Continuing the Road Trip

After my dad and I left Lake Tahoe, and because I was driving, I chose a route out of the Tahoe area, that brought us along the eastern edge of the Sierras. At one point, we were tiptoeing the state line between Nevada and California, on Highway 395. It's extremely hot and arid on that side of the mountains. While my dad and I did make chit chat on our road trips, a lot of time was also spent in silence, as we drunk in the views that grew more breathtaking with each turn. I like it when it's quiet on long drives so that I can let my imagination roam. Of course in this part of the country, all I was thinking about were cowboys and Native Americans and pioneers.

As we got closer to Mono Lake and the town of Lee Vining, I kept seeing this spectacular mountain range in the distance to my right (west). I finally pulled over to take a picture of it. When we got to Lee Vining, we veered off to the highway on the right that took us into Yosemite's eastern entrance. Imagine my surprise to find myself driving right through that mountain range. It's called Tioga Pass. When we were in the Pass, I tried so hard to get a decent picture but it's simply impossible to put a frame around these cliffs and walls of rock. So I had to burn it into my brain. It's magnificent!!!

We entered Yosemite and traveled through the eastern Tuolumne Meadows. Yeah, I know, "how the hell do you say that word?" Too-AHL-um-knee. The views were amazing.

Looking west. Yosemite National Park, Tuolumne Meadows.

We cut through Yosemite that day in order to get to our hotel in Mariposa, which is about 30 miles west of the Park. It's smack in the middle of gold country and the small highway that runs b/t Mariposa and Yosemite winds it's way down through a canyon which is dotted with old mines and suspension bridges, like this one.

See the mine shaft on the hillside?

Here's a travel tip: Don't visit Yosemite in August, in a drought year, and expect to see stunning waterfalls. When Brian and I went in April of 1992 w/ my folks, they were much better with the snow runoff.

Yosemite Valley.

We spent the next day in the park and we drove up to Glacier Point, high above the valley. There are no words to describe the wonder that is this view.

It's a looooong way down, innit?!

As much as I enjoyed our road trip to Tahoe & Yosemite, I was eager to return to San Francisco for our next road trip down the coast. I really needed an ocean-fix after being in the hot & parched Sierra Nevada's. We came back to SF for one night before heading south down the Pacific Coast Highway and I'd selected the Seal Rock Inn as our hotel, as it is right on the water, above the Cliff House. It was an absolutely glorious evening and I shot TONS of pictures of the waves and the ruins of the old Sutro Baths. The Baths are a blog post in and of themselves so I didn't include any pictures of them here.

Dad and I ate dinner at Louis', then spent the next few hours just wandering around at the baths, on the beach, in the tunnels of the old baths, etc. It was an evening I'll never forget. The series of pictures I shot I call "The Estimated Prophet Pictures" b/c of the lyrics to the song and it being my inspiration to really make the move to SF.

When we visited in 1988, there was a small concrete walkway that you could take to climb onto this rock, where people would try to fish. Unfortunately, many people were swept away off the rock, and you can see here how easily that could happen. The Pacific was really churning the night we were there. After Brian and I moved to SF, the City decided to blow up the walkway because it was just getting too dangerous.

That greyish bumpy hill in the background is Mt. Tamalpais, in Marin County, a place Brian and I visited all the time. There are some great trails up there.

I was so hoping to capture that green from the sunlight and the mist blowing off the wave in the wind!SPLOOOOSH!!!!!

Beautiful sunset that night too.

And people wonder why I refuse to move back to the east coast.

Wretched Ads from the 1930's!!

I got these forwarded to me in an email from my friend Ellen. They're even worse than the set I posted last summer from the early 60's!!



"Someday all beer cans will open this easy!" Apparently, Schlitz pioneered the soft top aluminum can? This one isn't so much funny as it is nostalgic, to think that people had to use a can opener like the one shown here. I vaguely remember my parents, aunt & uncle using these kinds of can openers for stuff like V-8 juice.



Isn't it good to know that more doctors smoke Camels than any other brand? I love the tag line "For 30 days, test Camels in your T-Zone (T for Throat, T for Taste)." And then experience C for Cancer in your T for Throat, M for Mouth and L for Lung Zones. My parents were smokers, but they preferred.....

.....Chesterfield! Just like Santa! And all this time I thought it was the smell of my mom's stale cig smoke lingering in the air on Christmas morning, when in actuality it was a sign that Kris Kringle had paid my house a visit! I hope that, by now, the elves have lobbied for a smoke-free workshop.

I knew a few people in San Francisco, specifically in the Castro, who would hang this sign on their front door in a heartbeat.

Go on people! Have a cigaret! You could get hit by a bus! Or an asteroid! You wouldn't want to die without having that last great smoke, would you? Better yet, when you are riddled with cancer, maybe they can cut a hole in your throat through which to inhale the cigaret!!! Let's face it, you could die of lung cancer tomorrow, go on - HAVE A FAG!

I'm hoping that you can click on the pictures to make them bigger and so that you can read the ad for this one. It's absolutely disgusting. Apparently Tom has grown indifferent to his wife...we'll call her Betty. She can't seem to reach him anymore. I guess Betty was only tending to her stinky bits "now-and-then" but her doctor pointed out that she should NEVER run such CARELESS risks, and prescribed Lysol brand disinfectant for douching. "Oh the joy of finding Tom's love and close companionship once more!" Betty exclaims. She is no longer satisfied with salt, soda or other homemade solutions! Not with Lysol's germ-killer, that cleanses "so gently, yet so thoroughly".

I'm sorry, but there ain't no way I'm spraying Lysol on my tender woman's area...but at least nowadays it comes in attractive scents.

It's a good thing my mom never saw this ad when I was a kid or the product probably would have been one of the many diet aids forced upon me. This one literally gives me the dry heaves. Every time I picture a jar full of live tape worms, then taking one out and actually swallowing it, my stomach churns. Especially their "easy to swallow" claim. ew ew ew ew ew As I write this, I am gagging. Oh hey, maybe that's the REAL purpose of the ad, to gross you out so bad that you can't eat at all, hence the weight loss.

But here's a question, if the country was in the middle of The Great Depression and everyone was on food rations & bread lines, why would anyone need to lose weight? Here's another question: How many tapeworms are you supposed to swallow, that you would need an entire jar of them? And where did they get the tape worms to begin with? This ad just opens up a big can of worms doesn't it? (oh please, like you weren't thinking the same thing).

Now they're not-so-happy because they have big lard asses!!! Please tell me people in the 1930's didn't eat lard straight out of the can or box or however the fuck it came packaged. Again, gagging here. And who was on the Lard Information Council? Picture it, won't you? Hubby comes through the door, Wifey is ready with his martini & slippers. He says, "Guess what honey? I was just elected to the Lard Information Council!" She beams with pride at her man's great accomplishment.

That slut! That wanton hussy! Tramp! Harlot! Trollop! Skanky ho-bag!!

Don't you love how they blame the woman for having VD, but fail to point out that she got it from some pus infected dick? Hey, as long as she douches with Lysol.....

It was 20 years ago

I can't believe it, but in August it'll be 20 years since the 3-week odyssey/adventure trip to California on which my dad and I went. He was such a good sport, allowing me to drag him out of bed at the crack-o-dawn to maximize our sightseeing days and being totally flexible to my "OH! I know what we should do!" whims. Towards the end of the trip, I found a hilarious postcard that I had him send to my mom. It was a cartoon of a guy dressed in rags, barefoot, touseled hair, 5 o'clock shadow& eyes bugged out. He was holding a stick against his shoulder w/ a bundle on the end. The caption read, "I should be home soon".

I had ample time off from Channel 56 and I was making decent money. Unfortunately, none of my friends could afford to go away that long, and do everything I wanted to do and see on this trip. I was a bit skittish about going alone for the entire 3 weeks, but I needed to do more fact-finding and research for my move to San Francisco. I asked my mom if she'd mind if I asked my dad to go with me, because she won't fly and she can't handle the mountainous driving that would be part of this trip. She thought it was a great idea and dad readily went along. I made all the arrangements and I did all the driving once we got there.

The first few days we spent doing all the touristy shit at Fisherman's Wharf, so I won't bore you with pictures of Alcatraz, the bridges, Giants game, Coit Tower, and all the other places self-respecting San Franciscans avoid like the plague. It was my 3rd trip in a row to SF, and although I was excited to show these places to my dad, even I was bored by Pier 39. In fact, I was surprised that I had no pics of cable cars or "the crookedest street" from this trip. After we left SF, we spent a day visiting the wineries in Napa Valley.


Then we took off and headed east to Lake Tahoe. It's a bit of a grueling, uphill drive over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to get to Tahoe. When Brian and I went in 1990, we had to pull over and let the car cool down b/c of the strain on the engine.

Here are some pics of the Sierras, taken from the last vista point before you descend into the Tahoe basin.

It's hard to see, but Tahoe is in the far distance, below where the farthest mountains are.

Lake Tahoe is divided with most of the lake in California, and part of the lake in Nevada. South Lake Tahoe, CA, where we stayed, is a tourist trap of epic proportions and bumper-to-bumper traffic. It's crowded and icky and I'm surprised that they let it get so out of control. Stateline, NV has all the casinos, and they are literally built right on the state line. But because of the beautiful natural setting, they're not all glittery and lit up like Vegas or Reno.

The first thing we did after we checked into the hotel was drive up to Incline Village, Nevada, at the north part of the lake to visit The Ponderosa Ranch. I grew up watching "Bonanza" and Diane and I adored Michael Landon when we were little kids. Anyone who has ever watched the show and watched the map burn at the beginning, knows that the Ponderosa was on Lake Tahoe.

When the show first started in the early 60's, it was shot in Hollywood. In about 1967, they started coming up to Tahoe to do some filming too, although they still did a huge portion of the show on a soundstage.

This is the western village that was built for some of the scenes, and for a couple of Bonanza-themed movies in the 1980's.

And of course, the Cartwright house.

Those are really the costumes worn by Dan Blocker (Hoss - white hat & vest) and Michael Landon (Little Joe).

Here's the Cartwright's main room. They shot the interior home scenes at this house. It's pretty small inside, but the tour guide showed us the false walls & panels that could slide out in order to fit the cameras. There is nothing upstairs.

I call this the "stock footage shot" of North Lake Tahoe, b/c it always seemed as though they'd slip one in at some point during "Bonanza" episodes.

The western village was pretty cute. You can actually get married at the wedding chapel. In the saloon, you can order pop and it comes in a souvenir tin cup with the 4 actors on one side and the house on the other. And it being Nevada, there are slot machines too. Of course there is food...such as the Hoss Burgers seen below, and you can also get Chinese food at "Hop Sing's Kitchen". As it was a scorching hot day and I did not trust the meat, we did not dine here. I did score a replica map of the ranch at the gift shop, which still hangs in our den.

Sadly, the Ponderosa Ranch closed down a couple of years ago. Tourism had declined....I mean, how many children today have heard of Bonanza? And even if they have, they wouldn't be interested in visiting the ranch locale. Last thing I heard, a developer bought the property and was thinking about turning it into a commuter parking lot. How sad is that? I'm glad that I got to go, twice, in my lifetime.

Couldn't you just jump right in?

The water looks delicious and tropical doesn't it? Ha! THINK AGAIN! Tahoe is an alpine lake and sits at an elevation of 6,200 feet. Yeah, people swim at S. Lake and Stateline, but after you wade in above your knees, you'll find your legs & feet starting to freeze and turn blue. I don't mind cold water, having grown up on the freezing cold Bay side of Cape Cod, but this was even too much for me. When I went with Brian, it was still so hot, and I plunged into the lake, yelped from the shock, dunked and then ran out!! The blue parts of the water look like Aqua Velva Ice Blue aftershave.

A gorgeous sunset from Zephyr Cove, Nevada. They say there's a lake monster in Tahoe, and it's been named "Tahoe Tessie". When dad and I got to Zephyr Cove for the sunset, there was a person dressed like a lake monster walking around and teasing the tourists. He was cute.

Next day we got up bright and early and went for a drive on the California side of the lake. The highway rises higher and higher till you are above the lake.

Emerald Bay is so named because the water is incredibly green, although you can't tell from this angle.

When we got back from our drive, dad and I boarded the Tahoe Queen, a paddlewheel boat, for a lake tour. The bottom of the boat has glass panels. One of Tahoe's claims to fame is its incredibly clarity, so it was pretty neat to be able to look down thru the panels at the water and see so far down. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of it that looked like anything. Sadly, in just a few years' time, the lake's clarity has become less deep thanks to pollution.

Emerald Bay.

SPFX

I was browsing thru a couple of photos albums from the fall of 1986 through the fall of 1987. That was a great year for me. I was finally living out on my own, I had a ton of friends my age who all worked together at Channel 58 in Hyannis. After I got laid off from 58 and before I got the job at Channel 56 in Boston in the summer, I drew unemployment and worked part time for about a month at Cape Channel 11, so I was always running into my Cha. 58 compatriots. So, it's no surprise that many of the photos in that album seem to be from various and sundry parties.


There's also my trip to visit Michelle in Maine from March, 1987, my first solo trip to San Francisco in April, 1987, a trip to visit my bud Charlene in Philadelphia, my trip to Maryland to visit Diane, the time my friend Howard and I went four wheeling out on Sandy Neck Beach and the Town of Sandwich's 350th Anniversary Parade from August, 1987.


Buried between all these parties and events are a few special effects pictures I shot that spring & summer. It was a good year, photographically speaking.


While visiting Michelle, we watched "Nova" and was a program about how you can use a strobe light to photographically capture things that move too fast for the naked eye, such as the crown that is made when a drop of liquid hits a hard surface, or what a bullet looks like bursting through an apple. Michelle looks at me and goes, "I have a strobe light" and I said, "let's set it up!" I kept my shutter open while Michelle blew bubbles in front of the strobe.
We couldn't quite recreate the crown from liquid, so instead we tried dripping water into a glass in front of the strobe and it worked!


Next, Michelle stood in front of the strobe light and waved her arms up and down. Grooooovy, no?
I used part of my tax refund that spring to buy a kaleidoscope that I desperately wanted. I remember it was like $60, and for a 22 year old on a very, very tight budget, that was a lot of money. I discovered that I could get a clear & focused picture of the patterns by using my wide angle lens. So I aimed the kaleidoscope at a very bright light and held it up to my camera lens and shot. I still have this kaleidscope; it's on my bookcase in Kraft Korner downstairs, and it's just as beautiful today as it was 21 years ago when I bought it.

These next two pictures were taken in the median strip of the Cape Cod Highway in July, 1987. Me, Diane and my mom spontaneously decided to drive up to the Exit 3 rest area that backs up to Sandwich High School's property, so that we could see a fireworks display that night. Sadly, the fireworks weren't shot high enough above the trees. But we got some cool pictures of headlights and tail lights as cars passed. I set my shutter to the "bulb" setting and aimed at the oncoming cars. As they passed me, I'd pan with them to get the streak effect of their lights.

These next 2 are of fireworks on July 5, 1987 at Kalmus Beach in Hyannis. I'll never forget these fireworks. The very first one misfired and set the beach grass in the dunes on fire and everyone had to wait for them to put out the fire. When the show started again, I was laying on my back on the sand, looking straight up. My friend Howard was w/ me and we were ooo'ing and ahhh'ing w/ everyone else. Then all of a sudden, we are being pelted with hot debris. It's smacking onto the sand all around us and sizzling. I remember shielding my eyes but my arms were getting burned. Us, and all the other people who realized that they too were directly under the blast zone, all jumped up, and fled en masse, dragging our blankets and coolers to safer ground. I just remember giggling hysterically at the situation as we ran pell mell to get out from under the red hot embers.

My parents' property is one of the few places left that isn't touched too badly by light pollution. Yet. There are no street lights on that part of Old County Road. When I grew up there, my folks owned 2 acres (which subsequently were divided & one lot sold off a few years ago), and their property borders on about 30-40 acres of woods that lead to the edges of the salt marshes.

Therefore, their backyard is the ideal place to set up a camera & tripod and aim at the heavens. My old Pentax K-1000 camera's shutter button has a place to screw in a remote shutter cable that you can use to keep the shutter open w/o having to shake the camera by actually pressing the button. My one complaint about modern cameras, film and digital, is that they don't accomodate remote shutter cables any more.

So I set up the camera, aimed it at the sky and left the shutter open for varying amounts of time. This first picture was probably about a half hour's worth time. Maybe less. See that one pinpoint in the upper/right center? That's the North Star. I was trying to show it stationary while the other stars swept around it. Or rather, while the earth spun underneath.

I left the shutter open much longer for this star sweep. I'm almost certain I was aiming at the Big Dipper for this shot but I can't tell for sure.