips. I strive for some contextual symmetry, a narrative line, a hero’s journey. Sometimes it works, sometimes it...

Out with the Truckers and the Kickers an...

  The last day of our roadtrip started with a near fight. See Mom was born during the Depression, she knows the value of a dollar and she doesn’t waste food. So I indulged her when she carted the remains of her chicken fried steak out of Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace. I figured there was plenty of time to talk her out of taking it in the car. But Saturday morning when she...

Where We Meet Nixon Near the Kitchy Cath...

Today, we left San Juan Capistrano and headed up toward Northern California to the right. I mean WAY to the Right. Since our motel was actually in San Clemente, and we had eaten dinner at Richard Nixon’s favorite restaurant, we thought we should swing by the Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace. But on the way we’d be passing the Crystal Cathedral of Dr. Robert...