El Camino Real

The history of El Camino Real and its bells, is quite interesting. At the same time that the American colonies were rebelling against England, a handful of Spaniards and Mexicans established outposts up the California coast. The first was established in 1769 at San Diego, when they established a fortress and a Franciscan mission. A footpath, called The El Camino Real, or Kings Highway, was created to connect the outputs. Each outpost, called a Mission, was situated in areas where large populations of Indians lived and where the soil was fertile enough to sustain a settlement. As time progressed and more Missions were built, the footpath became a roadway wide enough to accommodate horses and wagons. It was not, however, until the last Mission in Sonoma was completed in 1823, that this little pathway became a real route. From that point, a series of small self-reliant religious missions were established. Each was a day's travel apart and linked by El Camino Real, Overall, El Camino Real ("The King's Highway") linked 21 missions, pueblos and four presidios from San Diego to Sonoma.

The El Camino Real was more than a road in California. It was a chain of Jesuit missions spaced far enough apart so that clergy and others travelers, could reach the next one before nightfall and therefore have a place to eat and rest in safety.

I believe this was the original blueprint for Wal-Mart Super Centers.

071005-Ashland

From Cape Blanco, we traveled down the coast to crescent city where we headed inland for Ashland, Oregon. Our friend Miki has an old friend that she wants us to visit, so that’s where we are going.
On a stretch of road from the coast to Grants Pass Oregon, I have named it God’s country because all of a sudden my GPS unit announce that it had lost satellite contact and I was on my own. I figure, when your GPS unit can’t tell you where you are, only God knows.
On the map, it was a healthy, straight road, but in truth it went thru thick forest land and had quite a few curves to contend with. Most of the time we needed to keep our dashboard lights on because the trees kept us in deep shadows.
As we approached Grants Pass, the GPS unit suddenly came to life and guided us to the local Wal-Mart.
After few phone calls, arrangements we made with Herm (Miki’s friend) to meet at a Safeway parking lot, where he picked us up and took us to lunch. Herm is a dynamic guy, loaded with personality and still retaining his New York roots and mannerism.
We had a terrific lunch at a local inn, got the 50 cent tour of the area and then for a treat, stopped at an off leash dog park for Peter to run around and make some new friends. It was really a perfect gift. Peter was very appreciative.
Later that afternoon, we bade our farewells and headed for a local RV park for the night.

070930-Peter's Habits

Peter has developed some new habits that I am not thrilled about and he doesn’t seem to be willing to change. Whenever he enters the Beast, he goes to check his food dish, drinks some water and then goes directly to my bed and makes himself comfortable. Also, as soon as I get out of bed in the morning, he gets on it. I think he got the idea from watching some World War 2 navy movies. Since there was shortage of space on small ships and especially submarines, sailors often had to share sleeping areas. With 3 shifts of duty every 24 hours, when one sailor would go off duty, he would wake up his relief and would then take over his bed. This process was called “Hot Bunking”, because the bed was always occupied and never got cold. Regarding Peter’s new habit - What I am wondering is:… who is keeping the bed warm for who ?.

Next – when we are traveling – Peter’s usual battle station has been on the floor of the passenger seat, looking out a small window at the floor level. He was supposed to looking out for police cars and dog food stores. Just when I thought he was trusting my driving skills (he no longer wears his crash helmet and flack vest), he has now decided he wants to be near the emergency door (the driver’s door).There are only 2 doors on the Beast ( the patio door and driver’s door). As soon as I set the beast in motion, he hurries beneath my legs and positions himself under my seat, nuzzled up against the door. When I try to stop him, he puts up such a fight that I decided it’s better than not knowing where he is or having him walking along the dashboard. Since I drive with my hand controls, I don’t have to worry about stepping on the pedals. Once in a while, I think he likes to scare me by stepping on the gas as he shifts his position, but I just throw it into neutral and wait for him to get comfortable.

070927-Cape Blanco

Thursday, September 27, 2007

One of the consequences of traveling free style, is that you can loose track of time. Sometimes if it wasn’t for my pill case, I wouldn’t know what day it is.

Therefore, forgetting it was the weekend, we rolled into Newport Bay, Oregon, a charming, seaside town and harbor, not realizing it was Saturday, and quite full of tourists and traffic.
We then tried to get into a local state park, which of course was also filled up. Plan B was to find a nice RVP nearby and wait out the weekend, which we did.

The weather is changing, and from what I remember of my youth on the east coast, I think it is called Fall. Los Angeles seems to be immune to it, but here on the Oregon coast it is getting cool, crisp, and balmy. I think it’s telling me to head south.

Some of the charming areas we have made tourist stops at are Coos Bay and Bandon Bay.
If we could, we would love to stay at every one of them for a few day each at least, but for now, these brief visits and some candid photos to remind us where we’ve been will have to suffice.
Our plan was to stay a few nights at Cape Blanco State Park, which is a point jutting into the pacific. As often happens, we didn’t notice the sign pointing to the campsite so we kept going till we reached the Cape Blanco Lighthouse. We weren’t planning on visiting lighthouses since I can’t climb the many steps on a winding staircase, but this mistake was well worth it. The setting was breath taking and the ocean was beautiful. The park ranger took our picture and pointed us in the right direction for the campsites, and we picked out a nice one: paved, level, and plenty of grass for Peter to lie on. It was a good day.