Thursday, June 11
Leaving the comfortable bed and a warm bath in Soledad was difficult, but I finally did. (Night 1 and 2 were in hotels.)
I went around Soledad a bit, looking for… something Of Mice and Men-ish, but found only a historical society that was closed down and just seemed interested in the prison.
So I drove to Salinas arriving around 11:00. I bought some stuff in the gift shop located in the cellar of Steinbeck’s boyhood home. Then I had lunch in the restaurant. A “guild” of concerned women bought the house back in… 1973 and have maintained as a nice little “tea room.”
Then I went to the Steinbeck Center that had lots of nice and neat exhibits. In the Of Mice and Men room, they had a linear hat and coat rack and lifting each hat revealed whose it was.
Another exhibit had knifes stuck in the wall (bayonet sized) and when you pushed them down, a hidden display lit up. All very nice.
Then I drove to the Winchester Mystery House. It was interesting, but it would have been more fun to go with someone you know so you can talk about the architecture and point out “This was clearly an outside (door, wall, window) until she added this part of the house to it.”
The small stairs were also interesting. Her arthritis had gotten so bad that she couldn’t walk up regular stairs, so she had some removed and replaced with 2″ high stairs that wrapped back and forth. (She was was 4′ 10″ and managed small spaces quite easily.)
I drove to Santa Cruz and took some nice road video from Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay. VERY foggy on the coastal side, but bright and sunny on the right hand side.
I decided to drive through Half Moon Bay and on to San Francisco.
I spotted a BIG apartment complex and planned to stay in their parking lot, but what I ended up staying in was the parking lot for a Jehovah’s Witness church. It was situated right next to the apartments and looked like their clubhouse.
It got COLD.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Mr. Skipper 