Unexpected Pleasures

[horseback]

We have a wide range of people here, with a marvelous breadth of experience. Each of us has seen, read, heard or done something that turned out to be waaay better than you thought it would be when you started.

It may be that someone else might find the same joy in trying the same thing; all he or she might need is a little encouragement.

I have two things to share tonight:

California State Route 25 North from State Route 198 (from the 101 to Coalinga) up to Hollister. It is some of the most restful scenery I've seen in my life--at this time of year, it is green and almost ethereal. Steep rolling hills spotted with trees and the occasional 'happy Californian cow', a narrow winding road that should not be taken at high speeds, ranches and small lakes popping up out of nowhere.

Travel it now; the wealthy types are starting to build mansions on the hilltops and putting in golf courses, moving south from Hollister to Tres Pinos. It may gone in five or ten years.

A warning though; I traveled that route on my way to Monterey, and found to my sorrow that the 101 from San Jose to Salinas is one long speed trap. Do NOT, under any circumstances, exceed the posted (slow) speed limits along tghat route. The California Highway Patrol is everywhere, and they're dialing for dollars.

Second unexpected pleasure is an author. I recently picked up a copy of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, and plowed through 400+ pages in a weekend. I decided to pick up a copy of Cryptonomicon to see if it was a fluke. It was most decidedly not a fluke, as my recent devouring of The Diamond Age has proven.

This guy is good. Try his work and you won't be disappointed.

Now, does anyone else have something he'd like to share?

cheers

horseback

[BillSwagger]

I know of exactly where you speak of and have always enjoyed the drive from Gilroy through Hollister.
There is something about a small windy two lane road with hills and trees. It turns any car I'm driving into a Porche.

The ride south of Big Sur on hwy 1 is also pretty nice.

The road wineds along the ocean and there are similar scenic views that you might find passing through Hollister. Many years ago I took a girlfriend that route per my brothers suggestion and we made the most of it seeing as it nearly doubled the amount of time we'd be on the road. Probably more for people who enjoy the road, gotta stop and smell the roses sometimes. Beyond gazing at the sunset, we also would stop anytime we saw something out of the ordinary. There was an old barn on the side of the road we ventured off to, and later we also discovered a pretty nice house hidden in the trees right on the cliff. It may have been a landmark of some sort because it resembled a stone bunker but looked more like a small castle.
Speaking of which, there is Hearst Castle in San Simian where there's also a place near the coast to check out elephant seals. We had just missed the season when the bull males fight which seemed like it would be pretty cool to see.

I recommend the drive at least once especially if you are native to California.



Bill

[huggy87]

That is indeed a very remote route. I drug my family through it once when returning from the bay area to lemoore. I think I passed less than a handful of other vehicles in well over an hour. Although, if you saw it this time of year, it was probably the 3 weeks a year when that part of california is green and looks like a travel brochure for Ireland. The rest of the year it looks more like southern italy.

[crucislancer]

Originally posted by horseback:
We have a wide range of people here, with a marvelous breadth of experience. Each of us has seen, read, heard or done something that turned out to be waaay better than you thought it would be when you started.

It may be that someone else might find the same joy in trying the same thing; all he or she might need is a little encouragement.

I have two things to share tonight:

California State Route 25 North from State Route 198 (from the 101 to Coalinga) up to Hollister. It is some of the most restful scenery I've seen in my life--at this time of year, it is green and almost ethereal. Steep rolling hills spotted with trees and the occasional 'happy Californian cow', a narrow winding road that should not be taken at high speeds, ranches and small lakes popping up out of nowhere.

Travel it now; the wealthy types are starting to build mansions on the hilltops and putting in golf courses, moving south from Hollister to Tres Pinos. It may gone in five or ten years.

A warning though; I traveled that route on my way to Monterey, and found to my sorrow that the 101 from San Jose to Salinas is one long speed trap. Do NOT, under any circumstances, exceed the posted (slow) speed limits along tghat route. The California Highway Patrol is everywhere, and they're dialing for dollars.

Second unexpected pleasure is an author. I recently picked up a copy of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, and plowed through 400+ pages in a weekend. I decided to pick up a copy of Cryptonomicon to see if it was a fluke. It was most decidedly not a fluke, as my recent devouring of The Diamond Age has proven.

This guy is good. Try his work and you won't be disappointed.

Now, does anyone else have something he'd like to share?

cheers

horseback

I haven't made that drive in years, but I agree, quite beautiful.

I agree with you about Stephenson, he's a fantastic author, though my favorite from him is Snow Crash.

For reading pleasure, check out Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. If you like sci-fi, you will love this book. A good mix of sci-fi, noir, cyberpunk, and detective fiction, written in the 1st person, and at times incredibly brutal. Highly recommended. The two sequels, Broken Angels and Woken Furies are not to be missed as well.

[TheGrunch]

Went to a gig recently at the behest of a friend to see a band he'd been raving about (Maybeshewill)...they were very samey but the second support band were a band from Germany called Long Distance Calling (http://www.myspace.com/longdistancecalling) who were pretty damn awesome. Awesome guitary instrumentals with a lot of groove and buildup, basically.

[M2morris]

I took a sightseeing road trip through Astoria OR to CA using HWY 101. It is a twisting winding scenic coastal drive I will never forget. At one point it veered inland and went through the redwood forest of Northern CA. I ended up going over the golden gate bridge and down south to Salinas, Soledad, and then on over to Hanford CA.
I drove over the Sierra Nevadas East of Sacramento past Tahoe or Reno to Tonapah Nevada and North from there to Idaho. There are signs in Nevada at some places that warn you about there being 'Nothing' or "No Services Available for the next 80 Miles" I fianlly came west on the HWY that went along the Columbia River on the Washington side and then back into my start point which was Stevenson Wa. The most memorable road trip for me.

[Messaschnitzel]

Hey horseback, I've been over that route you mentioned a few times over the years. Like others said, Hwy 1 is a nice drive. But only if you're not in a hurry. (if you want to get somewhere in a hurry, take the '5'...)

My wife and I wanted to go somewhere for our anniversary a couple years ago but were on a limited budget, so we got a nice romantic room at a local inn on the coast not far away from San Simeon for a couple of days. We got tickets to visit the Hearst castle and had a great time there as well as having a nice romantic meal at one of the seafood restaurants nearby. Surprisingly enough, it didn't cost all that much. To go to Disneyland in Anaheim would've cost more. If anybody here got the time, go out to the Point Reyes National Seashore. I used to live out there, and if it hadn't gotten so expensive to live there over the years, I'd still be living there now. An ambitious guy I went to to high school with told me that he was getting the heck out of there ASAP after he graduated. He said that living there was "not conducive to a working environment." If anybody goes out there they'll know exactly what he talking about. You really can 'get away from it all' and not think about work because it's so slow, peaceful and quiet there when you're out in the woods, and you'll think, "Job?" http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/winky.gif

Go see for yourselves:

http://www.nps.gov/pore/index.htm

[horseback]

Here's another great drive: US 60 from Apache Junction, Arizona (just southeast of Phoenix and a bit west of the Superstition Mountains) up through Globe, the White Mountain Apache Reservation (where you'll see the fruits of their long resistance), through Show Low and Springerville in Arizona across the Continental Divide into New Mexico and down into the Rio Grande River Valley at Socorro.

Most of the scenery falls into either the bleak or magnificent categories, and often both. Plenty of places to just stop and look, including NASA's huge antenna farm with all the giant dish antennas in the high desert of New Mexico (which also features a very nice clean set of restrooms).

This one is best taken between October and May, for obvious reasons.

cheers

horseback

[PhantomKira]

There's nothing quite like sharing a sailboat on the bay on a nice calm evening with friends, watching the sun set. Quiet, peaceful, with just the sound of the water lapping on the hull as you slide by, and a shared experience. It doesn't get much better than that. Just don't forget your lights, or the Coast Guard could get you after dark.

You realize that money is over rated when you have experiences like that to share.

[Ba5tard5word]

Yeah it has been quite green in the hills lately, I'd like to go out and bike around and take pictures but it's almost always cloudy or rainy out. Once it gets sunny the hills will dry up and turn brown again. One of these days I'd sort of like to get a car so I could go drive around in the more rural areas here but I don't really feel like bothering to own one and generally I'm fine with being on foot and on bike though it does limit where I can go.

Snow Crash is definitely a really good book...very entertaining and smart and pretty well written for science fiction, which you can't always say about the genre.



Originally posted by PhantomKira:
There's nothing quite like sharing a sailboat on the bay on a nice calm evening with friends, watching the sun set. Quiet, peaceful, with just the sound of the water lapping on the hull as you slide by, and a shared experience. It doesn't get much better than that. Just don't forget your lights, or the Coast Guard could get you after dark.

You realize that money is over rated when you have experiences like that to share.

Hmm where'd the sailboat come from then? :P

[M2morris]

Gone soaring at Avenal, somewhere south of Colinga, from the air it was beautiful except for the obvious san andreas fault line clearly visible below. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_eek.gif

[Messaschnitzel]

Originally posted by Ba5tard5word:
Yeah it has been quite green in the hills lately, I'd like to go out and bike around and take pictures but it's almost always cloudy or rainy out. Once it gets sunny the hills will dry up and turn brown again. One of these days I'd sort of like to get a car so I could go drive around in the more rural areas here but I don't really feel like bothering to own one and generally I'm fine with being on foot and on bike though it does limit where I can go.

Do any of your friends gots a car? If so, why not you and your friends get together and go somewhere outside the city? You could split the cost for gas to get to where you want, go hiking, maybe have a picnic, and take a bunch of pictures. If nobody own a car amongst you, why not rent one and split the cost between everybody?



Originally posted by PhantomKira:
There's nothing quite like sharing a sailboat on the bay on a nice calm evening with friends, watching the sun set. Quiet, peaceful, with just the sound of the water lapping on the hull as you slide by, and a shared experience. It doesn't get much better than that. Just don't forget your lights, or the Coast Guard could get you after dark.

You realize that money is over rated when you have experiences like that to share.


Hmm where'd the sailboat come from then? :P

I was thinking the same thing. It made me recall the Huey Lewis video 'Stuck with You' where he asked the woman if she wanted to go for a ride on his yacht, which turned out to be a rowboat named 'Myott', lol!

[crucislancer]

Do any of you have a AAA membership? They have a magazine called "Via" that is a great resource for finding interesting destinations. It appears you can read it online without a membership:

http://www.viamagazine.com/

[Messaschnitzel]

Originally posted by M2morris:
Gone soaring at Avenal, somewhere south of Colinga, from the air it was beautiful except for the obvious san andreas fault line clearly visible below. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_eek.gif

I used to live about 100 yds from the San Andreas Fault. I posted some pictures of me and my horse on another thread, and although you can't see it in the pictures, I was standing about 25- 30 feet from where it is, the ground higher on one side than it is on the other where it looked like a little cliff around 3-4 ft high. The property where the ranch was is now part of the national park, and you can't even tell anything was ever there, no barns, house, no nothing. I'll bet that the Park Service don't know about the literal tons of junk buried out there over the years, like garbage, different types of vehicles, animal carcasses, lumber, scrap metal, etc when it was privately owned, where the owner had a Case 680 backhoe and folks would pay him money to bury stuff they wanted to get rid of. http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/34.gif

[PhantomKira]

Originally posted by Messaschnitzel:
Hmm where'd the sailboat come from then? :P

Yeah, Annapolis Performance Sailing has some rather pricey listings. Unfortunately, they're the closest source for parts since all the little guys have gone out of business for one reason or another.

The boat was a "rental". It belonged to a sailing club we all worked for at the time. One of the perks of working there: take a boat out whenever you please if it's not needed and you're not working. Wish I'd taken advantage of it more often. Oh well... That place provided many good memories though.

[Ba5tard5word]

Do any of your friends gots a car? If so, why not you and your friends get together and go somewhere outside the city? You could split the cost for gas to get to where you want, go hiking, maybe have a picnic, and take a bunch of pictures. If nobody own a car amongst you, why not rent one and split the cost between everybody?

My friends either work too much so they never want to do anything (like most people in the Bay Area) or else when I get together with them it's to do stuff like go see live music or go out for dinner. Plus it's been raining and chilly so being outside isn't much fun, but I'm going to try and get one of my friends to go hiking on Mt. Tam sometime soon. Getting people here to get out of their comfort zone can be frustrating.

[M2morris]

Originally posted by Messaschnitzel:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by M2morris:
Gone soaring at Avenal, somewhere south of Colinga, from the air it was beautiful except for the obvious san andreas fault line clearly visible below. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_eek.gif

I used to live about 100 yds from the San Andreas Fault. I posted some pictures of me and my horse on another thread, and although you can't see it in the pictures, I was standing about 25- 30 feet from where it is, the ground higher on one side than it is on the other where it looked like a little cliff around 3-4 ft high. The property where the ranch was is now part of the national park, and you can't even tell anything was ever there, no barns, house, no nothing. I'll bet that the Park Service don't know about the literal tons of junk buried out there over the years, like garbage, different types of vehicles, animal carcasses, lumber, scrap metal, etc when it was privately owned, where the owner had a Case 680 backhoe and folks would pay him money to bury stuff they wanted to get rid of. http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/34.gif </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Intresting stuff about that fault line,but It gave me the creeps that right after we mentioned it that big one hit Japan. http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/shady.gif

Just thought I'd point this out since you said you know of old vehicles burried there. My brother found an old 1932 Ford chassis up in the hills east of Fresno, dragged it out of a gully and took it home and he is restoring it. Because of the fact that it has a VIN some guy in Australia offered him twenty thousand bucks for it.

[stalkervision]

Hmmm.. unexpected pleasures? When you sneeze and accidentally let out a big loud fart in a large group of people. Priceless.

[TheGrunch]

Blood Bowl...a daft little game that's like a turn-based mix of Warhammer and American football. It sounds rubbish but it's actually really fun. Lots and lots of thinking involved. You can get the latest version (Legendary Edition) really cheap on Amazon UK, probably the same in the US if you search on Google Shopping.

[Messaschnitzel]

Originally posted by TheGrunch:
Blood Bowl...a daft little game that's like a turn-based mix of Warhammer and American football. It sounds rubbish but it's actually really fun. Lots and lots of thinking involved. You can get the latest version (Legendary Edition) really cheap on Amazon UK, probably the same in the US if you search on Google Shopping.

Think? You mean you're supposed to think playing Blood Bowl? I thought you just grabbed and covered the the ball, punched, kicked, kneed, elbowed and headbutted your way down to the other end of the field. (that is, if you even make it a 1/4 of the way without getting killed or mangled) http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/59.gif

Seriously, I never played the game, but know about it because I had friends who did play it. Another game to check out is 'Arkham Horror', which is based on H.P. Lovecraft's books. I usually don't play board games that much anymore, but my wife and I get together with a few friends once a month to play it for the day. There are a number of additional expansion sets that make the game really fun. At least for me it has a ridiculous amount of rules to remember unfortunately, but I look on the bright side where it does force me to exercise my mind to where it won't get as rusty as it normally would be getting nowadays. http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/34.gif

Arkham Horror (http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Games-VA09-Arkham/dp/1589942108/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300391881&sr=8-1)

Give it a try! http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/25.gif

[TheGrunch]

Sounds awesome, should have made clear that the Blood Bowl I was referring to is a recent PC adaptation of the board game...but you've tickled my fancy, I do love a bit of Lovecraft whatever the media involved. http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/inlove.gif
Blood Bowl's in the ridiculous number of rules camp nowadays also, hence the thinking. http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/winky.gif