Monthly Archives: December 2011

It was a long day, it was a cold day. It would be the final day of our journey. Or so I thought. In Northern California yesterday — was it only yesterday? — we persevered through the Trinity Range north … Continue reading →

If you have to be an old bull put out to pasture, I’m thinking, you could do a lot worse than this sunny bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the handsome Big Sur country of central California. Not to mention … Continue reading →

Traveling north, still a few miles short of my hometown, we passed by the old pier at Huntington Beach, where my teenage friends and I sometimes went surfing, sharing one board between us. Since I wasn’t the board-owner, most of … Continue reading →

So I stopped for lunch in San Juan Capistrano, home of the Spanish mission, which I didn’t realize until now is the oldest building in California — and the etymological source of my blog. Let’s see if I can get … Continue reading →

Before I continued my way west across Arizona on Sunday, I got wondering what I’d find if I knocked on the door of Congresswoman Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords’ district office in east Tucson. I expected no one there. Certainly not the … Continue reading →

How many negative associations toward Texas had I accumulated in a lifetime? Let me count the ways. There was the time the Dallas Cowboys first began calling themselves “America’s team.” That would make the list. There were the Texan oilfield workers … Continue reading →

Leaving the south now and moving west. Way out West. But before saying goodbye to the gentility of Vivian Leigh (in A Streetcar Named Desire)  and hello to the generosity of Elizabeth Taylor (in Giant), I would be remiss if I failed … Continue reading →

It was Thanksgiving. I’d been hoping to reach New Orleans by mid-afternoon, ideally in time for an open-to-the-public turkey dinner at a neighborhood church — but we arrived too late in the day. Turning off the highway near the Superdome, … Continue reading →