A few years ago I decided the best gift I could give myself would be to take a drive on my birthday. Touring is one of my favorite activities but, what with one thing or another, I hadn’t been getting out as much as I used to. To remedy that I started what has become a yearly tradition: the birthday cruise. Since the big day is coming up in less than a week it’s time to dust off my maps and collection of reference books and pick a location. I’ll post the outcome of that process soon but today I felt like reflecting back on some of the more memorable aspects of that first year’s trip.
1999: Calaveras County
I retraced an earlier trip to show S. some of my favorite Gold Rush towns. We stopped by the old Wells Fargo building in Campo Seco, some adobe structures in Jenny Lind, and then spent some time in Milton. There’s not much going on there today and you’d never guess the important role this town played over a hundred years ago. The main sights to see were the old schoolhouse, the Masonic Hall (which I think was transported from somewhere else), and the Milton Masonic Cemetery. I’ve since learned that the schoolhouse finally succumbed to the elements a couple of years after we stopped by. That’s too bad seeing as how it was so picturesque. That same word also applies to the cemetery – it’s a very peaceful spot for a stroll.
But the biggest reason I went to Milton was to take the road from there to Copperopolis. At one time, this was the main stagecoach line to Sonora, now it simply has the title Rock Creek Road (I can’t remember where I picked up that bit of information about the stage line – and I haven’t been able to verify it). The stretch of road from Milton to the Salt Springs Valley Reservoir is one of my favorite drives in California (definitely in the top 10). The road is old, and narrow, and windy and, as if those weren’t good enough selling points, the scenery is fantastic.
After making it to Copperopolis we headed over to Highway 49 and cruised north for a while, checking out stores along the way. Once it got dark we stopped in Sonora at a fancy restaurant that S. had scoped out and had a delightful dinner. All told, we spent most of the day on this excursion and these three paragraphs in no way can convey all the places we visited. It was definitely a great way to kick off the tradition.
Each year after that, I have gone some place that I’ve always wanted to visit, or a place that piqued my interest, or to re-drive a favorite road. I’ll just include a short description to whet the appetite.
2000: Texas and back, getting my kicks on Route 66
This was a mammoth undertaking. I’d always wanted to drive on one of the old sections of Route 66 and, through a stroke of fortune, I was able to use this trip as a final project for a class. Over the course of three days I covered two thousand miles and broke in my new (well, new to me) truck. There were too many anecdotes to try to cram into one paragraph but, of all the portions of Route 66 I covered during the trek, my favorite was the section heading west out of Glenrio, Texas. The old road has been covered with dirt but, if you dig down enough you can see the cracked surface. For miles and miles the road stretches straight ahead, nothing but terrain, abandoned buildings, and the raised bed of an abandoned railroad (sans ties and rail). It was very easy to pretend it was the thirties and I was moving out to California to escape the Depression – or at least start over (the same way one of my grandfathers did).
2001: Timbuctoo and a Covered Bridge
I don’t remember where I stumbled upon the name Timbuctoo, Calfornia. But ever since I became aware of it’s existence I’d wanted to go. That way, I could truthfully tell people that I’ve been to Timbuctoo (and if people don’t ask me to spell the name they’ll never know I wasn’t in Africa – not sure why the town founders misspelled it, by the way). I headed north and east to Nevada County and pulled off the main road by Grass Valley. Not much going on there these days but I shot some video of grass covered walls and old buildings. The cooler structure, by far, was the covered bridge in nearby Bridgeport. It’s billed as the Largest Covered Bridge in the US and is a National Civil Engineers Monument. I don’t know if that label is accurate but it is quite impressive.
2002: Point Reyes and Wine Country
I’d seen pictures of the Point Reyes Lighthouse and they looked spectacular so I decided to take a solo trip and check it out. In person, the view is even more dramatic. The rest of the drive wasn’t bad either. I spent some time winding around Mount Tamalpais and coming down the backside on a nice windy road. At Drake’s Beach I took one of the best pictures I’ve ever taken, IMHO. Ended the day by heading over the hills to Wine Country. Not much more to say about this trip. Although I did a lot of driving and stopped at a lot of places, there really wasn’t one stretch of road or site that I would need to go back and re-visit.
2003: Down the Coast and over to the Fort
One of my favorite drives in California is the road from Fort Hunter Liggett to the ocean. You start off climbing oak covered hills and then break through at the top of a mountain looking out across the Pacific Ocean with Highway 1 way down below. My dad did artillery training at the Fort and he liked to take us up there on occasion. The first time I remember taking this drive was as a passenger in my grandparent’s duel-rear-wheel truck (the one they used to tow their RV). We crested the top of the mountain toward the end of the day and my grandfather got angrier and angrier as he tried to navigate down the windy narrow steep road into the blinding setting sun. He wasn’t too happy with my dad for suggesting the route. I try to drive the road periodically but for this trip S. and I took the road in reverse, starting on the coast and driving over the mountains. We got to the Fort in time to do a little walking around at Mission San Antonio Padua. Of all the California Missions, I think this one in particular is the most authentic (in terms of the surrounding area).
2004: Cache Creek Casino
Okay, this one wasn’t really an extended drive. One thing I’d always wanted to do since moving to the Bay Area was check out the Casino at Cache Creek. Well, been there, done that, no need to do it again. S. did well at hold ‘em. I didn’t do so well at slots. The best part of the birthday was solving S.’ treasure hunt before we left the apartment. But it’s good to finally get that thought out of my head, now I can ignore the commercials.
2005: ?
