Hi! I am back on the road “Wander”ing after a week in the greater Bay Area in Northern California. I spent a week at Doran Beach campground in Bodega Bay, (a favorite beachside haunt the past six years,) and at my school’s 40th class reunion in Oakland. I will write more on these topics below; but, first things first.
At any campsite I visit, be it a National Park, state park, or RV park, the first thing I do is find a nice place for my lawn chair and the flying fish. (The fish are wind catchers that turn and twist in the breeze, make me think of fish in an aquarium, and start the song “Oh, this is the dawning of the Age of Aquariums…” hee-hee.) After I get those up, I am in camping mode. Out comes the beverage. Out comes the food and snacks. And, out comes the laptop so I can note the things I have experienced.
The last post here was 8 days ago. There are places I have been where no Wi-Fi was readily available. However, I try to schedule, once every 7 to 10 days, a location with Wi-Fi. Generally, that means RV parks like the one I write from now in Kingman, AZ. I leave tomorrow. It may be another week to 10 days before I can post again. So, don’t call the troops unless you hear nothing from me after a month or so!!
Overall, my motto is “Take nothing but pictures. Waste nothing but time. Leave nothing but footprints.”
Anyway, I stayed in the Bay Area in order to participate in the Reunion events at Head-Royce. On Saturday at the school with friends/classmates, I attended a baseball game, toured the new 8 acre property recently acquired across Lincoln Ave from the main campus, listened to a teacher-led discussion about differences of teenage school life “then and now,” and dined/partied with alumni of all ages. We rehashed funny stories, and apologized if we needed to! Even some new secrets were revealed.
Of course, the relevance to me of the event was the sight and voices of old friends. It was great to be together. Nearly half of our class attended, and we all got to catch up on what we have been doing in our lives. Thankfully, not too many have been lost, (literally or figuratively.) The community we share still exists.
This brings me to Fort Ross Historical Park, which was a community made by Russian explorers. As part of my explorative experiences, I went up there for the day while I was camped at Doran Beach. Man, what a beautiful day it was! The sun shone, the sky and waters sparkled, spring flowers blossomed, and the grass greened as good as the Highlands. Ah, flora and fauna — my type of community!
Now, it is time to drive the Route 66 road trip from the Santa Monica Pier to Chicago. I’ll write about the start of this expedition in my next post.