Apologize for the disjointed and rambling post today. How is this different from the usual, you ask. This one is particularly rambling.
I drove from Ferney to Gex tonight. Aimlessly drove through dark narrow roads including a detour through the empty parking lot of a grocery store (and a liquid bio break in a dark field. I am confessing to terrible crimes.) Strangely enough, at that time of the night, France looked a lot like California. I missed breakfast at Coogie's. Simpler times.
I thought of driving from Malibu to Sacramento, California's sleepy capital.
Sacramento is a smallish town. For the capital of a major American state, Sacramento does not have the pomp of LA or the hipness of San Fransisco. Most people in LA probably doesn't even care to acknowledge that Sacramento exists. It is dusty and earthy and houses many bedroom suburbs full of police officers and teachers who can't afford to find housing in the Bay area. It is really not on the way to any place on the tourist map and unless you are on your way to Yuba city or Chico, you don't end up accidentally in Sacramento.
Few years ago, walking around Sacramento, we ended up watching Paula Poundstone. Paula seemed tired after all the allegations and accusations around alcoholism and child abuse, but she was still funny and wonderful. Another time, I flew in from LA one evning to attend an Eric Clapton concert at the Arco arena. This was before the days of terrible airport security and long lines. I think I was disappointed. I don't remember too much else about the concert itself. attending two performances in a city that don't visit that often.
But that is not why France reminded me of CA tonight.
California Inland Empire is so different from the South and the North cities. Bakersville is the main city and the surrounding areas is so agriculture focused. By the coast, Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo still retain the charm od old-world CA. If you ever go to San Luis Obispo, do go to Madonna Inn and look at the men's rest room. Don't worry if you are female, plenty of women enter those portals to admire the kitsch. I won't tell you what it is, you are going to have to go there.) Driving to Hearst Castle in San Simeon through absolute beauty of abandoned beaches and stark terrain is something you should do at least once. There is a small town whose name I don't remember about twenty miles north of San Simeon that has the most fabulous French restaurant right on the main street overlooking the ocean. You would never expect to find it there and once you find it, you would never want to leave.
So may be France does not really look like CA. So, sue me, I still miss CA.
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Facts That Will Never Help You in Life
1. The album cover of Hotel California features a Santa Fe style bell tower that is now etched in the memory of all the fans of the Eagles. Don Henley spent some time in a state psychiatric hospital in Camarillo and the bell tower is from the state mental hospital campus.
2. The mental hospital closed many years ago and re-opened recently as the new campus of the Channel Island State University. I used to go there once in a while when they had good guest speakers. I remember speaking with the ex-Sandinista poet Gioconda Belli when she spoke there. As she read her poems, fighter planes from nearby Pt. Mugu airforce base kept on taking off over our heads.
3. My former neighbor John bought a cutglass window from Don Henley. None of these facts are related in any way.
