Lots to report and not much to report in the same sentence. I’ve been out and about exploring but haven’t edited anything yet so it’s kind of still in that state of limbo of “pics or it didn’t happen”.
Truth be told, yesterday I put on a lot of miles but didn’t really find the shots I was hoping for. Byron Hot Springs Hotel, an abandoned old hotel was really fenced off with signs all around about trespassing and such. My gut feeling said don’t push it, we didn’t want to get arrested yesterday. But I found a really cool bird sanctuary/wildlife refuge which was part of nothing other than San Francisco Bay. Unbeknownst to me I ended up in San Jose. First the bird area then right down by the convention center staring at a Muffler Man. That was just before dark so I set out to make it back to Modesto where my trailer is. Friday night Traffic,…a nightmare.
Today I set out in the other direction and found a couple small “almost” ghost towns as well as some cool older historic towns that are now cashing in on the trendy tourism draw of their history.
First up was La Grange California. Not sure if this was the town that ZZ Top was referring to but I doubt there’s “a lot of nice girls there”. It’s small and rundown, but it has a certain charm about it. The Hotel/Saloon is a popular stop for motorcycle riders and had a bunch of Harley’s lined up outside. Reminded me of Wayne Alberta in that aspect.
Next stop was Jamestown California. A nice little town with lots of history, especially in the film and TV industry. It’s been used in so many productions it’s best just to google it as writing about them all here would take days. There’s also the old historic rail yard just above the town that is now a state park. Railtown 1867 is a massive rail yard and train station that houses many old train cars as well and steam train rides. It’s got a roundhouse and yard filled with old rusty train parts, train cars in various states of restoration and disrepair. It was a fun day for me.
After that I checked out Sonora which looks like another, slightly larger version of Jamestown. Very trendy and touristy with nice restaurants and art shops etc but there was a Mother Lode Festival of some sort going on with lots of Halloween events and the historic main street was packed with people. I hightailed it out of there.
Just before sunset I checked out Chinese Camp which is more my style. historic yet derelict buildings and houses with a few remaining residents. I got a few shots there before starting the trek back to the trailer.
Overall it was an amazing day out exploring. Lots of new stuff added to the editing queue.
Thanks for reading,
W.
