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13th Oct 2005
The Chico saga
Thursday 13th October, 2005
Awoke to a glorious California morning on top of the hill at Chateau Ormsby on Timber Ridge. Outside the grasses are all parched brown and the area has a covering of old oaks eeking a meagre existence from the red clay soils.
It was going to be a hot one and the peace of it was only broken when I emerged from the room which was a signal for Bogart to take up his vigil.
I e-mailed Byron at Chico to suggest tentative arrangements for a meeting; my preference to meet today in the afternoon … with a fallback option of tomorrow. He telephoned within half an hour and agreed to this afternoon at 2 and I duly arranged to be underway at midday to make the drive. It’s a long way to Chico and I was advised that the best route was to stick to the interstate 49 South to 80 west to 99 North and two hours would do it. Having a number of other things to do I didn’t check any further. I made a purchase of the Second View book from the cheapest of the ABE options and am getting it delivered to John Fairbairn's in Denver
We took a quick tour around the ‘Lake Of The Pines’ development with Tony, just down the hill from Summit Ridge. It’s an amazing self-contained country club with a housing community, mainly for retirees.
I set off for Chico at 12. Along the prescribed route but missed the intersection at Sacramento and an hour and a quarter later was still there trying find my way north. I followed the signs for 99, only to find that the only option was south. Somewhat frustrating is the polite way of putting it. Eventually found someone who could direct me and they passed on the vital information that ’99 north’ had to be reached along Interstate 5.
Once I was heading North it was just a matter of time and I sat back to absorb the outstanding delights of ‘Coast to Coast’ live Radio This is a radio station that I have heard intermittently over the past weeks but never for very long at a stretch. The contributions from across America can be surprising … and the way that the presenter manages the programme even more so. The subjects vary; today it was about administrative policy … and basically, if the presenter agreed with the view, you were allowed to speak, if he thought it was going in a way he didn’t agree with he cut off the caller, thanked them for their contribution and then trashed what they were saying. This I can only deduce, is the American version of Free Speech; in order to have it, you have to present a Radio show.
Other notable contributions heard on Coast to Coast included the caller who enquired of the presenter as to whether they had noticed anything strange about President Bush? (‘Errrr, please continue’ was I think the response) … ‘Well,’ she said, ‘its just that he’s been looking slightly different these last days and I just wondered whether perhaps someone may have ‘possessed’ him?’ Another program featured the agony aunt call-in which I think was run by a Dr Sylvia Brown, and include the poor girl who had been deserted by her fiancé of three years when she fell pregnant; He was branded a slimeball, she was told she didn’t need him anyway … and then, almost as an afterthought she was berated for having unprotected sex and bundled off the phone for the next caller. Live entertainment, American style!
I eventually arrived in Chico at about 3 after 168 miles, several false starts and finally being caught in a one-way system and unable to get to the building and parking lot I wanted to because I couldn’t find my way around the one-way.
I spoke with Byron and he advised me to shove the car into the first parking lot I encountered and he’d get me from there.
We finally met up outside the Chico State University administration building and retired to the cool quiet of his office on the second floor. We had a good couple of hours chat about re-photography in general, the Third View project in particular and some smaller projects Byron is beginning to work on.
I set off back at 5.30 … back to Auburn at 7.15 after driving about 100 miles – 68 less than on the way up mainly due to the fact that I took a glance at the map and then took the side roads. Back in about an hour and a half. Anne had had a ‘veg’ day and having read, birdwatched, written and lunched at the local pub. She did also find a massive pine cone which she was busy picking the sap off when I returned. The Drysdale determination is meaning that this is coming with us ... barbecued steaks for supper, cooked up by Tony and a pleasent evening outside in a gentle Bay breeze.
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Diary Photos
| 13th Oct 2005 |
| Anne's pine cone |
| Found at Summit Ridge, Tony's plot and now picked clean of its sap |
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