Road Trip Day 12 -Bakersfield to San Luis Obispo, CA

Cholame CA tree that James Dean ran into in 1955

Day 12 was a very leisurely drive for this Epic Road Trip.  Bakersfield is less than 3 hours drive from San Luis Obispo.  As I left Bakersfield heading west, I noticed that the orchards of almond and citrus trees looked quite healthy in spite of the severe drought that California is experiencing.  I suspect that the farmers have become very good at irrigating the orchards without wasting much water.

On Day 11 I was amazed at the miles and miles of wind mills producing electricity just west of Death Valley.  Today, I saw miles and miles of oil wells!  And a solar farm that was huge!  The oil wells were in a town called Lost Hills.  Very appropriately named, I might say, because there were absolutely no hills in Lost Hills!  Just lots of oil wells.

I was traveling on Hwy 46 westward to Paso Robles and Atascadero.  On the way is a tiny little place called Cholame.  There is only one restaurant and wine tasting room at Cholame so it would be real easy to drive right by without notice.  But, right there in Cholame is the very tree that James Dean ran his car into and died on the evening of September 30, 1955.  Dean was only 24 at the time.  His movie star fame is from his role in "Rebel Without a Cause."  There is quite a shrine surrounding this tree.

Between Cholame and Paso Robles, the land is covered with grape orchards.  They were just starting this wine and grape production when the girls were going to Cal Poly.  It is huge now!  It would be fun to plan a wine tasting trip to this area and see how it compares to the Napa and Sonoma wineries.


My destination in San Luis Obispo was to see my friend, Janet Mease, and her new quilting store endeavor, SLO Creative Studio.  Jan used to own Shiisa Quilts in Bloomington.  Oh my gosh, it was good to see Jan again!  Her place is just what the name says - a Creative Studio.  She has 3 HandiQuilter long arm quilting machines set up and rents out time on them and teaches people how to use them.

Since we lived here in SLO from 1971 to 1974, I thought it would be fun to go see the house we had here.  This was a tiny little tract home with maybe 1400 sq ft built in 1963 and in a lovely little neighborhood just west of the Madonna Inn.  Here it is:  1512 Balboa Street.  Not nearly as cute as it was in 1971.  The estimated price for this little gem in SLO is now over $500,000!!  Unbelievable!!  It last sold in 2000 for $249,000!  Wow!  In 1974 it was worth $45,000.  That is California real estate for you!

I have gone as far west as I am going on this Epic Road Trip.  Day 13 will take me up to the Sacramento area to spend a few days with my very dearest friend, Karen.  Can't wait to see you, KB!!