The incomplete and growing list of reasons to have a high-speed rail system in California, in no particular order of importance: 1. “Europe and Asia have them, and we should, too.” Remember when we tried to use that reasoning to go to a rock concert our folks had already said we couldn’t attend? 2....

Up here in Yuba City, I decided to have lunch at a Sonic Drive-In. I’d forgotten just how those many years I lived in Virginia and Kentucky had affected me. When asked if I wanted “sweet or un-sweet” tea, I almost couldn’t believe my ears. I nearly checked my GPS to make sure I was north of the...

Watched a biplane crop duster this morning. Nearby orchards were being sprayed. The pilot had to fly the plane under some high-voltage electric lines. You know – those lines with the big steel towers. It was a great show. As the sunrise awakened the upper Central Valley, a low fog hugged the ground...

Cue music: “On the Road Again.” Or is it another song, “The Long and Winding Road?” Whatever the song, the journey has started at last. So it was from Acton to Bakersfield and now in a little town called Nicolaus. I’m just about 35 minutes north of Sacramento on Highway 99. I’ve been following...

The weather is causing a delay in my planned trip to the Central Valley. I won’t leave until tomorrow … unless the snow on Route 58 is too bad. I worry the road might be blocked with snow or mud. In the railroad history of California, the weather has played a significant role – snow in the...

OK. It’s time for me to get this “bus” started and head out on the road. Time to go and see what is claimed to be the route of the California high-speed rail system. I’ve wanted to do it for a while and even wrote that I would do so soon … but that was many months ago. The route of the California...

He was a shipmate of mine, even if we never served on the same ship. When I met Duane Harte, I immediately felt we had weathered the same seas in ships large and small. We loved the same things – especially the history of the Santa Clarita Valley. We made a great team when we joined together on...

During the time I was executive director at Heritage Junction Historic Park, we hosted a number of commercial and student film projects. For the most part, the production companies left the locations they used in better condition than when they started filming. Except for some fake “dirt” used in...

Hey, Hollywood. Please take notes and do something about this. Since the days of silent pictures, you, Hollywood, have been using Mentryville as a back lot. Thanks to many of those old films, we know what the old town used to look like in the 1920s and ‘30s. Today it just looks trashed. No, it doesn’t...

I haven’t found the old articles, but years ago there was a problem with folks speeding on Valley Street, 8th Street and Market, too. It looks like history is repeating itself once again. I was at my sister’s home in Happy Valley, and as I was driving toward Lyons Avenue, sure enough I had a young...