San Francisco Houses & Flat Stanley

We awoke in Las Vegas on Monday, 9 January. We began a 570 mile drive back to San Francisco at 8:30 AM. The traffic moved along quickly enabling us to arrive back at Jill & Matt’s apartment by 5:30 PM. We were gone 1 week & 5 hours during which time we drove 2,000 miles through 4 states to play golf. We pushed ourselves a little bit in order to have a couple of days with the grand kids again before we flew back to Moline, IL on that Thursday. We arrived back home as a 6 inch snowfall was ending. Winter had finally arrived in Bettendorf after a very mild winter thus far.

The trip back to San Francisco was relatively uneventful. During the trip we did drive through 3 large “wind farms” with hundreds of wind turbines on the hill sides. They were located near Palm Springs, Mojave, and Oakland - - - all in the state of California. One other item: we stopped in Bakersfield, CA for lunch on our way back. We pulled off of the highway and were stopped in traffic waiting for a traffic light to change. A young homeless man was standing on the corner begging for spare change from the passing motorists. My attention turned to an elderly gentleman riding toward the intersection on a bicycle. His white beard and long, white hair caught my eye as he resembled a slimmer version of Santa Claus dressed in old blue jeans. The light turned and we proceeded through the intersection to the restaurant. We happened to drive through the same intersection after lunch. The young homeless man was absent, having been replaced by the elderly, white haired gentleman. The bicycle the old man was riding was no where to be seen. It appears as if the homeless people in California have replacements ready to stand-in for them while they take lunch breaks!

In an earlier blog, I shared a picture of the San Francisco home formerly occupied by Jerry Garcia. There were a few other houses in close proximity to his address at 710 Ashbury in the famous Haight Ashbury district. Test your knowledge of trivia on the following homes. I provided a clue underneath each picture to help you out. The picture of the 2nd house is not very good since it was getting a facelift, but the clue is pretty darn good. Also, the 3rd house is not technically in Haight Ashbury, but it is within a short walk. Test your knowledge and check yourself against the answers at the end of this blog posting.

"Hell on Wheels"

"Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?"

Former residence of an aspiring young writer.

My sister Jo Ann lives in Anniston, Alabama. One of her grandkids, Jackson Dodson, sent us a “Flat Stanley” at the beginning of November. For those unfamiliar with Flat Stanley, it is a story of a young boy who is accidentally flattened when a bulletin board falls on him. He then sets off on adventures enabled by his ability to slide under doors and fit into an envelope. My job is to show Flat Stanley a good time - - - and than report back to Jackson on his adventures. So far, it appears he enjoys golf, extreme sports and entertaining people as you can see below. His adventures will continue up through 15 April when I have to return him to Jackson.