Oregon – the America of youthful memory
May 28th 2023, Sunset Cove, Oregon. Oregon is the America of my youthful memory. It was fashioned in my mind in dentist and doctor's waiting rooms where lying about as distractions to make the time pass were copies of National Geographic magazine. And in those pages...
California’s redwoods are like cathedrals of nature
I left David and Shao-ying revitalised and full of optimism about life and people and the way ahead. My mood was helped when, doubling back to Point Arena, the fellow in the bike shop beside the gas station -- "He's great; knows about bikes," said another fellow in...
The house is so close to the redwood forest that it appears to be inside it
May 19th 2013, Anchor Bay, California. The coast of central California as one progresses north takes one's breath away. Ragged with cliffs and inlets, the Pacific -- blue and sparkling on this sunny , early summer day -- has carved out bay after little bay and the...
San Francisco has stolen a bit of my heart
May 17th 2023, San Francisco. San Francisco is ridiculously beautiful. At every turn, up every hill, across every vista by the bay, the city is just stunning. And it is not a strained, forced beauty. It is not beating you over the head like, say, Hollywood -- 'look at...
Breakfast at Mel’s
May 17th 2023, San Francisco. If you're staying on Lombard, the best place to have breakfast is Mel's Drive-in Diner at Cow Hollow. It's at the bottom end of the street, the Marina end, which itself leads onto San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge about two miles away. I...
In Steinbeck’s California, the crops are still harvested by Mexicans
May 8th 2023, Salinas. Travelling between Los Angeles and San Francisco, it's impossible -- for me at any rate -- to escape the literary history of the area. Salinas, Monterey and the fertile flatlands between the mountains all provide the settings for three of John...
Heather talks in that urgent way people under pressure sometimes do
May 14th 2023, San Francisco. Tenderloin is a district in downtown San Francisco where many of the city's homeless live in tents on the pavements. Heather Leonard (37) arrived there a while back and tells her story in the urgent and often disconnected way that people...
Down in Hollywood
May 5th 2023, Hollywood. There's all sorts of stuff rattling around my head as I turn off Route 1 heading north along the California coast and start cruising the Santa Monica Boulevard. Chiefly Ry Cooder and his cool but slightly edgy urban grime song Down in...
California dreamin’
After Tucson, I rode straight west towards San Diego, California, spending one night camping in Yuma which is on the border with Arizona. That evening, something happened that I believe is a regular occurrence there -- a mighty sandstorm blew up from further west....
There is another Tucson and I like it
April 30th 2023, Tucson, Arizona. There's a mountain that rises above Tucson, a little to the north and east of the Arizona city. It is called Mount Lemmon and, amazing to think of it as you swelter and bake in the heat of the city (it was 97 Fahrenheit, that is 36...