B-West

St. Monica's Catholic Church

2009-03-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

St. Monica's Roman Catholic Church is on a very broad way going westwardly out of Willows. It has many a row of Italian cypress. Cupressus sempervirens is also called graveyard cypress. It is a mournful tree, common in cemeteries.

Common Grounds

2009-03-18T14:13:00.000-07:00

Common Grounds is just north of the center of downtown in Willows. It has inside, outside, and upstairs seating. The position of choice is a plumb red cushion in a small room off the main room. Good place to hear elderly locals bluntly sum up the world as of any mid-morning and to consume heated sticky buns.

Willows

2009-03-04T13:33:00.000-08:00

The town of Willows is located in the Sacramento Valley, off Interstate 5, about half way between Sacramento and Red Bluff. The town as a whole does not have the sense of humor that New Pine Creek has, or Pt. Arena. It does, however, have some pairings worthy of the weird.
Downtown, in one building, are The Ark and Holi Market, back to back, one facing west and the other east. Just north of downtown is a building that houses both the Car-Mar-Ray Association and Paratransit Services. There is the way the entrances to the sacred and the secular play with architectural traditions. And, then, scattered about are '76 Joy Street, the Law Offices of J. Mark Atlas, and the beauty salon Identite, with an acute accent over the final "e."

Watercolor Restaurant

2009-02-20T12:58:00.000-08:00

Watercolor Restaurant is on Soda Bay Road on the south shore of Clear Lake in Lake County. It's a fine place for humans to observe fellow humans. A man discusses the breakup of his marriage, "What I did wrong, according to her, was leave, but the only thing I did right was get out of there." Later, on his way out, he said to the waitress, "You're the cutest thing I've seen around here." A woman on her cell phone said to her teenage daughter, "A beer has less alcohol than wine. Drink one beer and relax." A man among four men said, "I used to be a successful contractor. Now that they're putting me in jail (laughs), I wanted to have this going away party." The croissant raisin bread pudding is excellent, even in the absence of decaf. "We're all heavy hitters here," the waitress said.

Edgewater RV Park

2009-02-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

Edgewater RV Park is on Soda Bay Road, on the south shore of Clear Lake, and is the choice RV Park among many on the lake. Its location at the foot of Mt. Konocti means cool and wet, and cool and wet supports a diversity of plants not found elsewhere on the lake. A pier out over the water allows unimpeded access to sunsets reflected in still waters.

Zephyr Zen

2009-02-19T14:31:00.000-08:00

In Zephyr Zen in the town of Clearlake on the shores of Clear Lake in Lake County, is an alabaster statue of Buddha holding an alabaster statue of Mary, illustrative of the next stage in the development of American religion.

Steves Place

2009-02-19T13:40:00.000-08:00

The yellow of Steves Place is hard to miss. It is in the town of Clearlake on Clear Lake in Lake County. The sign says Compassion Center, but it looks not all that welcoming. Another sign says, "Ring door bell: clerk will let you in." Steve is a big man with a rough voice, "We're a head shop, basically. We sell medical marihuana, and you have to have a prescript for that." Steve also sells bongs, clothes, sunglasses, and trinkets. A bible on the counter was open to II Samuel.

Silver Dollar Plaza

2009-02-17T13:45:00.000-08:00

The Silver Dollar Plaza is a town unto itself. It on Highway 53, just past its intersection with Highway 29, on the edge of the historical downtown of Lower Lake. Its customers are few. The rent is probably low. Yet, and this is its redemption, it is the Alpha and the Omega. The Tree of Life is here, the tree that Adam and Eve rejected in favor of the Tree of Knowledge. Here's an opportunity to make up for their oversight. The New Jerusalem is here, too, so Revelation is just a few stores down from Genesis. On the way are hookahs and healing, good fellowship and wild tattoos.

Lucerne

2009-02-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

California's Lucerne is on the north shore of Clear Lake in Lake County. Highway 120 runs right through it. In Harbor Park one of the staff of Lake County Parks said,"No, the county really got on the hydrilla problem and now is doing the same with the mussels that attach themselves to boats. There was a die-off of carp recently, and they had all of us out immediately to pick them up. It wasn't so bad, but you couldn't get the smell out of your nose for a week. The police now patrol the parks and the highways. We want to make this a nice place for people to come. Until I got this job with the county, I lived in Cobb, and I wouldn't come to the North Shore. That's the meth place, I would say. But not now. People used to say to me, 'Lake County! you've got all those druggies and convicts.' No more, we're sending them to you now."

In the park is a collection of artist shops and galleries, a cooperative effort between the county, the town, and local artists.

Mary Lou's is in the center of town and is the central attraction. It's full of bird houses made by the husband of the owner. A woman came in, ordered coffee, glared at the other customers, mumbled a hello in response to hellos, and went outside to sit in the cold. She pulled out a cigarette, sipped her coffee, ran her hand through her hair, rocked by and forth in a lean-back chair, and left.

A middle-aged woman came in. "Terri here?"
"No," responded the barista, a young man with a guitar, in his twenties. "She just left."
She sat down with her cappuccino. "I walked in this morning."
"You walked all the way from home?"
"Yes."
"You are looking good."
"Thank you, but I know better. I've been on this diet. I hate it. My doctor says 'Lose weight!' and I know he goes out behind his office and smokes. A bunch of us went out the other night and had fish. I hate fish, but it's supposed to be good for me."

"Yes, business is not good," the young man said. "All last summer it was like it was late fall. I've been here ten years, and I see business after business come in and go out. They last about one to two years. It's that way all over the lake."

An old man came in for espresso. He knew everyone.
A woman and her brain-damaged daughter came in for lunch. She, too, knew everyone.

Mystic Barrel

2009-02-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

Mystic Barrel is in a small arcade off Highway 120 in the town of Nice on the shores of Clear Lake. It sells guns, knives, native spirits, mood rings, fairies and fairy dust.

Holy Joe's

2009-02-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

Holy Joe's in historic Upper Lake shares a building with Mr. Hope Services, Virtuous Woman, and ads for Angel Intuitive Readingsand Awaken Colon Hydrotherapy. It is directly across from a Christian Bookstore and serves Spirit Up, Been Berry Blessed and other Enlighten Elixirs that Invigorate, Refresh, Restore, and Cleanse. The barista was a trucker and bookkeeper, until he lost his job. Now, besides making coffee, he is a reporter embedded in paintball wars. He really wants to be a writer. He likes to sit down with a blank page and write whatever comes into his head. He thinks humans are limited only by their own thoughts. "Why are there twelve months to a year, eighty years to a life?"

Library Park

2009-02-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

On the shores of Clear Lake in Lakeport in Lake County is Library Park. Its rails and poles frame the stature of Mt. Konocti. Those in the know claim the no-longer-active volcano is hollow inside and inhabited by little people (perhaps cousins to the Lemurians inside Mt. Shasta) who give out vibes to all with proper antennas. Meanwhile limnologists at the University of California, Davis, occupied the Carnegie Library for many years and submitted their lacustrian findings to all the proper journals.

Keller-Williams Realty

2009-01-28T11:37:00.000-08:00

In the window it says Keller-Williams Realty. On the marquee it says Team Lake County Real Estate Sales. This is in the town of Lakeport in Lake County in California. What is interesting about the place, what separates it from a typical real estate office, is its pitch. Not the sales pitch, but the pitch to convert you from your inauthentic present line of work to real estate agency-- it's a strike right down the heart of the religious plate.

Vacation Church

2009-01-27T15:19:00.000-08:00

High on a hill overlooking the town of Lakeport in California's Lake County is a yellow building.
A woman came out and said, "I thought you were giving me a ticket."
"No, I am writing in my journal. I came to see what kind of church this is, and it is not."
"I know the man who owns it. He is now renting it out as a vacation rental. There is a huge space inside."
"I take it his name is not Jesus."

Lady of the Lake

2009-01-23T15:51:00.000-08:00

Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic Church is on Highway 175 midway between Middletown and Kelseyville. You want to go when the caretaker is there. He was wonderful. He said, "It was built by the Italian Community up here. There's 75 come now, but in the summer it's 400. It's 10-15 degrees cooler here than Clear Lake. A prominent family needed a chapel for a Catholic wedding. So they built this church, then had the wedding elsewhere. We have the same priest as St. Joseph's in Middletown, but they have a quonset hut and folding chairs. Here there are pews and a steeple. I say that's a church." On the south wall are stations of the cross. In every arch in the north wall is a door. "We used to open all the doors in the summer, because the church couldn't contain all the people. Back then everyone came to church." Down the road from the church is Karisma Hair.

Bellezza

2009-01-23T14:45:00.000-08:00

Bellezza in Kelseyville in Lake County, California, will fix you up from toe to soul: Pedicures, Manicures, Tanning, Massage, and Lotus Zen. Anything as long as it is therapeutic.

Divine Consignment

2009-01-22T13:59:00.000-08:00

Divine Consignment, in Middletown, California, on Highway 29, will take Heavenly Goods from you, should you have a saintly disposition, and it will sell Heavenly Goods to you, should your soul need redecoration. In either case you will be doing good for goddess, for country, and for county. Be sure and park to the side of the store. Parking in front is revered, for that is where the gods pull in.

Middletown

2009-01-21T15:04:00.000-08:00

Middletown got its name because it was half way between Saratoga in Napa County and Lower Lake in Lake County. The name still applies. Before the 2008 presidential election not a single Obama sign was visible from either of the main highways, 29 or 175. McCain posters were many. Yet, Middletown is one of the hotspots in Northern California for the New Age. Take, for example, Awaken and the Baptist Church adjacent to it. Both use water. Both seek access to the soul. But oh how different the technique. The first cleanses your colon. The second dunks you head-to-toe. A town that was in the middle of a map now is in the middle of a choice.

Art Deco Associated Pacific

2009-01-20T13:48:00.000-08:00

Near the intersection of Highways 1 and 41 in the town of Morro Bay is the business of Associated Pacific, with Art Deco for a front and a Quonset Hut to hold the guts.

Harmony

2009-01-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

Harmony has an art gallery. Harmony is an Art Gallery. Harmony has a chapel. Harmony is a Chapel. Nowhere is the union of art and religion more apparent.

Solid Rock Church

2009-01-12T14:22:00.000-08:00

On the side of a hill in Cambria, California, just off of Highway 1, is the Solid Rock Church. It is situated between Nitt Witt Ridge and a Public Park[ing Lot]

Cambria Public Park

2009-01-12T13:38:00.000-08:00

Nitt Witt Ridge sits high above the Public Park in Cambria, California. The Solid Rock Church sits not so high above the Park. On Sundays the Park is transmogrified into a parking lot for the Church. Restrooms in the Park are perfectly clean but full of cautionary signs.

Nitt Witt Ridge

2009-01-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

Arthur Harold Beal was not a Nitt Witt, nor was he a Nit Wit. But he was a believer. He believed that all things recycle through toilets. Consequently, he placed a toilet at the entrance to his house, one on top of his house, and numerous ones inside his house, on the walls as well as on the floors. He was way ahead of his time. Nitt Witt Ridge is on a hill above the Solid Rock Church in Cambria, California.

Spirit Garden

2009-01-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

Spirit Garden is a play on four stages. Spirit Garden is a liturgy at four altars. The four stages are the four altars. The drama enacted at Spirit Garden is the union of Art and Religion. The lead is played by a woman, who enters the Garden Gallery and speaks her most important part into a cell phone, "I got a recommendation to you from Michael, who says you're good. My mother thinks I need a soul retrieval, and she is willing to pay for it. I went to someone else, but I didn't like him." Spirit Garden is in Loma Vista on Highway 1 south of Big Sur.

Giant Artichoke

2009-01-08T15:13:00.000-08:00

Giant Artichoke in Castroville is on the corner of Highways 1 and 156. Most of the time you stand in line a while to order them fried, the specialty of the house. The thing to do is take them out to the hood of your car, along with a coke, and eat them as the traffic goes by. In the grocery the presentation is as follows: bananas in a banana, lemons in a lemon, tomatoes in a tomato, and etc. down the aisles.

Haute Enchiladas

2009-01-07T14:18:00.000-08:00

Haute Enchiladas is in the town of Moss Landing, south of Santa Cruz and north of Monterey. (You know Moss Landing by its smoke stacks.) Haute Enchiladas is a restaurant (where you can order apple tart with cheese filling topped with whipped cream) anchored to a park, with a coop art gallery in the rear that features the work of Debbie Delatour, whose card wishes you "Luminance Blessings."

Sunset State Beach

2008-12-23T15:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-17T14:44:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-17T14:07:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-05T15:14:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-01T15:27:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-01T14:35:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-24T11:11:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-24T10:41:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-21T10:55:00.000-08:00

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

Red Rock State Park

2008-11-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-20T14:51:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-19T15:04:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-18T15:00:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-17T11:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-17T09:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-13T15:46:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T13:48:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T13:11:00.000-08:00

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

Shaver Lake Chamber of Commerce and Art Gallery

2008-11-12T11:57:00.000-08:00

Major Premise: Shaver Lake Chamber of Commerce is in one building.
Minor Premise: Shaver Lake Art Gallery is in the same building.
Proposition: Art and Commerce are building-fellows.

Bob's

2008-11-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

Bob's in Shaver Lake is an A-Frame wooden structure, owner-connected to the attached market. Tables are inside and out. Rock music plays on the speakers, newspapers are available, as is a Take-One-Leave-One library. "For food and ambiance, this would be hard to beat." They serve sandwiches, coffee, and espresso, AND white raisin scones and cherry scones with a light frosting on top. A woman in Big Creek makes them. "Big Creek's an Edison town," the woman who furnished the lattes said. "When they were building the dam, Big Creek was big. We were all big around here. That's the reason you see all the fat-cat housing."

Cross at Smalley Cove

2008-11-11T15:42:00.000-08:00

By the edge of Kerckhoff Reservoir, on the slope of Smalley Cove, is as plain a Christian altar as can be. Just two metal brackets, crossed for the life and death of Jerry H. Collier.

Smalley Cove

2008-11-11T14:47:00.000-08:00

The Sierra National Forest's Smalley Cove Campground is off Powerhouse Road, on the San Joaquin River at Kerckhoff Reservoir, just below the A.G. Wishon Powerhouse, which hums a sweet white noise by day and by night. The sites are roomy and widely spaced. Even so, it would be only ordinarily good were it not for the ghost pines that haunt the place in the evening twilight. Three teenage couples moved in after midnight. It took them two hours to set up a big tent, which they probably did not use for a revival meeting. The next morning they used the same loud mouth as the night before. They said the Powerhouse was haunted, but they didn't know the half of it.

Ghost Pine

2008-11-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

Pinus sabiniana, that it's Linnaean name. It's real name is ghost pine, and even that is disputed. Some unimaginative botanists want to call it gray pine, or foothill pine. The first tells its color. The second locates it. But ghost pine tells it like it is, never straight, thin-needles waving like an apparition in the wind, a strange character.

Cal Center

2008-11-10T13:47:00.000-08:00

It is not easy to find the right road to the Geographic Center of California. Six-tenths of a mile before arrival is a sign informing you you are close. Once you find the spot, well, you know exactly where you are: right in the middle, east-west and north-south of pleasant confusion. Stairs circle the center, making it as easy a circumambulation as you are likely to find anywhere. Buddhists call it "pradakshina," or, going around an important object clockwise to make "white magic." Doing it Buddhist style is, however, just a suggestion. Just remember that re-charging the state's magic wand is never a bad idea.

Park in Bass Lake

2008-11-10T11:36:00.000-08:00

Across the street from the Pines Resort in Bass Lake, south of Yosemite, is a small park ideal for picnics. (Try coke with lemon pepper Tuna Creations, Lays baked originals, Tree Top apple sauce and LaPanzanella sesame croccantini.) The lawn is dirt peppered with grass, and tables are spread throughout. Liquid amber, birch, an ornamental plum or two, and roses provide accents of color, while a church on the hill protects the park from above.

Art in a Box

2008-11-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

Inside 41 Trading Post, in the back, under a shelter, is a box. Inside the box are 10 pieces of puzzling art.

Oakhurst Cemetery

2008-11-08T09:58:00.000-08:00

On a hill, where the Little Church was moved in 1957, is the Oakhurst Cemetery. The church's freshly painted boards stand out against the green around and the blue above. American and California flags fly unfurled in front. Down the hill row-trees (oaks? cottonwoods?) have been cut off about head high. The stumps remain, looking strangely cross-like, while the upper trunks and limbs are piled up next to a fence, which partially hides them from view. In stoves around the county all this wood will turn to ashes, as have humans stored in urns nearby.

Mt. Shasta (the City)

2008-11-05T15:15:00.000-08:00

Mt. Shasta (often called Mt. Shasta City to differentiate it from the mountain Mt. Shasta) is the Galactic City Eclectic. Take western religions and multiple them by eastern religions. Take all religions and multiple them by healthcare. Multiply soul by body and and art by commerce, where you can get an angelic massage that is a message from the angels. Perform all these arithmetic feats and you have Mt. Shasta. Coffee Connection, a Christian Coffee House, is down the street from Soul Connections, which is next to Exquisite Jewelry, which in turn is next to Shasta Rainbow Angels Gallery. For $60 you can get Dimensions Cleared, DNA Reconnected, and Ascension Activated. As you walk Main Street keep your eye on the Above, for crystals of light may descend upon you in the form of archangels Michael or Gabriel or Uriel or Zadkiel or Jophiel or Raphael or Chamuel or METATRON. To be sure, eclecticism inhabits other California towns, but they don't have the I AM Mountain to vulcanize their claims.

Living Memorial Sculpture Garden

2008-11-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

On County Road A12 off of Highway 97 north of Weed is the Living Memorial Sculpture Garden. Dennis Smith is the artist. The Garden is about war and is dedicated to all American veterans. It does not glorify war, nor does it criticize the propensity of nations to go to war. "The Why Group" is at the thematic center of the Garden. Why war? Why not war? Why me? Why not me? The gaunt bronze figures act out these questions; they do not answer them. Nor will the labyrinth off to one side, though it might bring some peace of mind. On the way to the labyrinth is a piece of found art that perhaps stands for the entire garden. An accidental rock has nestled in an unintended hole in one of the bricks that form the path. The hole was not made for it, nor does it fit comfortably in the hole. Nevertheless, rock and hole have found each other.

Happy Campers

2008-11-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

It's what happens at campgrounds that's important. Take, for instance, Curly Jack Campground in Happy Camp, the heart and soul of the country where Bigfoot roams, always successfully evading detection. The man in Site #4 was from Jacksonville, Florida, retired, a truck driver and deputy sheriff. He has a daughter, a mother, and cousins, but he wants to be alone prospecting for gold with his three dogs. "I'm not counting on it, though." "That there, is that your shower?" "It's a shower if a shower is something you get in and pour water over yourself."

A man pulled up in a compact, got out, and started talking, "Oh, I stay here for weeks on end. I'm into dredging for gold. A friend of mine got me hooked on it. I was driving back here last Tuesday and in front of my car, this animal bounded, not a bobcat, too big, too long a tail. It was a cougar. First one I'd ever seen." "You sure it wasn't Bigfoot?"

The campground host came by. "You're in the cabover, right? Do you have any small animals? Last, let's see, Tuesday it was, a young mountain lion went through here. He was young, all right. He jumped a horse and got kicked good. People with small pets better beware."

In town the next morning the sheriff drove up. "Have you seen a big, white dog running around loose? He broke his rope and has been chasing kids at school."

Orleans

2008-11-04T11:13:00.000-08:00

A trailer sits in Orleans among the trees. On its side is written, "Economics Laboratory Inc." The trailer is a cipher for the town. Rooms are $ .00 and up. The gas is old time. Information is blank. Brown patches dot the sides of the low mountains around the town. Orleans has a park on a bluff above the Klamath River. A cat the color of dried pine needles crossed the road and entered the park. It climbed up on some benches that circled a firepit left over from a ceremony already performed. The shadow of a vulture glided by on outstretched wings, and a breeze blew a soft whistle through dead ponderosa pines. It was as if all was going down a brown hole. But don't get me wrong. Orleans is my favorite town nestled in the forests of far northern California.

North Country Fair

2008-10-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

Perhaps as good a place as any to witness American folk religion in action is the Farewell-to Summer, Fall-Equinox North Country Fair in Eureka, California. It's a intergenerational affair. Old Age hippie elders are there celebrating with their New Age progeny. NewAge-ism believes in a non-dual "bodysoul," a credo that distinguishes it from almost all other religions in American culture. Accordingly, NewAge shamans have devised therapies that treat both simultaneously.

Crescent City Harbor

2008-10-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

Crescent City Harbor is a large park entirely in concrete, except for a mermaid in wood who peers intently at all visitors, looking like an angry sea. Sunday is a good time to come, for not many people are around and you can watch fishers bleed fish, cut fish, sell filets to waiting humans and toss innards to creatures in waiting. Over the railing sailed a chunk of tuna. Sea lion went for it, only to be attached by gull. Pelican just waited, flapping its long beak, while loon swam by offshore, not laughing. Opposite Mermaid was Del Norte Sheriff's Department of Boat and Safety, United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, and Commercial Fishermen's Wives Association. Close by was the boat "Fantastic," out of the water, up on boards, and being re-painted.

Trees of Mystery

2008-10-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

The only way to find out the mystery at the Trees of Mystery on Highway 101 way up in northwestern California is to receive the "mark." There is nothing to it. No initiation or the like. Just pay $14. At the beginning, where it says, "pay as you leave," people habitually pause, trying to find out whether it will be worth it. Past the gate, in the inner sanctum, a sonorous voice says, over and over, "Life in one tree is life in all trees." And more, "We will continue even deeper into the mysteries ..." The trail goes clockwise. In the middle is the Cathedral Tree, built by and for the resident deity, Mother Nature. Near the end Paul Bunyan, her consort, gathers his friends together to bring you good tidings." At the very end is a sign, "I love you."

Fort Humboldt State Historic Park

2008-10-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

Fort Humboldt State Historic Park in Eureka sits on a bluff overlooking Bayshore Mall, making it easy to plan a forthcoming attack on Bed Bath and Beyond. Picnic tables are scattered about on the lawn where fiddlers play for birthday parties. Besides seeing where U.S. Grant was quartered in 1854, the main attraction is the logging museum, where steam engines take passengers in a V-line, slowly forward for fifty yards on one track and backward on the other. John Bauer, of the Eddie Bauer family, operates a Dolbeer Steam Donkey, invented in 1881 by Eureka citizen John Dolbeer. Maintaining the Steam Donkey is his hobby. His real work is taking a World Religions class at College of the Redwoods, as he prepares for life beyond Eureka as a minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church. Speaking of religion, the hellish orange heat he fuels in the belly of the donkey is a perfect metaphorical match for the heavenly black holes in the galactic trunks of the North Coast's fallen redwoods.

Immortal Tree

2008-10-13T14:48:00.000-07:00

The Immortal Tree on the Avenue of the Giants is an ancient resort. If you cannot get in the Eternal Tree House, Immortal Tree is your next best bet.

The Eternal Tree House

2008-10-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

The Eternal Tree is in Redcrest at 26510 Avenue of the Giants. The Eternal Tree House is not up in the sky. It is in the basement of an old dead redwood, a replacement for its roots. Around the rim of the house new trees have grown from the old, so "eternal" of the title makes some sense. Entrance is free, and the door is always open. Here and there are carved old male figures to give some idea what eternity might be like. Three old men sat outside the cafe, drinking coffee, and smoking. Coach America drove up, and a busload of Swedes piled out, seeking immortality American style.

The Legend of Bigfoot

2008-10-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

The Legend of Bigfoot in Garberville, California, is on the fringe of Bigfoot Country, the heart of which is Happy Camp to the northeast, up near Oregon. A carving of Bigfoot stands here with almost a smirk on his face, saying, here is a wooden replica of me, but you'll never catch the true me. Why I exist is a far more intriguing mystery than why these redwoods are tall. If you like to avoid such perplexing conundrums, check out Big Bear over there, who has a winsome and uncomplicated smile. And, by the way, this is a convenient place to stop for restrooms in the redwoods.

Drive Thru Tree

2008-10-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree resides in Leggett, California, at the junction of Highways 1 and 101. The two major attractions are the very large painting on the entrance road that makes the tree actually look sort of like a chandelier and the fallen tree off to the side with a big black hole in it. Maybe a third is the congregation of back-seat drivers who hop out and take pictures of driver and car passing through. None got down on their knees, even though an on-site poem directed them to do so.

Confusion Hill

2008-10-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Campbell Bros. Confusion Hill is the true tourist start of California's Redwood Country, that is, if you are headed north. They will not level with you about what's confusing you. Fellow travelers on the Mystery Train may be of some help, but that is doubtful. The problem is to differentiate between what looks confusing but isn't and what really is genuinely mysteriously confusing. To help you sort it out the Campbell Bros. have provided a Shoe House, which will make you think confusion is not so big after all, and a Gravity House, which is sure to make you think wherever confusion is it is downhill from there. The place is very nicely decorated with American flags, carved bears, totem poles, manikin loggers, and pots of flowers. (Almost everyone on California's North Coast has pots of something.) After you have given up, Doug's Dog House is a good place to get some ice cream, although pets are not let in on the inner sanctum.

Peg House

2008-10-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

The Peg House is not far north of Leggett on Highway 101. Along with Homemade Cookies they offer seeds to grow your own pot, ashtrays to douse your flame, and necklaces to show off your use. A woman behind the counter moved slow and dreamily. It took her two minutes to ring up a $1.59 purchase and two more to change a $5 bill. Finally, her partner behind the counter asked if she wanted her to take over. Offer accepted. Outside was an out-of-service police car, more or less permanently parked. Inside was the male cousin of the cafe clerk.

Pot Garden

2008-10-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Pot Garden in Mendocino is a garden of some potted and some not potted plants. The Garden is self-perpetuating, like the Eternal Tree House further up the road in redwood country. Hands come out of the pots, legs stick out of the ground upside down, and an alien stares out of a nearby window. The Pot Garden is like the Garden of Eden in one respect. Normal humans can't get into it, at least not without special permission from Alan the owner.

Point Arena

2008-10-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

Point Arena is a whole town with a coordinated sense of humor. New Pine Creek is too. The photographs are evidence.

Sea Ranch Chapel

2008-10-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

The nondenominational Sea Ranch Chapel is a part of Sea Ranch, an landscape friendly subdivision on California's North Coast below Gualala. It sits like a jaunty cap on top of a hill. It blooms like a flower in the meadow. It opens like time-lapse petals spreading. It parts like a seed cracking. "No, no, no, dispense with all those vegetative similes. It's a rooster." "On the contrary, I think we're in Baba Yaga Land."

Pampas Grass

2008-10-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

One website will give you ten reasons to love pampas grass. It is beautiful; it is tough; it is cheap. That's three of them. Another website is entitled, "Beware of Pampas Grass." It grows tall, and keeps growing, it will take over, and has very sharp-edged leaves. From its home in Argentina it is invading the coast of California. Wildlands maintenance crews are out on the beautiful cliffs of Highway 1, the ones with magnificent views of the ocean, spraying "Roundup" on all they can reach. "Are you all right?" "Yes, that was quite a hike." "How far down did you go?" "See where that pampas grass is blowing in the wind, deep in the canyon, on the edge of the abyss." The California Wildlands Grassroots Fund was established to support the heroic efforts of activists to preserve California's wildlands."

Bird Drop Half Dome

2008-10-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

On California's Highway 1 south of Fort Ross is a human-made Half Dome. It was built to stabilize the roadbed. It has the curve. It has the cracks. And it has two features nature's Half Dome in Yosemite does not have: a blue fence (quite picturesque) and bird droppings (quite artistically placed).

Hard Core Cafe

2008-10-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

The Hard Core Cafe is on California Highway 116, near Sebastopol. The two owners staff the counter and provide diverse places to sit and drink their lattes: umbrella shaded chairs along the highway, a play room under awnings for the kids and the kid in you (here is where your dreams may come true) a round table with brochures for contemplating affairs of self-help health, and a picnic table beneath a pink ribbon of gauze. An inner space contains an variegated altar to coffee and chocolate and trips. (Here is where your dreams can come true.
)

Locke

2008-09-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

Locke is one of California's most famous historic towns, settled and inhabited by people of Chinese ancestry until recent decades (see Wikipedia). In the process of going from town to historic town to tourist town, Chinese Americans moved out and art and artists moved in. A museum is on Main Street, along with a restaurant and a shop or two, and galleries make up the remainder. How many depends somewhat on your definition of "gallery."

Art migrates to History. Maybe this is totally unremarkable. Maybe Art migrates Everywhere.

Giusti's

2008-08-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

Giusti's is at the confluence of the Mokelumne River and Snodgrass Slough. You can get there by boat or by car. The interior is dark, the walls wooden, the air cool, and the diners loud, because they are having fun.
"Is the catfish good?"
"It's good if you like catfish. I don't eat catfish."
"We'll both take catfish."
The salad came in a small bowl with long salad servers. The dressing was 1000 Island. The table top was a map of the Delta's myriad islands.
"How's your daughter doing?"
"She was in Trinity, where that helicopter went down. I was panicked. Then she moved. The problem is, she breathed all that stuff. They had to give her prednisone."
"It's my birthday."
"Happy birthday."
"Yeah, a typical male. Sorry ..."
The long and narrow building forms an elbow, with bar for biceps and restaurant for forearm.
The owner went by with boxes on a dolly (you can tell him from the photos on the wall). He does the stocking.
They take cash, ATM, or check. No credit cards.
"I've got to go to work."
"Lucky you have a job."
Outside is a patio with tables and chairs, overlooking the Slough.
"You look confused ... or inquisitive."
"Both."

Isleton

2008-08-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

Isleton is a movie set. No, Isleton is two movie sets. One is the Downtown Historical District, most of it built after a devastation fire in 1926. You could take its row of stores, on either side of the street, and do a search and replace for any town in a B-Western Hopalong. The only question is, did Isleton make Hollywood, or vice versa. The right answer is, of course, they made each other.

The other is just out of town, to the north, first a full set, then a half set, not yet finished, waiting for actors.

KOA in Victorville

2008-08-21T14:52:00.000-07:00

The KOA in Victorville is actually a town unto itself. It is near the intersection of I-15 going to Las Vegas and Highway 18 arriving from Yucca Valley. Some RVs live here permanently, some are sometimes mobile, some are forever mobile. A paved road goes past "Outer Drive" to the gravels of the Mojave River, whose waters sink into the Mojave Desert. From rocks on a nearby hill shots ring out, and far away a freight train whistles by. It's as lonesome as it can be.

A California Trinity

2008-08-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

Randsburg, Johannesburg, and Red Mountain make up a Ghost Town Trinity. (Red Mountain is the holiest one.) By their signs you will know them.

Elvis Christ

2008-08-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

Elvis and Christ can both be seen in Ridgecrest, off Highway 395, on the corner of West Ridgecrest Blvd., 300 block, and South Warner Street, 100 block. They are there, side by side, unifying forces for an Art Attack. There they are, on the wall of an opaque stucco building with dark paper over the window and a locked door.

Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company

2008-08-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

South of Lone Pine, on the shores of dusty Owens Lake, are the remains of a Pittsburgh Plate Glass plant. The caretakers live in the Administration Building, and they are happy to receive visitors. In fact, the ruins are so picturesque that photographers come regularly from everywhere, including from the prestigious Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara. If no one is there to let you in the imposing fence, just walk around to the east side, where no fence exists, and old rundown mobile homes add a nostalgic aroma to the deserted air. The plant is in Inyo County, and "Inyo” means Dwelling Place of the Great Spirit.

PHOENIX RTWORKS

2008-07-30T15:52:00.000-07:00

In the town of Independence, on Highway 395, is PHOENIX RTWORKS. It is an art gallery, just the kind you would hope to find in B-West towns, funky and funny, far out and far in, and above all, enthusiastic. It is Exhibit A of the architectural dictum, "Outside equals inside." (Compare blog photos with graphics on www.phoenixrtworks.com.) Jack Pound, the artist, is a veritable "phoenix of creativity," choosing styles to suit his meaning and his mood. "Moonlight" is realistic. "Deliverance," "Magic," and "Divine" are abstract. "Phoenix" and "Awakening" are stylistic hybrids. Fine fun!

Twin Elevators, Big Pine

2008-07-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

Big Pine is where, a turn east goes to the Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains. And where a west turn leads to the Palisade Glaciers. Either way is glorious, of course, but neither way is any better than staying right in town and, behind an old motel, hiking out to the Twin Grain Elevators, covered with graffiti and positioned just right to squeeze the sun before it sets behind the 14,000-foot peaks of the Sierra Nevada.

BofA becomes Calvary Chapel

2008-07-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

On the main street of Bishop, just past the main part of downtown, on the west side of the street, is Calvary Chapel. It's used to be Bank of America. The letters B-A-N-K -o-f-A-M-E-R-I-C-A are just visible on the fading red stucco. The Chapel hosts the Presidential Prayer Team.

Bishop Christian Center

2008-07-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

They say all religions intend to go where people are. The Bishop Christian Center is certainly doing its small part in the total scheme of things. No doubt, Americans these days are at the shopping mall. So that's where Bishop Christians put their Center, right at the corner of a giant rectangle formed by stores and parking lot, not far from Rite-Aid and just down from Domino's.

Paradise

2008-07-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

Paradise sits on the downslope as Lower Rock Creek Road makes in curvy way south from Tom's Place to the outskirts of Bishop. Mt. Tom provides an impressive backdrop, and Mr. Wright's sculpture garden, where Lower Rock Creek intersects Westridge, provides a good sense of humor. (Mr. Wright died recently, but neighbors say the family doesn't mind visitors walking the garden.) New homes push Artemisia tridentata further out of town, while no influx of outside energy from tourists has allowed Entropy to take over running Paradise the restaurant.

Allegorical Landscape

2008-07-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

Near Crowley Lake, in fact, not far from the Hilton Creek Post Office, is an allegory. In the far background is the blue sky. That is the Unknown. Below the sky is the Sierra Nevada, representing Geological Order. In the foreground are a few horses, standing for Domestic Order, or, how humans go about ordering. These three layers are familiar. In the middle ground is a debris flow. It is Cosmic Disorder, aka Entropy, introducing itself into the landscape. The entire Universe will with age look more and more like this pile of rocks and dirt and bush. News of the shapelessness of things to come is broadcast to heavens and earth over the electromagnetic wires, also visible in the picture.

Volcom Brothers Skate Park

2008-07-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

Cross Deadman Summit on Highway 395 going south and coast your way down at 65 mph, Mt. Morrison staring you in the face, and your confidence in the Earth's geologic imagination will soar. Take the Mammoth Lakes turnoff at the bottom of the pass, turn left on Meridian Road, stop at Volcom Brothers Skate Park immediately on your right, and watch the skaters coast down the inclines and around the curves. Your confidence in the imagination of American capitalism will rise. Maybe not soar, but definitely go up.

Nicely's Restaurant

2008-07-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

The stars are bright on Highway 395. If you look up, you will look back into the past. If you stop at Nicely's Restaurant in Lee Vining, you will eat your way into the past. Want good old fashioned 1950s food nicely served--fried chicken, French fries, and baked apple pie a la mode? Nicely's is your kind of place. And here's a bit of nostalgia for you: participants in the Ansel Adams Yosemite Workshops used to spent one night on the east side around Mono Lake. The whole group would gather for a convivial Nicely's evening meal. Maybe the next morning for breakfast too, after shooting the sunrise.

Big Box

2008-07-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

Just north of Topaz Lake, still in the state of Nevada, is an abandoned trailer. Actually it is the universe turned on its side, complete with black hole. The dark side is the past, the light side, with its graffiti predictions, is the future. Or is it just the opposite? In any case, once inside you are in the present. You will note that there are few windows that open in either direction.

Chocolate Nugget

2008-07-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

Outside Chocolate Nugget in Washoe Valley on Highway 395 is something very peculiar. A gunslinger looks up the hill at a miner. The gunslinger is clearly male. You can tell. The miner looks male too. He is stocky. He wears a beard. He has on women's pants, however! An artistic fence runs close by.

School on a Hill

2008-07-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

On the road down the hill from the abandoned school in Fort Bidwell is a Surprise Valley cowboy. "We sell lots of alfalfa, organic, some organic, people here don't like organic, all those tree-huggers and Greenpeace." He is a big man, silk scarf, cotton shirt, buttoned right up to the top button, chaps over jeans, and fancy reins. Flies cluster by the dozens on the eyes of his handsome horse. "My sons and I, we are ranchers. We winter here now. We used to winter the cattle in Chico and Willows, but fuel and freight ate us up. Bidwell is a great place to raise kids."

Wind Drift Farm

2008-07-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

Imagine a northern California Disneyland gone to ruin. No, better, imagine that everybody just walked away from Knott's Berry Farm in 1955, never to return, except for the occasional curiosity seeker. Now, stop imagining and go to Wind Drift Farm just north (actually east) of Standish, which in turn is north (actually east) of Susanville, on Highway 395. Several signs say, "Don't Hurt the Nature," but they should read, "Don't Hurt the Culture," for nature here is doing fine. Wind Drift Farm is where nature planted the human imagination and let it go to seed. Seeds, as everyone knows, are quite nourishing.

Full Gospel Lighthouse

2008-07-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

They say that a photograph is worth a thousand words. If that is true, and if you want to see what rural religion is like in America,then drive north of Doyle on Highway 395 and look for the Pentecostal Church of God's Full Gospel Lighthouse on the right. White sign, white clapboard, dark windows, darkened door, strange sky.

Glory Temple Church

2008-07-14T14:35:00.000-07:00

South of Carson City, south of where Highway 395 is no longer a freeway, is the Glory Temple Church. It is an old house, whitewashed, with a white picket fence. Coming from the north, just before the church, a sign reads, "Glory T. C. Slow Down." They want you to slow down because of traffic coming to church. And because they don't want you to miss their church. And because they want your presence at church.

Religious Conversion

2008-07-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

The building that used to be a church in Constantia is now in Doyle, on Highway 395 south of Honey Lake. It is owned by a local historical society. In 2006 it was under rehabilitation. Surely, now, in 2008, it is as good as new. "It's 150 to 200 years old," the painter who was painting it said. This claim has not been verified. The town of Doyle plans to use it for civic events. This is a good example of how Americans handle the separation of church and state on the local level. [This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. Please improve it.]

The Little Church by the 395 Way

2008-07-10T15:06:00.000-07:00

A little green church sits on edge of California's Long Valley Caldera, where long ago a big explosion took take that scattered ash all across the American West. It's where Benton Crossing Road runs into Highway 395. This is just north of Lake Crowley. It's an almost picturesque little church. On a nice, white picket fence are two signs. One denotes ownership. The other forbids trespassing. Clearly, the Regency discourages entry. The question is, what kind of research goes on here?