732 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



December, 192; 



Many motor tourists camp on the way, 

 but I would Avisli to be well enough ac- 

 quainted with the road to pick the camping 

 ground in advance. Some towns provide 

 pleasant camping grounds with shade, wa- 

 ter, fuel, a little provision store and all 

 conveniences. But the camping site in other 

 towns seemed to be selected because it was 

 a location good for nothing else, with no 

 attraction nor conveniences and no privacy. 

 We were fortunate in finding comfortable, 

 clean little hotels, with rooms at very rea- 

 sonable rates, and we preferred to take most 

 of our meals at restaurants. Just as a mat- 

 ter of information let me state that the 

 busy man estimates my going with him cost 

 less than $.5.00. You see no more gas was 

 required for two, and some of the hotels 

 charged nothing additional for two in a 

 room while others charged only .50c extra. 

 That, of course, does not include the time 

 we spent in Berkeley, across the bay from 

 San Francisco, for we were entertained 

 there at a private home. 



EAELY in the second day of our trip we 

 encountered the only unpleasant bit of 



our whole ride. We had been told to 



expect a detour of a few miles, but did not 

 know the detour was in a mountain pass. 

 The mountain passes on the state highways 

 are. generally a delight as the roads are so 

 perfect and the grades so gentle that one 

 can keep in high gear, as I have remarked 

 before. But this detour took us over a 

 narrow, deeply dusty, bumpy, unsafe-looking 

 road with steep grades. I suspect the scen- 

 ery was beautiful, although that is not 

 what sticks in my memory. In spite of the 

 busy man's assurance that there was no 

 danger T sat tense, perspiring profusely, al- 

 though not with heat alone, expecting mo- 

 mentarily that the edge of the narrow road 

 would crumble and let us go hurtling down 

 into one of the deep gorges when we had 

 to turn out for the great, heavily laden 

 trucks with trailers which were coming 

 down with materials for the construction 

 "•anss on the new road. We happened to 

 be going in a direction which necessitated 

 our turning out instead of hugging the 

 mountain. We climbed and climbed and T 

 rather envied the passengers on the near-by 

 train which took a short cut through a tun- 

 nel. 



While we were waiting on an extra-wide 

 ledge to let several trucks go by and inci- 

 dentally cool the water in the radiator, for 

 that truck-impeded mountain detour forced 

 us into second gear, a man came along and 

 pulled up to warn us of more trucks coming 

 around the curve. The busy man asked 

 him how much more of the bad road there 

 was. "Oh, it isn't far," he said, and then, 

 letting.his eyes wander to me he seemed to 

 wish to be polite and reassuring to the lady 

 and added kindly, "It's a pretty d — short 

 distance.' ' 



He was rifrht. we regained the good road 

 at the summit a few vards bevond the curve 



and soon emerged into the valley through 

 which runs the Salinas River. The coast 

 route is just one valley after another. 



ICAX'T remember all the superlative 

 points of excellence of the various val- 

 leys, counties and towns through which 

 we passed. I remember the hotel proprietor 

 in the Santa Ynez valley said: "This is 

 God's Country. It has the finest climate in 

 the world and there is absolutely nothing 

 which will not grow in this soil with irri- 

 gation." I am beginning to believe that 

 "God's Country" is a state of mind rather 

 than a locality and that all good westerners 

 from the Eio Grande to the Canadian boun- 

 dary live within it. 



San Luis Obispo County is said to be the 

 richest . unirrigated county in the state. 

 Other localities are superlative for certain 

 crops, fruits or stocks. It is a poor place 

 in California which has not its superlative. 

 I suspect in Death Valley there are pla- 

 cards calling attention to the fact that it is 

 the lowest spot in the United States, the 

 hottest, the dryest and perhaps the least 

 crowded. 



We kept close to the Salinas River all 

 the second day and although the weather 

 was rather uncomfortably Avarm for driving, 

 between four and five in the afternoon it 

 turned- suddenly and surprisingly cool and 

 we were wearing winter coats by the time 

 Ave reached Salinas Avhere we decided to 

 spend the night. We Avere taking three days 

 for the north-bound trip as Ave Avere both 

 very tired when we started. One does not 

 have to be a resident of California very 

 long to learn that sudden cool weather gen- 

 erally means rain, but I AA'as surprised in 

 the night to be aAvakened by Avhat appeared 

 to be lightning, and when I heard unmis- 

 takable thunder I aAvakened the busy man 

 to hear a genuine Ohio thunderstorm. It 

 Avas great fun in the morning to hear the 

 old residents talk of that "dreadful thun- 

 derstorm Avhich shook the earth." The hotel 

 clerk assured us it was "very unusual," 

 that although he had lived in California 20 

 years he had .noA-er known a thunderstorm 

 like it before. 



STARTING from Salinas early in the 

 rain-freshened day Ave decided to leave 

 "El Camino Real" and go to Santa 

 Cruz in order to driA-e through the RedAVOod 

 forests in the Santa Cruz mountains. We 

 passed through Watsonville, the apple city, 

 with its great orchards spread over the A'al- 

 ley and running up into the foothills. I 

 don't belieA'e "apple blossom time in Nor- 

 mandy ' ' can be any more beautiful than in 

 the region around WatsonA-ille. I am not 

 yet prepared to state that any California 

 apple has quite the flavor of an Ohio-grown 

 Northern Spy, but there are very fine ap- 

 ples here, much finer than the Avestern ap- 

 ples one buys in the East. I imagine the 

 reputation of California fruit suffers from 

 the fact that it is shipped such a great dis- 

 (Continiied on pa?e 809.) 



