Sunset State Beach

Sunset State Beach is just south of Santa Cruz off Highway 1. The campsites are roomy and the sites well-kept. But here is the reason to camp there. On a night of the full moon, waves of white water come in from the west and waves of strawberry-protecting white plastic crest over the low hills to the east. That makes Sunset a thin island with scenery simultaneously in your face and behind your back.

Stage Road

Stage Road runs between San Gregorio and Pescadero, just inland from Highway 1. It used to haul freight between the ends of two rail lines. It's crooked, winding its way through native coyote bush and exotic pampas grass. Except for one straight stretch in a pleasant farming valley with a pleasing old farm house. Metal sculptures stand guard out in front of the house, two adultes terribles where you least expect them.

Half to Have It

Half to Have It is an antiques store on the corner of Kelly and Main in downtown Half Moon Bay. Outside, clear winds inspire assorted wind chimes. Inside, inspiration comes from Just Stuff piled in and then piled up. As you inspect the thousands of things, cut-outs of Elvis, Marilyn, and Humphrey inspect you. Ecstatic Maxfield Parrish women gaze longingly at the heavens (they are ready to go) while Buddhas big and small wear transparent smiles (they seem happy enough where they are). Mirrors are all over the place so you can ask them, Mirrors Mirrors among the Stuff, Tell Me True, Am I happy Enough?

John Carter Memorial Park

The John Carter Memorial Park in Half Moon Bay is down stairs in a ravine, where the statue of a big man holds a sizeable pumpkin. (The area is famous for its plumb pumpkins.) Behind him, over on the dark side of the park, almost out of sight, two teenagers express themselves against a tree. Close by their two bikes lie casually entangled.

Flying Fish Grill

The Flying Fish Grill is in Half Moon Bay, near the intersection of Highway 1 and Highway 92. The fish tacos and the mahi mahi tacos are good, as is the grilled shrimp. But the truly fascinating thing about the place is a trip to the two-gendered restroom. You go out the front door, around the northeast corner of the building, by a row of parked cars and exotic flowers, around the northwest corner, around the southwest corner by piled up debris, in the back door, past the cooks, who have to step out of the way, and around an interior corner to the door. Pray that it is unoccupied.

Allensworth State Park

Allensworth State Park is off Highway 43 in California's Great Valley, half way between Wasco and Corcoran. It is also not far off the tracks taking people and freight up and down the state. (This information is relevant only to those who spend the night in the spacious campground.) Colonel Allensworth, a naval officer and a Baptist minister, and founder of the town, was killed by a motorcycle as he stepped off of a bus. His town foundered for lack of water. Houses reconstructed from the town that was then are now separated by many flat spaces, as if distance made absent neighbors better.

Ruins

Time makes ruins ferment. An intoxicating dark drink for the eyes. Take the ruins at the junction of Highway 43 and Pond Road north of Wasco in California's Central Valley. Best to go on a day of hazy sun, when it is warm but not hot. Late October is a good bet, when the sun begins to slant, casting elongated shadows. Torn up rails run between ruins and road, while eucalyptus trees stand by the way. In the shade a Taco and Burrito Truck has food prepared for tongue.

East Side Cemetery

On the east side of Tehachapi is the East Side Cemetery. Beside its blue-arrowed sign is an empty heart with wings still attached. A second sign, beside the first, what was the sign of signification, is now full of empty sky.

Altar, Highway 58

Not far west of Mojave, on Highway 58 headed over Tehachapi Pass, is an altar for Oscar Munoz. Its concrete casing has been newly resurfaced. On the hills far away windmills make renewed energy out of the everlasting wind.

Legacy Park, Mojave Air and Space Port

Legacy Park at the Mojave Airport is memento mori. Benches are available for pausing and sitting in life's brief journey to remember those who tried way up in the high atmosphere to touch "the face of God." They fell, like Icarus, because "from dust ... to dust." But grass grows in dust.
Major Premise: "All flesh is as grass."
Minor Premise: Grass has enduring-rock envy.
Conclusion: Rock in grass = skull in hand.

Voyager Restaurant

Mojave Air and Space Port is stark. So is the Voyager Restaurant that sits below the Control Tower. Walls white in the sun, gray in the shade. Windows small and black, mid-sized and black. People walking by on their way in look ordinary, in a surreal landscape. Voyager milkshakes-to-go are better than ordinary.

Mojave

Whoever of this generation seeks a sign, let them go to Mojave at the junction of Highways 58 and 14.

Red Rock State Park

Red Rock State Park is on Highway 14 north of Mojave. Drab rock is mixed with the red. The campground rests among the drab. Campsites are spread out and spacious, although boomboxes can be heard a long way in the dry air. Cars descending the evening highway on their way to LA make a long, hypnotic "headlight falls." Darkening rocks creep up on the camper.

Cross at Walker Pass

Up the hill from Walker Pass is an new rugged cross, the emblem of somebody's suffering. Sister and brother scampered up the granite among the rabbit brush, big sagebrush, and one-seeded pinyon pines. Mother tried to follow them, but stopped, panting. "Come back!" she yelled. "You're killing me!"

Walker Pass

Walker Pass on Highway 178 between Lake Isabella and Highway 14 is the lowest pass in the Sierra Nevada. It's nice, but you can't see all that much in either direction. A pyramid of a hill stands off to the north. A little way up the south slope is a new wooden cross. A really, truly brightly green colored can (for water? for oil? for antifreeze?) lies on the ground. It makes you take your eyes off the mediocre vistas and stare down at your feet.

Woody

Woody is on Highway 155 on the way from Delano to Lake Isabella. Woody consists mostly of the woody remains of the Buzzard's Roost, a restaurant and bar with wooden collapsed bandstand in the rear. The town goes back a long ways, in California terms, to Mr. Woody the Pioneer in the 1860s and Mr. Weringer, mine owner and entrepreneur, who laid out the town in the late 1880s. Signs and remains of signs are all about, signifying impermanence.

Terra Bella Railroad Parkway

Terra Bella Railroad Parkway, in the town of Terra Bella, makes sort of a circular course between the tracks and Porterville Road, around some erratic boulders and newly planted trees that offer scant shade. At one end was a gathering of men under a roof, talking with each other. At the other end an older man kept a lone watch.

Blue Pig

On the eastern outskirts of Three Rivers is the headquarters of Blue Pig for President. The pig is blue all right. It looks ferocious enough for the job. On one side is a ladder for climbing to the top. Inside is a mess of wires all tangled up and torn red lining.

Boyden Cave

Boyden Cave is on the way out of Kings Canyon. You could say it's a canyon with the roof on. An asphalt path, draped with the sharp needles of the California nutmeg, leads a few hundred feet up from the river to the entrance. Gold cup oaks, big-leaf maples, and California bays also line the path. Rock-cracking saxifrage is all about. The cave looks like it means business, with its dark throat and stubby teeth. Entrance to the underworld is by guide only, tickets at the Visitors Center. Gratuities are appreciated.

Rock Stand

On Highway 180 between Fresno and Kings Canyon is a magical stand made of smooth, fist-size rocks, with cement mortar. Maybe it was once used to sell fruit, although it has no over-the-counter for transfer of goods. Now it is just there, like existence, taking up spacetime along with dried grasses and a few trees. A good place for a Zen picnic.

Art Stand

The Art Stand is a converted Fruit Stand on the corner of Highway 180 and Frankwood Road. It is a cooperative of fifteen Fresno-area artists, whose work ranges from the scenic to the close-up, from representational to abstract. The Art Stand is a fine illustration of the famous Zen adage, the calories that count come from painted plums.

Shaver Lake Hardware

In Shaver Lake Hardware is a Birds-Away-Attack-Spider.