Don Barrett (aka DBs travels)'s photos

A surprisingly elegant fountain in front of city hall in Atascadero. I found no explanation regarding this, but considering that it is on the edge of Sunken Gardens park, the fountain was probably inspired (like the park) by the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. (see adjacent picture)

For those of us who have been in California for a good while, saying “I’m going to Atascadero” used to mean you were going off to visit a friend or family member with serious mental problems. For years many assumed that the only thing of importance in Atascadero was the Atascadero State Hospital, a 1200 bed institution for mentally ill convicts. But the area has changed in the past 20 years. I first got to know the Central Coast area when, in the mid-1980’s, I had a position that required my going down to San Luis Obispo (16 miles south of Atascadero) every 3-4 months. In those days the towns along the US 101, the main road, were fairly small and distinct and the country side was open range or large farms – but people in the area were concerned about the growth they were seeing with vineyards popping up, and the related wine tourists. So, the town that was once known for its mental hospital, is now in the middle of area known (pre-pandemic) for wine-tasting, luxurious getaways, and ‘one-of-a-kind’ restaurants. As seems to happen fairly often, as new money, interests and increasing trendiness flow in, the history that had been hidden when the hospital dominated the town, also began to surface. It turns out the area was a focus for social movements back in the early 1900’s, when there was a plan to develop a utopian (albeit white) Atascadero Colony that was expected to be the home of 30,000. The center piece of the planned colony was the colony’s Administrative Building (the building pictured here) and a large park to the west of it called ‘Sunken Gardens,’ which was inspired by the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Unfortunately I could find nothing about what happened with the plans for the colony, though I did find that the building shown here went through multiple uses (including being a jail) over the years and did not become the city administration building (aka City Hall) until the 1980’s – it was seriously damaged by an earthquake in 2003 and was closed for retrofitting for 10 years after that. The building is surprisingly large and elaborate for the city hall of a small city (population about 30,000), as is the size of the park. Sources: www.atascaderohistoricalsociety.org/city-hall-history.php en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atascadero%2C_California

As close as I could get for otter pictures. If you zoom in, you can see that the upper otter has a pup on her belly. I could find no specific information that would explain why the lower one is lighter in fur color, other than that a small percentage are lighter – apparently it isn’t an indication of ‘graying’ with age! (The shape in the water on the upper right is apparently kelp.) Picture locations are only approximate, could be off by as much as a mile.

Picture locations are only approximate, could be off by as much as a mile.

Morning (7:45AM) view of Morro Rock from the balcony of my motel room. Picture locations are only approximate, could be off by as much as a mile.

The late afternoon light on the coast reminded me of my first experiences of the California coast back in 1968, when stationed in Monterey -- when I first said to myself, “I’ll be back”. Picture locations are only approximate, could be off by as much as a mile.

Sunset at Morro Rock Picture locations are only approximate, could be off by as much as a mile.

A couple of otters in an evening of lolling around in the bay outside the closed electric generating plant. The story about the generating plant is here, more about the otters later – this picture is really just a placeholder for other thoughts. Barely visible in the background is the coastal collection of fishing boats (sports and commercial) and bayside restaurants, reflective of the area’s economic base in tourism, commercial fishing, and retirement living. Having been in Morro Bay many times, I knew that its midweek tourism is typically relatively low, and that was true this time as well. The motels in town were nowhere near full, and the tourist-dominated bayside restaurant row was not at all crowded, which was consistent with past experiences and not suggestive of the economic effects of the pandemic restrictions. BUT, I was surprised by the tourist and locals I did see who had high levels of compliance with pandemic behavioral recommendations. While there wasn’t complete compliance, the majority of people that I saw wandering around in the tourist restaurant-row area were wearing masks except when eating. That contradicts what I see in the resort parts of my hometown where the accepted standard seems to be that you don’t have to wear a mask even when you’re just looking around for a place to eat. And, down in the waterfront park area near where I took this picture, very many were wearing masks even though we were outdoors, and everyone I encountered was very cautious about social distancing. A disadvantage of Morro Bay for the solo traveler is that there are few diners or chain restaurants that are comfortable eating places for solo travelers – but for a sociologist (me), that created an opportunity to survey what was going on in local grocery stores while shopping for something for dinner. Again I was surprised – I didn’t see any mask cheaters (e.g., worn under the nose), and people were more conscientious about maintain social distancing than I see at home when there are tourist in the stores. I’ll talk more about this at the end of the trip pictures, but I came back with a sense that infection prevention is more widely practice in Central and Northern California, even outside the major cities, than I had expected. Picture locations are only approximate, could be off by as much as a mile.

“BYE, DON” – an interesting play on words. Note also the red ‘E’ in ‘BYE’ in the picture is similar to the ‘E’ in Biden campaign posters. Morro Bay looked to be very politically active with lots of Biden signs (only a couple of Trump), and many signs for local races. Quite a few local signs were for Weiss who seems to be running as a businessman that can bring the economy (tourism) back from the virus-related destruction, and many also for Winholtz (on the balcony in this picture) who seems to be running on a ‘no new sales tax’ and control of vacation rentals agenda. Source: www.sanluisobispo.com/news/politics-government/election/article245443180.html Picture locations are only approximate, could be off by as much as a mile.

Across the harbor, Morro Rock, 576’ high, a surprisingly uniform in shape, volcanic plug. It’s one of a series of nine volcanic mountains in the area called the Nine Sisters. Sources: www.outdoorrevival.com/adventure/nine-sisters-san-luis-obispo-california.html Picture locations are only approximate, could be off by as much as a mile.

Nothing pandemic, political, here – just a shot of why Morro Bay is my favorite place to break up the long drive to SF. ***** Oops, I was wrong…. even beauty comes with hazards (actually, that sounds like a truism). The seemingly glorious stand of tall, slender, trees are, I’m fairly certain, eucalyptus. An invasive from Australia, they were brought to California via Europe during the mid-1800’s Gold Rush and planted widely, first as decorations and then as economic speculation that they would provide lumber for all of the trees that had been cut down during the Gold Rush. While they smell wonderful and provide an aesthetically pleasing backdrop, they’re a disaster. It turns out that the plans for using eucalyptus for lumber were based on old-growth forests in Australia, and that the lumber from younger trees is unusable. What they are good at is taking over landscape, driving out native trees and plants, and shedding paper-thin bark that’s wonderful fuel for fires. Fortunately their fire-hazard characteristics haven’t been much of a problem in Southern California (Morro Bay would be Central California), but it is enough of a problem in Northern California that there have been plans to try to eradicate them in some areas. The two articles below are good sources: Sources: www.independent.com/2011/01/15/how-eucalyptus-came-california www.kqed.org/science/4209/eucalyptus-california-icon-fire-hazard-and-invasive-species Picture locations are only approximate, could be off by as much as a mile.

Something that just doesn’t fit with my notion of relaxing – being parked bumper-to-bumper in a string of RV’s (caravans) and trailers, with no shade, surrounded by asphalt, and a major thoroughfare (US 101) 200’ away (out of picture, to the right of me). I’m probably being way too prejudiced, but relaxing to me is about getting either relatively close to nature, or discovering a new community. This feels too much like living in a car park to me. ***** What about the pandemic? This does look pretty safe in terms of the pandemic distancing standards but I, admittedly, had hopes early on that the environmental issues brought up by the pandemic would somehow encourage a large scale rethinking of our relationships with our environment and with others. True, though, considering our current Trumpian culture, that was a naive expectation. Oh, and one last thing for some of my UK/EU friends – yes, campers in the U.S. seem to have an exorbitant need to fly the U.S. flag…. Picture locations are only approximate, could be off by as much as a mile.

The Ventura coast on a Monday in October, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. I was actually somewhat surprised at the amount of people on the beach and the number of campers (adjacent picture) since this was a Monday and I had assumed people would be working or doing whatever they do about school for kids in these times. I sort of knew that it was the federal holiday of Columbus Day and should have been taking that into consideration, but wasn’t. There’s long editorial possibilities about Columbus Day, but suffice for now that it’s a day that has only been a holiday for some workers and has in recent years become increasingly questionable due to the politics of recognizing Columbus for his bringing of disease and exploitation to the New World. My main goals on this trip were to get back in the habit of travel, to visit a friend in SF, and to observe what’s happening in other places about the virus. Having driven across the 130 miles of Southern California/LA County freeway congestion to get to this point, my observations at this point were somewhat contradictory. The virus and cautions about it were very obvious when I had stopped at a fast food place to pick up lunch and then had to go find a ‘park and ride’ with shade for eating off the hood of my car. But the traffic across LA had felt very standard for a mid-day Monday – traffic jams at some intersections, 80+ mph flow in other parts. So, considering the traffic, it seemed like the major economic impacts of the virus were minor. Coming back to this beach, though there were more people at the beach than I expected for a weekday, when I realized it was that Federal holiday which gets only mixed recognition, the volume of attendance was fairly typical – again, nothing indicative of a catering to, or in opposition to, pandemic standards. What about the people on the beach? Even if you zoom in you’ll see no masks, but they are outdoors with an ocean breeze so being mask-free made sense. What about social distancing – with the exception of the group at the green umbrella on the left side of the picture, most everyone seems to be in small clusters that are well-spaced. Did that spacing happen due to knowledge of public health pandemic standards, or just how groups select on a moderate-volume day? I suspect the latter. BUT, when I get to some hiking/beach pictures in the SF Bay area, you’ll see approaches to public health standards that make us Southern Californians look reckless. Picture locations are only approximate, could be off by as much as a mile.

Mobile & Gulf Railroad steam engine #97, now owned by Indiana RR Museum and stored at the French Lick Scenic Railroad. Per the links below, the engine is beyond repair needing a new boiler and the running gear would need to be replaced. It was built in 1925 and apparently the last time it ran was in 1985. Source: www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=482 www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39004

The French Lick Scenic Railroad is a tourist railroad running over a 25 mile stretch from French Lick to Jasper. Source: frenchlickscenicrailway.org/about

Adjacent to West Baden is French Lick, apparently the original site for the hot springs that made the area into a turn-of-the-century resort. It’s not quite clear when this building was opened – a previous hotel at the site burned down in 1897 and this was open in 1901, so it was some time between those years. Like the hotel in West Baden (adjacent picture), this boomed from the early 1900’s to the start of the Great Depression in 1929, but declined after that. Unlike the West Baden hotel, it did remain a hotel from then until now. Much of the revitalization of the structure is connected to the beginning of licensed gambling in 2003 – the Trump organization was involved with the resort for a short time around 2003, but that didn’t work out. The structure currently has 443 guest rooms. ….. Something not mentioned and difficult to find was the fact that Kimball Piano’s were made in West Baden / French Lick – in fact 500,000 of them. One of the men most active in the gay group on campus at IU when I was there had been a piano-tuner at Kimball’s, which is how I was able to find the documentation of it’s history. I didn’t see any location in French Lick that looked like it might have been the former factory. Sources: Resort: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Lick_Springs_Hotel Kimball piano: www.kimballinternational.com/our-history

From afar, the huge dome/atrium of the West Baden Springs Hotel.

When I was a student at Indiana University in the early 1980’s, one of most vocal and key people in gay student activism was a guy from French Lick, a town I’d never heard of. It turned out that this rural town in southern Indiana had a long history as a resort area due to hot springs. Pictured here is the West Baden Springs Hotel in West Baden Springs. The hotel opened in 1902, is six floors with, originally, roughly 500 rooms, and an atrium with what was once the largest dome in the U.S. Though it attracted wealthy patrons in its early years, it suffered with the Great Depression and the original owners donated it to the Jesuits. From 1934 to 1964 it operated as a Jesuit seminary, but then had a spotty history with various efforts at restoration until being bought by the nearby French Lick Resort Casino and reopening in 2006. The structure is a registered National Historic Landmark. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Baden_Springs_Hotel