The Cal-look Lounge

forget area 51 or whatever, if they are coming, they'll land in the wierd oilfields out in Taft.

Maybe they need an oil change and filter?

But did they show up on a selective basis without any notice?   ;D ;D

have you guys been to Darwin Falls out by Death Valley?

one of the weirdest places I've ever been. Drove thru a few times, every time there are signs of life, like sprinklers watering lawns, dogs tied up to lampposts, front doors of houses wide open, cars in driveways with hoods up, laundry hung on clotheslines, BUT NEVER HAVE SEEN ONE PERSON EVER there. Not ONE. It has to be the freakiest thing...   like they all went underground and are watching tresspassers through periscopes.

nobody huh?

Have you ever been to McKittrick CA? Sheep and I drove through there on our way to Classic 1991 and stopped for a slushee, there was like one person in the entire "town" it was freaky quiet. Sign that welcomed us to downtown McKittrick said "population 18"
We stopped at the convenience store/mo-hotel/saloon.... next door was what looked like a gas station that exploded and was never cleaned up, pumps laying on their sides, broken window glass, faded Esso sign laying in the middle of the mess, coyotes sniffing throught he rubble and tumbleweeds. All we needed was the score from "good Bad and the Ugly"

Sheep asked the old lady that ran the store (and was probably the sherriff, judge, undertaker and lady of the night) if she had any "I Love McKittrick" t shirts or bumper stickers. She replied with a blank stare.

hahahaha great stuff Mark, I love little freaky places like that. We stopped in Amboy AND Ludlow coming back from Phoenix in 1991

.....and then there is ZZYZZYX or whatever it is out there too.... on the way to Baker or Vegas

How about New Idria? Ever been there? We rolled through there in a Toy 4-Runner, on our way to go play in the mud in Clear Creek (not so clear after all, the water runs bright day glo green and day glo orange)...again nothing but ruins and little beady eyes peeking through window blinds...."lookeee here, we got us some city folk visitin'"
Probably would eat us alive if they could catch us.


One time we were on one of our (yeah me and sheep again) weird midnight drives in my Scab Bus, out in middle of nowhere, Sheep riding in back, downing a twelver, we end up stopping in what looked like a "field" somewhere about 60 miles west of Bakersfield, pass out for the night in the Bus, wake up next morning, look around in the sunlight, we had camped in a used battery dumping field or something!  :o

I've seen the sign for McKittrick but never followed them.  ::)

kind of explains a few things huh?

We have a few towns like that in this area.

Phantalou - Pop 12. Its mostly an intersection between two dirt roads.
Two Egg - Actual town with a decent dinner no less
Not All Rise - Little town, pop 20 or so, down on the St. Marks River

--louis

pickin' and grinnin'

Santa Ana, CA is the place for Aliens !!!  :o

                                   I've been to Amboy. There was a post office and a diner and that was it. I got something to eat at the diner. They kind of stood around and watched me eat. Every time I took a sip of my ice tea , the girl(?) would pour more in.... I could never get the sugar right because she wouldn't stop topping it off.

you gave her (?) a lifetime's worth of work in one afternoon.

Hmmm....there's four of 'em at the counter now :o :o :o

 :o  :D :D :D ;D at Home Depot ??   :D :D

he said COUNTER not CORNER

 ::)
  at the Home Depot Counter buying new lawnmowers :D :D

One of the trippiest places I ever visited is a place called The Geysers.  It's located in the Mayacamas Mountains near Healdsburg in Northern California.  To get there, requires a drive on a twisty one lane road for about 10 miles through forests and across streams.  The closer you get, the rougher the road becomes from all the siesmic activity...then you round a bend and there's this HUGE geothermal power plant with pipes like Jim's opening photo, all painted white, running all over the hills.  Reminded me of something out of a James Bond movie  :o 8) ...then another long drive back to Hwy 101.

it's a culture hotspot..... you're missing out.

LOL well it sounds like a road trip is in order!  ;)

Jim, remember the huge angle fanshroud?

mmmmm.....no? Was that our trip to McKittrick and Taft with 'the girls?'

Yep, with Flaugher and April. It was some kind of belt cover or something on an oil derek that looked like one of those angle fan shrouds.

now I remember. Too bad you didn't get to come on the original Carrizo/Taft/Soda Lake trip, John. It was much "livelier"

One day i have to fly over to broaden my horizon.. But then what ;)

well.... in this sinkhole, armpit area we are talking about here.... there are lots of fun and interesting things to do...

you can:

see where pure black tar seeps up from the dirt up in the hills
look for endangered San Joaquin Kit Fox and signs of its habitat (reason for our first trip in 10/94, a college project I was working on, well really it was a place we could get soggy drunk and powerslide my Vanagon)
watch oil pumps bob up and down
from the air you can actually "see" the San Andreas fault line  :o
hunt for Indian artifacts
get sunburned
get lost
get chased by rednecks
I have heard rumors that drug trafficers land planes in secret out on Soda Dry Lake bed in the middle of night  :o

So no worries. Lots to do.

I got 4X4!  ;)

I need to get sunburned.
Hunt for Indian Artifacts.
Drink a lot of Cabernet.
And Get Lost.

No Worries.

Does anyone know What is behind that huge wire fence on  5 (going south on the right hand side?   Fence looks like its electrified and they have security guard at the entrance.
It starts with a C     
When you look back it is the big building ... I see nothing else.
Tried to find it on the internet, no luck.

i am up for that.

I love all of these strange places you have in the US. I did'nt really have enough time to see that much this time around.. I really need to take some time of and get seriously lost out there sometime...

I dunno... Stanton is pretty strange!!  :D

I never get lost cuz everyone always tells me where to go!!  ;D

Stanton was not that strange really. Strangest thing I came across was the lickour-store dude. He was just like Apu from The Simpsons, and I mean really like him in every way..... Come to think of it some of the girls that hang around the motel at night seemed to be really into me.. Must have been because of my good looks... Right??  ::)

That and your Norwegian accent!  ;)

well you can imagine the likes of the girls dropping from the hovering silver UFO's over Taft, Fellows and McKittrick.
And we all thought the stork brought babies...

if you guys wanna see a glimpse of what the area looks (and LOOKED.... still pretty much the same) check out movie There Will Be Blood,

the story was based out of this weird corner of California.

that's a refuse and recyclng plant if I am not mistaken, off the Crow's Landing exit, near Gustine. I think it is on Fink Road

kafercup went there on a field trip in college.

I knew it had to be one of the two.. :D

BTW. Thank you so much for spending time with us Rick, it really made my california experience so much better. I have been so busy working on my oval since I came back home that I never really got around to thank you. Sorry about that..

Need to check out some of those places next time around. To bad we did'nt get to meet Jim..

It was my pleasure Rune!

one point of interest...

before the town name was changed to Taft, the town was known as Moron

There's somebody we used to know that's known by the same name.

Now, you know me better that , my friend!

hey Rune... yeah next time... beer's on me buddy.

But honestly, we can pass on a trip to Taft. It would be as exciting as wet ciagarette,