South Yuba's Independence Trail

Here are the latest photos of Lucia, Malakai, and Oma (Lucia's choice to replace "Gramma") on the Independence Trail of the South Yuba River. This is one of several trails that draw the tourists from the Bay Area and Los Angeles. We were the first people there this morning but we met many other hikers on our way down. The first shot is my favorite. While Oma hams it up for the camera, Mali throws back his head and laughs with pure joy. The twisted tree branch is that of a Madrone tree. The yellow flowers are poppies. Next is a pic of Mali and Oma standing under a natural rock arch.

Look at Mali peeking around his Mama to flirt with Oma!

The clumps at the top of the tree are MISTLETOE! All you Eastern readers know full well what this much mistletoe would bring on the open market during the Christmas holiday week.. you are looking at literally THOUSANDS of dollars in little corsages. And that's just ONE tree. The woods are laden with it here! Finally, we shot down from a ledge on the trail to the river and highway below. This particular trail is most popular with hikers because everyone from children to grandparents can enjoy it. It is not an arduous trek and very beautiful. One thing done here, I really liked and appreciated. The more unusual flora and fauna were identified by laminated cards for those among us who need a little tutelage.

And The Beat Goes On

Where do the years go? I can remember my life almost day by day when I was Lucia's age.. 29. Now my little girl is 29 and her son is the light of my day. The picture of them together was taken at the South Yuba River.. about half way between Lucia's home on the San Juan Ridge and Nevada City. The pond at sunset is a few steps from her home. She and Malakai and I were picking daffodils and walking Danny. Lucia's cats: Tumbleweed, Delicata and Senegal followed us down and back. The picture of Malakai alone I entitled "Modern Narcissus". Actually, he's too young now to understand how precious and beautiful he is, but soon we'll have to curtail all the "beautiful boy" and "sweet prince" comments lest it go to his head.

I'd Put Money On It

"When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her."
-Montaigne

Oma's Angels

And The Queen's Courtiers

Nevada City is one of the few towns I've been in whose Downtown is fully alive on weekends. As I told you in the previous post, this is a tourist town and on Saturday and Sunday the vacationers flock here.. many come from the Bay area just for a couple of days of exploring the shops or hiking the Yuba River trails. The top photo is of the National Hotel, located on the main drag through town, Broad St., and closest to the Freeway. After 130 years of serving it's guests, this Victorian era classic is the oldest continuously operating hotel west of the Rockies. There's even a pool filled with clear mountain water. The next two shots are also of Broad St. commercial establishments. The fourth picture is the building occupied by the Chamber of Commerce. It's on Main Street downtown. Built in 1855, it is one of the oldest buildings and located next to the Assay Office that tested samples from what became the "Comstock Lode".. one of the biggest silver and gold discoveries in the West. Photos 5,7,11 and 12 are private residences in that area. Eleven and twelve are front and back views of the same home. Photo number 6 is a private school in the Seven Hills Business District which used old mining equipment to reflect the local heritage and it looks attractive too. Photo number 9 is a small park used by the locals to enjoy lunch outside or as a meeting place. It's directly across the street from the National Hotel and displays numerous pieces of original mining equipment.

The Queen

Nevada City.. The Queen of Northern California's Mining Towns, as it is called, is one of the most carefully preserved towns of the old West. Put on the map by the Gold Rush, N.C. had a population of over 16,000 souls in it's heyday. But like Tombstone, AZ, those glory days evaporated. Located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, it is halfway between Sacramento and Reno. It's 'sister city' is Grass Valley, another 5 minutes away. (That's if you fly low, as most locals do, 15 minutes for me) But that's another posting. Right now, I'd like to acquaint you only with Nevada City and the attractions closest to it, like the South Yuba River and the covered bridge at Bridgeport and/or French Corral.. depending upon which end of the bridge you enter through. The photos show you that covered bridge.. which touts itself as the longest in the United States and is so handsome... downtown Nevada City and the roads leading from Lucia's home... paved roads end a couple of miles from her door. The one-lane bridge photo was taken through the windshield as I was driving back from town. Lucia is part of Nevada City as far as the post office is concerned, but she's only a couple of miles from North San Juan (Pop. 125) while it takes about 30 minutes to go into Nevada City for shopping. There is no cinema, but you can see first run independent films on Sunday evenings at a make-do converted home downtown. Otherwise, you have to go to Grass Valley. This is a big tourist town. It's the tourist trade that supports N.C.'s many restaurants, art galleries,. and boutiques. The entire downtown area is registered as a National Historic Landmark. The year round population is 2,800 residents.. most of whom are tucked up in the foothills. In those foothills are some interesting residences. Mind you, Nevada City isn't just a town, it's an entire way of life. People here have far above average educations. Many are well traveled. Many live here part of the year. Most are very private and, while civic-minded and generous with their support of the community, you can't find their homes if they don't want you to and there's little "dropping in" on people. You go by invitation. And you usually go during daylight hours. There are no street lights out of town, making it impossible to know where you are if you don't live here. In other words, if you wanted to disappear for whatever reason, this would be a good place to go. Temporary living accomodations, like tee-pees, yurts, tents and lean-to's are abundant. Most property owners are willing to have "squatters" on their land for years at a time. Some are charged rent, others.. friends.. are allowed to encamp at no charge. Cell phone service is OK, spotty, or non-existent depending upon the carrier. I have Verizon and it's pretty good. Organic grocery stores outnumber traditional by 3 to 1. Up here on the ridge, there's a small grocery and gathering spot for the locals known as "Mother Trucker's". Great coffee. Good for most needs and to get the gossip. When MTV tried to go to the river a couple of years ago to film a concert, the locals put up signs at "Mother's" to rally the troops and block MTV's trucks from getting up there to film. That effort was successful. They didn't want the "secret" of this place to become common knowledge. Food costs a bloody fortune comparatively. Some grow their own food. Lucia and the property owners, who are now in Hawaii for a few months, share a large garden which is enclosed with a 7 foot fence to keep the deer and rabbits, gophers, etc. out. There is a compost pile within the garden. People keep cats to kill field mice and rats. They keep dogs for an alarm system and to keep coyotes, cougars, bears away. The bears haven't been seen here for a few years now, I'm told by some, but Lucia had one on her back deck recently. The deer are gentle and rather tame. Lucia feeds them and they were visiting daily until Danny chased them away. There is indoor plumbing in Lucia's current home.. which is a step up from my visit 2 and a half years ago, when we brought water in to do dishes and took a walk down a path to the outhouse. Mind you, I had never SEEN an outhouse, but learned to use one comfortably at almost 60 years of age! Never too old to learn! Actually it isn't so bad, but I prefer not to be feeling my way to a small enclosure in an area where cougars are common. You literally cannot see your hand in front of your face here at night without a full moon.But... you should see the stars... big as golfballs. I have a skylight above my bed and go to sleep staring at them. And the river water? Crystal clear. You can see the bottom at twenty feet deep. Lucia's home is heated by a wood stove. There are oil filled radiators in the bedrooms which are used upon rising until the fire is stoked and new wood brought in in the morning. There is no air conditioning, but you don't need it. Although it's as hot as 100+ degrees in July and August, it becomes sweater weather when the sun sets. No humidity.. quite the change from Miami. In fact, Miami is a different world from Nevada City. Miami is as close to visiting a foreign country as you can get without leaving the US. One of the reasons I love it. Nevada City is a much better place to raise children.. little, if any, violence here. In Miami, random violence is on the increase.There are safe pockets, but you have to know the city well and be aware of your surroundings at all times. Here... bears and cougars watching you from the woods. Our four legged neighbors are ever the best people when all is said and done.

Party for Malakai LaFerme-St. John's 2nd Birthday

Being two years old makes you aware that it's a special occasion and Malakai was a good host to his guests.. sharing and playing for three hours Sunday afternoon. Although his birthday was actually Monday, Mama and Pa worked around the schedule of Mali's guests. Everyone had a good time eating fresh veggies with dip, ham, guava paste (like the Cubans serve to their guests, but without the traditional cream cheese (because Gramma forgot to buy extra), and TWO birthday cakes! Mali's favorite blueberry upside down cake and a yummy carrot cake with a sweet cream cheese icing. Mama made a lovely pink punch of blood oranges, lemons, and sparkling water. The day was warm and sunny and the children enjoyed going into the garden and played nicely together. Four of the children were close in age to Mali and there was one "big boy" there, Lorian. The grownups enjoyed seeing one another and there will be even more photos, the next ones taken by David. Heidi's Blessing Way will be next Sunday, here. No children will be present for that special event celebrating the birth of Heidi and David's second child, any day now. Mali's other grandmother (also named Penny) sent his favorite toy, a large spinning top that plays music! Gramma gave him a white Ferrari he saw while shopping in Nevada City. The home is the photo is Lucia's.

Odds 'n' Ends

There are bits and pieces of things I wanted to talk to you about that never made it to the daily blog entry..here they are in no particular order (the photo is apropos of nothing, I love pigs and the child reminded me of Mali, that's all there is to it):

I am a big fan of RV's. I've wanted one for years and appreciate the lifestyle. Don't like the weather, the view, the neighbors? Turn the key. But I have to say that the "RV Resorts" I saw in New Mexico and Arizona were atrocious eyesores. Because the desert hasn't the natural barrier of trees, these resorts have far too high a profile and should be dealt with before they proliferate further. Put all the city planners in those states onto a bus/train/plane and send them to Paso Robles, CA for examples of how to deal with the issue effectively. In Paso Robles I saw a fair-sized RV campground by the highway that was nearly unnoticeable because of the height of a neutral stone enclosure around all of it. If you have read through my blog you may feel sure that I would avoid places like this anyway, not choosing to be jammed into such close contact with others. That aside, these "resorts" give the RV'ers a black eye.

The female ticket taker in Tombstone at Six Gun City struck up a conversation with me and said she wishes she had the "guts" to travel cross country alone. I assured her it doesn't take "guts", just desire and caution. "Well, I don't know.. these days it's dangerous." "You're dressed up like a gunslinger.. careful who hears you talk like that!"

It was Virgil Earp who owned a piece of the Oriental Saloon, not Wyatt.

And it was Virgil who ran into Doc Holliday in another western town and told him Wyatt was in Tombstone. Doc followed Virgil back there.

Virgil's home was directly across the street from Wyatt's. It is now an empty lot.

Morgan didn't die as depicted in "Tombstone". He was shot two months later than the movie indicates. And Doc didn't die in a Colorado sanitorium. According to the Tombstone historical experts, he died in his hotel room.

Although Doc Holliday MAY have been the one to kill Johnny Ringo, no one knows for certain. Ringo was left under a tree, as the movie depicts, but he was partially scalped and those who knew Doc well have said he would not have done that.

The actor who played Virgil in "Tombstone", Sam Elliott, lives within a sixty mile radius of Tombstone, AZ and frequently visits there on his motorcycle. All the locals know him.

The actual "Gunfight At The OK Corral" occured on Fremont Street, in the middle of that street, and not where it is currently being reinacted.

Under "Ostrich Land In No Man's Land", I have added a photo of an emu that I overlooked in the original posting. There are approximately a dozen emus and 20 or so ostrichs there, plus a couple of ponies.

The price of gasoline varied from the low in Virginia Beach to the high in the Mojave Desert, $3.69. The prices are always the highest furthest from the highways, not closest as I and others have thought. I believed "they" got you at the stations built on the Interstate exits, but I found that isn't true. Instead they get you when you have no other choice but to fill 'er up.

There are more pecan farms located on the road to Tombstone and many pistachio and pecan farms in New Mexico.

The land between Capitan and Socorro in New Mexico is known as the outlaw "Billy The Kid's" territory.

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico took that name as the result of an offer made by the producers of the TV show "True or Consequences" that they would pay a town willing to change their name as a promotional gimmick. If you live in N.M., you call it "T or C". The town was originally known as "Hot Springs".

I-40 in Arizona is the Purple Heart Trail.

There are certain views burned into my memory forever. First, and foremost, the view from the top of St. Augustine Pass as you descend into White Sands, New Mexico. I couldn't stop, no pull-offs for photos. It would be worth the cost of hiring a helicopter to hover there for panoramic shots. I looked up a few photos on the 'net and couldn't find even one that delivers the real impact. The view of Verde Valley (and, no, it isn't) as you descend, heading to Sedona, AZ. The first glimpse of Red Rock Country. As you head toward Sedona from Phoenix, it will be on your left. As I've said before, the color doesn't translate. You have to SEE it yourself to believe it. The view of Gulf Breeze and beyond from downtown Pensacola. Tombstone - I felt like I was dreaming. I can see the dust and the cowboys and feel the wind right now. The early evening entrance into Tucson with those amazing "bouquet cactuses" like ghosts in the desert to the north of I-10. The pristine "new" Gulfport, Mississippi... it's so neat and clean, so wiped off the map.

Insofar as cities and towns go, I have my favorites among them. Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington, NC; Charleston, SC; Gulf Breeze, FL; San Antonio, TX; Alamogordo, NM;

Tombstone, AZ; Ventura, CA; and, yes, Nevada City is an interesting little town. I'll show you more of it while I'm here.

I'd have to say in retrospect that while every minute was an adventure, there are some places I won't think about much. That would include the entire state of Louisiana... bless those poor people. When you think about Cajun food, really think about it, you realize that it's food made from "making do". It's a diet born of invention and poverty. Louisiana along the coast has the appearance of grinding poverty, misery, dirt. I will have to see New Orleans restored in order to believe it. I have a lot of respect for the effort put forth by corporate America to schedule NOLA for special events. I have no respect for a government that can't take care of it's citizens in the wealthiest country in the world. I'm disgusted by the promises made and broken to Louisiana's residents.

Mountain Goat

This little boy is a climber.. he loves to cook.. Gramma gave him a wooden kitchen with wooden foods and utensils, pots and pans for Christmas.. he loves cars and trucks and motorcycles.. he would rather be playing in the dirt or in Mama's garden than to be indoors.. he knows what Miner's Lettuce is and he eats it raw, along with Lamb's Ears, fennel, kale, broccoli and other edibles from that garden. He likes chicken but LOVES vegetables and noodles. He drinks oat milk, almond milk, soy milk, goat milk. He has never tasted beef or cured meats. If you give him bread with jam, he eats the jam and gives the bread to Danny... he has a sense of humor..he knows how to pitch a fit, but picks his battles.. his hair has never been cut.. his vocabulary is about a dozen words.. he understands pretty much whatever you say to him and responds accordingly.. "Please close the door" and "Please pick up your toys before you go to bed" ..he has his own bedroom now, with blocks and dinosaurs and cars and airplanes.. he slept in Gramma's bed last night while Mama went dancing.. there's nothing more fascinating to him than a "Pot!".. he can fill and empty them with water and never tire of it. His eyes are dark brown, his skin fair, his checks rosy, his hair a dark blonde in color.. he is loving and shares easily.. laughs easily..