More views of Hwy 101 08-31-10

In just three hours I will be a year older! I was born September 1, 1938 at 3am (or thereabouts). My father called me his "September Morn" baby, after a painting that was popular in that era. Now that I am getting up in years I feel very lucky to have lived to see another birthday. So, think a good thought for me and, in my honor, hug someone you love.

Yesterday when I drove up 101 I knew I could make it to King City to get gas. I was wrong! There didn't seem to be much of a headwind and I didn't wander off the road to see the sights, but suddenly I realized that the little "low fuel" light showed on my dash. When I came to the next mileage sign it said so many miles to King City and my little dashboard computer said I had nine miles of fuel left - which was the lesser number. By the time I came to a station off the west side of the highway the needle was on the peg and the computer said zero fuel! I haven't come this close to running out of gas for decades. Guess it just shows how much I was enjoying myself and not paying attention.

The wind was enough to blow me off my feet, so after I filled up I drove around to try to get a picture of the flag whipping straight out without my having to get out of the car again.

Both of these pictures above show a bucolic scene that takes me back to my childhood when there were many little cafes with gas pumps out front and lots of old farm equipment and wagon wheels as decoration. Of course, in Oregon the hills were more likely to be dark green with Douglas Fir and cedars, instead of the tawny dry grass of California in the summer.

A little further up 101 the sky slowly filled with dark clouds and I could see the fog bank piling over the coastal hills. I passed this crew truck hauling a trailer of port-a-potties. When we are irritated that the spinach is polluted, we need to remember that the farmers are making huge efforts to keep their produce unpolluted. I don't remember when they started this mobile potty business, but you can see they even provide basins with soap and water. We can just hope the workers will use such facilities. When I picked berries and nuts as a child our habit was to find a sheltering bush - no hand washing. How DID we survive?

Mary and Joe live high in the hills above San Juan Bautista and are surrounded by undeveloped land wooded with oak trees. There is much wildlife - deer, bobcats, squirrels, rabbits, mice, foxes, birds, skunks and I don't know what else. Yesterday in the late afternoon this doe came to have a drink from the birdbath. She was preceded by a young buck with straight antlers - maybe her son who would have been kicked out of the 'nest' not long ago. Mary has to refill the birdbath daily to keep up with the thirsty birds, deer and squirrels. As much as I love visiting here I am constantly alert to spiders (brrrrrrrr) which seem to want to live inside - when there is all that open country outside.