It was a little cooler today at the camp by the river … being only 115 degrees with some winds that felt like a hair dryer blowing in my face, and arms, and legs, all at once. Just another summer day in Bullhead City, Ariz., as I am told by the locals. Very few tourists here at this time of year....

If the California High Speed Rail Authority folks want us to ride that train, they first have to get us out of our cars. I think they might be working with oil companies to get it accomplished. There is a little matter of increasing taxes on every gallon of gasoline and extra environmental regs that...

In 10 to 15 years we could have a high-speed railroad come through our little valley. By that time, the trains they are planning to use will be of technology developed as early as the first streamliner trains in the 1930s. Designs that will be approaching 100 years old and still on steel wheels making...

It is a dark and stormy night as I write this. Raining so hard, the satellite TV signal can’t get through, and my cell is having a bit of the same problem. Just like at the start of this journey, the weather is controlling my movements. It isn’t fun driving a 40-foot-long RV pulling a Jeep in a torrential...

If you drive around the city of Gilroy, you get the idea the folks here are very proud of their town. It is the garlic capital of the world, and I’m sure if I looked for it, I could find some of that famous garlic ice cream. Today there seems to be an undercurrent of dissatisfaction. Like many other...

Tuesday was a jelly bean day. Specifically, I took a tour of the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. This is the jelly bean brand of President Reagan. It must be the one. There are portraits of him in photographs and in jelly bean mosaics. All over. At the entrance and on the walls of the factory. I can’t...

A couple of the pictures show some hills that look like the west end of Oahu. You need to remember that this whole little mountain range sits in the middle of the northern end of the Central Valley. Some call it the Yuba City Buttes, but I think the official name is Sutter Buttes. It is absolutely stunning....

Short trip to Sacramento and a visit to the California Railroad Museum and Old Town Sacramento. I didn’t know the original streets were raised due to river flooding in the 1870s. I’m still not convinced the fill wasn’t just so much BS running downhill to the waterfront from the Capitol building. The...

Well it looks like El Niño started the music and has started to dance a little. Isn’t it great that the weather guessers got it wrong for yesterday and today? How about the cooler temps? My GPS tells me I’m sitting about 34 feet above sea level. A little over half a mile away is the levee for the...

El Niño, we hardly knew ye. You came in as the strongest and biggest bad guy promising untold riches and help, but you really haven’t done much of anything. In fact you’ve not done much more than the folks we send to Sacramento to work on our other problems. The one good thing about you is –...