What if I wanted to tip in a post, say, between two others that are overloaded?  Well, I can do that, and lo, and behold, a new feature is discovered and utilized!

July 8 we took Betsy in for a valve job, oil change, and had the steering and brakes checked out.   On July 10 we left Berkeley at 10:30 AM in the 1957 Volkswagen van.  Thursday we caravan with Stevie’s sibs and nieces and nephews to Hurricane Harbor, and then on Friday to camp at Carpenteria and El Capitan Beach with all the nieces and nephews, Brian and Nancy and their boys. That weekend a fire broke out in the mountains to the east, Piru Canyon and Sespe, the Condor refuge.

Piru Canyon fire July 1996

Sunday Stevie and I headed north through Sespe to check out the damage–into the Los Padres, and see two baby bears! at Matalija Creek.  Tuesday we camped at Caballero horse campground,  and the memory of the amazing spectacle of a family of four human-acclimated foxes dancing on the picnic tables around us reminds me of Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Up Hiway 1, we drove inland to Alder Creek camp, a favorite camping memory we were never able to replicate– Ventana Wilderness in the old VW.  What a classic trip.  Heading home Wednesday, July 17 to play a benefit for Margaret Breland for Berkeley City Council with Grif and Chris.

February was wet and stormy, and Stevie and I took Sunday hikes out to the old Berkeley Dump beach where ancient bottles and insulators are revealed in the mud cliffs in the wake of high tides and waves.    While studying Garden Design, my final project was a presentation on Seating–I was taking (Steve said “too many”) photographs of benches and lawn chairs everywhere we went. 

My friend Darlene had given me her 1981 Mazda GLC–.  My Datsun was having electrical issues and I reluctantly decided to sell it. By March 24, Comet Hyukatake was visible to the Naked Eye from the street in front of our house.  Thursday, March 28 we left Berkeley at 9:30 AM and drove down I-5 through the Tehachapis, up Rt. 395 to Red Rocks campsite #29 PHOTO ($7).

REDROCKS,RANDSBERG,ANZA BORREGO CARRIZO CAMP BAT CAVES MOONLIGHT HIKE SPRAINED ANKLE W/ GARY MADELEINE KAI TOM LAURIE STEVE

After banana pancakes Friday, we drove thru Randsberg, (Very Cool), Barstow, to catch an early lunch at Astro Burger, pick up beer and groceries and gas up at Von’s. We took the Ludlow turnoff at 1:15 and headed south for Anza Borrego, meeting our friends at Agua Caliente campground site #31.  PHOTO Saturday, after a drive out to the old rail line and hike with Gary, Larry, Kai, and Tom, PHOTO we all drove to Ocotillo outside the south-east corner of the park for lunch at a little Mexican taco stand. Sunday we drove to San Diego and spent some time on the freezing beach with Kai and Tom, then checked out Balboa Park and the Zoo.  PHOTO Leaving our friends in San Diego 9:30 Tuesday morning, Stevie and I headed back for another night in Anza Borrego,  stopping in Brawley where I lost my wallet–don’t notice until we got to Needles, heading through Rt. 95, Kingman, and the Big Mama Mountains to camp at Burro Creek Wednesday night. This is the amazing Painted Rock area of the Turtle Mountains where we spent a couple of days with the Comet before heading back through LA to visit my brother Friday and Saturday, then Palmdale, leaving Monday morning at 9 to head home.  PAINTING OF HYAKUTAKE My wallet was waiting in the mail, some nice people had found it in Brawley and mailed it to me.

July 1  Steve and I drove back to Palmdale, and also visited my brother’s family in LA.  Steve’s parents live in an unincorporated area, and the fireworks were amazing- professional quality, and all from the same supplier, it seems.  I stood in the dark, and rotating 360 degrees, I counted 30 separate independent displays.   On the return trip, we crossed over into the White Mountains to camp in the Bristlecone Pines at 11,000 feet-  I got a terrible headache from the extreme altitude.  We drove the orange 2×4 Datsun truck down the mountain, thinking if it got too extreme we could turn back–but of course, there was no way to turn around.  The road got scarier and hairier as we came down through the stream that got ever deeper as it crossed the switchbacks.  The last crossing almost came in the door of the truck, but we made it, coming out at the Laws railroad museum.  From there we went up the Eastern Sierras via 395 and explored the then-abandoned Tioga Lodge above Mono Lake, then took Rt 108 up through the Dardanelles, camping at Brightman Flat.

July 22 we headed north from Berkeley past Island Mountain, a patch on the map that Steve had circled many times in fascination, never finding a way in.  We had no more luck this time, it being fenced and private from any angle.   There were several abandoned cabins back in the woody wilds, and we stopped to photograph and dream  and check a couple of them out.  We headed up to Six Rivers and camped on the Van Duzen River, Road 2517 and Kettenpom.  In the creek, I collected a dozen black river rocks, drawing landscapes on them with colored pencils.  This was my first time shooting the 22, and Steve named me Dead Eye.  I just had a talent for it.  We came across Ft. Seward, where there was an abandoned auto repair and service station, and we easily entered the building where we found an office frozen in dust, and a storeroom full of auto parts from 1963.  I was sorely tempted to take the calender showing that year’s new models of Rambler and Studebakers  .  .  .   but we left it, encased in time.  There was also an old school building with giant abandoned professional kitchen appliances and coolers, and a defunct railway station.

And then, again, Labor Day in Rollerville, after which I began a course in Landscape Design at Merritt College in Oakland.  In October we took day trips to Mt. Diablo and Black Diamond Mine (much covered with housing sprawl now) where I took the photographs that became my Mt. Diablo painting–oh! I don’t have a photo of that painting!

In December we took the Mazda for one night in Saline Valley (via Red Rock Canyon site #12) waking up to Rain! and Snow! where we barely made it through the pass at 7000 feet–and then to Palmdale for Christmas and exploring El Mirage Dry Lake and the Buttes–I saw 10 acres for $8,000– or, could have been 1993–and again, I left my heart in the desert.

For Easter we drove the Mazda to meet our San Diego friends at Anza Borrego, where I sprained my ankle near the end of our Moonlight Canyon hike.  I recall the vivid sound of seven “pops”.  ( I can read an audible 7 because of my training as a drummer)   The terrain was so different from the previous time we hiked it due to the recent rains and shifting sand and deep tamarisk growth.   Steve helps me walk it off, which helps some–but it is bad.   Someone always gets wounded, and this time I got the full treatment, painkillers, ice, lawn chair in the shade with my ankle elevated on pillows, cocktails, soaks in the hot pool.

April 15–I was sleeping at 60th Street on Friday nights after band practice, and one night my sister called, very late, maybe 1 AM, to say Mom was in the hospital on life support, and   .  .  .  I said, “she’s gone”.  Kathy said, yes– I knew, maybe from the sound of her voice.   But she was waiting for my brother to arrive before letting her go.  The next day I went driving up north with my neighbor Joe to look at a piece of property, but my heart wasn’t in it.  I did fall in love with this burnt house and 2 acres on Drive Thru Tree Road at the Eel River Bridge that was listed for $40 k–

At the end of the week  I flew to Portland and my siblings and cousins were all there, and Aunt Annette, Aunt Jean.  The five of us kids and offspring snuck off with the ashes and scattered them at Road’s End, Mom’s favorite beach.

That May Steve and I took a trip up around the Sacramento River Delta, to Isleton and Terminous.   We made a habit of driving the levee roads some Sundays, for brunch at Wimpy’s or in Rio Vista.  Since I had been location scouting, and then on a movie shoot near Isleton in 1986, the area had a special flavor for me.

Wednesday, August 17 — we left Berkeley for Palmdale via a trip down 395.  A fire in San Luis Obispo had 101 shut down. Thinking  Rt 5 would be hellish, we took the back way over Sonora Pass, Rt. 108,  perhaps to return to  Deadman Campground where we saw the Jay -and-Tanager family.  Don’t care much about that Essex Street house from this distance, considering the option of finding a vacation home out here.   Steve caught a fish at Boulder Flat.  Dardanelles, Sonora Pass, Nikon 20/100.

8/18  Owens Gorge, Dead End Road.  rose hips, bay leaf, thistles, trout, blue heron.  Little wild rose bush I want to get some of in the rainy season.   Alta Vista, Pine Creek Road, tungsten and vanadium, spring water, poplar trees.

8/21, Steve’s Birthday in  Palmdale, leave Marty and Elsie’s at 12:20 PM.  We had cake and party last night.  Hell bent for petroglyphs, Chalfant CA, Rt 6, Tungsten avenue.  6 PM Sunday, Petroglyph, CA, Red Rocks Canyon petroglyphs, Petroglyph Road, Hieroglyph Road.  Chidago Canyon Petroglyphs– wacky, scary rocks and topography.

Minolta 36/400 roll, roadside scenery, stamp mill, 395 North.  Whether to visit or retire here, I know this is where I am meant to be.  I feel it every (?) time I pass through, suddenly I am calm, at peace.  Chipmunk Flat, Fales Hot Springs, Mono, Owens, Diaz Lake, Independence, Lone Pine, the snow zone, high desert rat.  My hair is getting good in the back, mustard tank top, yellow and red roses on yellow pants, grey aerosol slip-ons.  bright, but yellow dirt- proof outfit that cost $17.  Camping at ________________________

8/22  lunch at Mammoth Lakes drive-thru, Caution- Orange reflectors, Lee Vining, Mono Lake Committee Store :  Trees c1950 by Donald  Culross Peattie

There is an enormous list of places to come back to in October, when the moon is full again.  Recall my first visit to Death Valley with Patricia.  Columns of the Gods, Pigeon Flat walk-in campground, the Dardanelles Motel.

8/23, 4:25 PM, Tuesday.  Stanislaus River,  Knights Ferry Mill converted to hydroelectric in 1899.  Covered bridge and flour mill were destroyed in the Flood of 1862.

Pros/Cons

Donell Lake overlook, about noon.  65 MPH on these narrow winding country roads is not my idea of a good time, ok?

The Desert is God / It can get too fucking hot

Something primal calls to me here / Arizona?  i don’t think so

Night blooming cactus, never a walmart

Incredible sunsets, magic pink light, desert perfume, bats on cactuses* moonlight, starlight, the dark at night, solitude, art, the mountains as my muse, (can I grow apples?)

SEPTEMBER 13,  Steve and Bones went to Anchor Bay, or Pt Arena.  Abalone Season!

Photo tips- tortoisy new colors-in-optics glasses like the green ones

In June Stevie and I went Abalone diving with Bones and Mae–four abs each, that is the legal limit, a total of nine.  I rented a wet suit and all the gear, got suited up but couldn’t put my face in the water.  My fear of cold water is so rampant, the kelp so dark , I almost drowned just standing there thinking about it.  Later Steve and I went beach fishing, and he caught two sea trout-  I caught the eye of one and it broke my heart.  Steve gutted them and iced them down, but we had steak for dinner and never ate them.  I am a terrible fish wife.  Do like to eat Abs, though.

Here is where memory fails and documents do not clarify.  A photo I found of a Rockfish, I am sure it is the one I posted about as being 1992, my Illustration year.  The back of the photo is imprinted March 1995.  Not impossible, of course, that the roll of film wasn’t processed for two or three years. 

I had been volunteering for a heritage fruit tree grafter, trading hours for baby trees.  The foundation orchard was in Bolinas, and I did six beautiful rare Apple illustrations for a catalog that was never published.  In May 1993 my unemployment insurance ran out, and I started up a gardening business with my friend Tracy.  It was pretty slow, and we still had time to get away now and then for a week or more.

(notes on a photograph–July 16, Desolation Wilderness, Loon Lake. Was this a different trip than–)

Rt 50 through Pyramid Lake.   This was a great trip, the first Nevada Hot Springs trip, via Austin and Route 50.  This route was partially suggested by my friend Melodie, who said to check out Berlin/Ichtyosaur.  Good Call.   Spencer’s Hot Spring was a great place to hang out, and we went back and camped there again before heading south via Goblin Knobs, Lake Pahrahnagat.  We attempted the back road to Area 51, where we had two flat tires on our Bridgestone “Desert Duelers” that couldn’t handle the sharp quartz splinters of the freakin’ DESERT.

August 15, in Palmdale for Marty’s birthday with Fred, Jo, Lance, Martha and the cousins.  We spent evenings drinking beer in the garage, playing guitar, the kids begging Uncle Steve for  “Hang On Sloopy”.

The wash behind Soliah’s, August 1993

Notes:  Picnic at Little Rock Dam, driving around El Mirage (10 acres, $8,000)  Saddleback Buttes, cool old abandoned stone houses–possibly 1995

September-?  I remember once in Palmdale a big storm came through.  Memory has it that it was the remnants of Hurricane Emily (8/22-9/6/93) that had spun off and come across the southern states all the way to the high desert.  Steve was on the patio when the brunt of it hit–I looked out the back door and he was hanging onto the round patio table for dear life, using it as a shield against the fierce horizontal rain.   In a few seconds the wind died down, and he was able to make it into the house.  Out front, the street was a rushing torrent, flooding over the curb.   Many intersections around town flooded, and the wash out back flowed for days afterward.

10/93  Abalone diving w Bones

I am unable to find a dedicated journal, or a calendar with anything about trips in 1993.  I was so overwhelmed, unemployed, fighting with my landlord to keep my apartment on Emerson Street.  I did a lot of volunteer work at Dharma Trading Company, packing books and making bindings, eating wonderful massive organic Friday lunches, until Rinpoche decided we needed to heat-seal everything in PVC film  .  .  .  which i cannot do, after five-point-five years working in the Toluene/Xylene/perfume industry.

In March? we went to Rollerville and a short weekend fishing trip with Bones and Mae,  and I took the photograph from which I later painted this acrylic on Bristol board piece.  In Sept/October we went back to do some Abalone diving–I had a suit and gear, and almost put my face in the water, but was way too scared, and smart, to get in that cold, dark, green water.

I flew to San Diego at Easter and spent some time with my friend Linda, moved my garden to Essex Street in June.

I spent a good bit of volunteer time with Living Tree Nursery, where I learned to graft fruit trees, and did a series of illustrations for a catalog that never got published.  Although I did end up with a number of rare apple and pear trees in trade, and did some gorgeous drawings, which I had framed.  I also did some delivery work for them in the 1979 Datsun pickup–down the coast to Santa Cruz and back through S.F, stopping to smell the ocean, to the the extreme distress of my “boss” Jesse-who thought I was charging him $7 an hour for my lunch break.  W???  (“October 15 11-3 pm almond butter”)

So, that was how I came to start a gardening business with my friend Tracy, which lasted until May 1995 when we came to an abrupt end over bookkeeping discrepancies.

Meanwhile, playing music, did I mention I had gotten a bass guitar in 1991 and joined a couple of bands after the Inches fell away?

We did continue to visit Palmdale on a regular basis, often camping on the way there, or on the return trip.

Here is a trip where I vividly remember Steve catching a Rockfish, deep red-and-black scales and pale turquoise flesh that turned white when cooked, delicious.  Sorry, Fish!  Thank you!

I stayed in camp and drew some mushrooms growing under the trees in color pencil, adding India ink later.  They looked tasty, too, but I am not a Mycologist.

Boletus at Gerstle Cove