July 1,
2013—Monday—168105 Odometer Reading
Packed
up the Teardrop and said our good byes to our wonderful friends the Wallaces.
Leaving them,
 |
| Dave & Iris..American Ungothic |
and their beautiful garden will be difficult, but we are assured
we’ll see them in Prescott soon. Too bad they can’t bring their garden with them, but it’s been a huge
 |
| Roy Elena Kim and Guayo in the garden |
inspiration and
I’m starting the SC to Prescott Gardening Project!
We’re
off to the Bay Area and the East Bay lighthouses. OMG, the traffic is killing me…I’m just not
used to the freeways with everyone running at full speed, cutting in and out in
front of you, and what’s with the horn blowing?
Rude!!! Especially since every
time they do it, I think something’s wrong or I’m running someone or something
over and I get even more nervous.
We
arrived in Oakland and went to the harbor for our first area lighthouse. We
found it (atop Quinn’s Lighthouse Restaurant) easily and it was a quick photo
op too….chock one up for us!
The
original Oakland Harbor Light was completed in 1890, and marked the entrance to
one of the West Coast's major ports. Oakland served as a rail terminus for
transcontinental shipping. In 1869, the first Central Pacific train steamed
into Oakland, linking the harbor with the
east. In 1879, a pair of two-mile
long piers were constructed beside the Oakland Estuary. The Lighthouse Board
appropriated funds for a lighthouse and fog signal at then end of these piers.
In
1966, the station closed. An automated beacon was placed in front of the
station. The station was sold for one
dollar to a restaurant firm, who moved
the lighthouse six miles down the Oakland Estuary to Embarcadero Cove, using
the world's largest ocean-going crane. The lantern room was was removed and
sent to Santa Cruz,, where it now sits atop
the Mark Abbott Memorial Lighthouse. Today, the lighthouse building, with
lantern room replica, is the home of Quinn's Lighthouse Restaurant and Pub.
Those
big cleats I’m sitting on are solid metal and used to tie off the ships. I am
sitting there to give perspective to their relative size…they are enormous.
Guayo nearly dislocated my shoulder when he saw a cat when we were walking
in…have to keep a better grip on that boy. Speaking of whom, I have to say he
has been such a great traveler for us.
We can’t believe how lucky we are to have such a great pooch.
Onward to Jack London Square. Since we are towing the Teardrop, we had to
park awkwardly at the parking lot, but only $6 per day, so we were impressed. I
opened up the Teardrop, made a little lunch, and we were off to find the next
lighthouse.
WL|V 605 Lightship RELIEF
The
next light is not a lighthouse at all,
so off
we go to the berth. The WLV 605
is a 600-class lightship - the last class of lightship built by the U.S. Coast Guard. The 605 served in Delaware, off Blunts Reef, and as the Relief ship for all west coast
lightships. Today, after 15 years of restoration and 20,000 volunteer hours, she is open to the public at
Jack London Square in Oakland, CA
and is a national historic landmark.
Walking down through the square, I was
taking photos of the gorgeous planters and marina when the camera shut itself
up like an anemone that had been poked. Argh…dead battery. I didn’t have
 |
| Not a real lighthouse |
time
to go and plug it into the inverter in the car so took my chances that I’d get
at least one or two more shots out of it to record the RELIEF. The God’s of camera batteries were good to me
and I got the photos!
It was damn hot in the East Bay, and
after walking around for an hour, we were happy to be back in the truck with
the a/c running full blast. Next destination was the East Brother Lighthouse at
Point Moleta in San Pedro Bay. This is
where the day started turning bad. I swear, if there’s an opportunity for a
road to be mislabeled/under construction/screwed up in any way that will send
us on the wrong path, but we’ll find it.
East Brother Lighthouse i.e. Point Moleta/San
Rafael Bridge
For almost ten years, the East
Brother
Lighthouse received little attention, and the neglect started to take
its toll as the wood rotted, the paint peeled, and the iron rusted. A
non-profit group was formed in 1979 to restore the landmark and make it
accessible to the public. Through government grants, private donations, and
countless hours of volunteer labor, the structures on the island were restored.
Today day use fees and funds received through the operation of the lighthouse
as a bed and breakfast are used to maintain the facilities.
We made it fine to the San Rafael
bridge, and were supposed to take the exit just before the bridge thus avoiding
the toll. However, due to road work, the
exit was closed. With all of the heavy equipment, barriers, dirt, concrete,
etc. everywhere, I didn’t see the road
until it was too late plus it no longer said Point Moleta but only Western
Drive, which meant nothing to me. So we got to the toll booth, no way to turn
around, and had to pay $15 (vehicle plus
trailer) to go across. The man at the booth called over to the authority and
gave us a slip of paper and said go across, turn around at first exit, and come
back and give the people at the toll booth the slip of paper and they’ll refund
your money. So we went across and since
I’d never been across, it was a nice experience…a beautiful bridge, the bay was
gorgeous, and we found the exit and turned around no problem. However, there
was not a toll booth on the way back where we could get the refund.
We went back to the first exit where we
could turn around, figuring we’d just have to eat the fee, and this time we
made it onto Western Drive which was also the road to Point Moleta and the East
Brother Lighthouse.
Point Moleta is a military
installation, but from
what we could see it’s been abandoned. It’s so outrageous
to me that our tax money goes into building these little cities with housing
and commercial buildings, etc. and then when finished with them just lets them
sit boarded up and rot. Why can’t they be used for homeless housing, or for
shelter for abused
women and children, or sold to a developer, as the views
from this area are amazing and I’m sure with a PAD development of homes,
stores, parks, etc. they could make big bucks on a development out here. But
sad to say, here it sits, rotting and a fantastic piece of land being held by
the military for no reason.
The lighthouse itself is now run by a
private non-profit and is rented out as a B & B and tours are given of the
facility. However, the day we were there, it was not open to the public, so
pictures of it from a distance is all that was to be had…Murphy’s Law once
again in full force.
As we returned to the highway, we were
stopped by work crews who informed us we could not take the short cut back to
Oakland as it was the bike path and very narrow and curvy and the trailer would
not make it through. So again we had to go across the San Rafael Bridge, again
paying the $15.00 fee. I went in the same line and the same man was on duty. I
told him we had done what he said, but there was no toll booth on the other
side from which to get our money. He then got very snotty with me, said it
isn’t a booth, it’s the building and we have to park and go inside…not the
instructions we received the first time. And he insisted we had to pay the fee
again….great, I had to dig through the change in the cup holder to come up with
the $15, thus holding up the entire line. So again we proceeded over the
bridge, and this time I took a few minutes to run to the viewpoint, take a
photo of the old pier for artistic sake, and then a fabulous view photo of the
San Rafael Bridge.
On our way back over, I stopped at the
building, went in and had to argue with the lady there who barely spoke English
that I needed to have $30 refunded. She said the refund on the first part
wasn’t valid as it took us too long to come back over, thus we must have done
some kind of business on the other side of the bridge. Again I explained what
happened, again she said, “you took too
long”. At this point I asked for a supervisor. A nice gentleman came over, I
explained by dilemma to him, and he had her write up 2 receipts and refund me
the money. He apologized for any inconvenience we’d encountered, and once I
filled out the paperwork, I left with the money in hand.
Carquinez Strait Lighthouse i.e. Glen Cove Marina
Residence—
The lighthouse was closed in 1951. An
automated
beacon and fog signal were placed at the end of the pier. The old
structure was subject to years of neglect, and the fourth-order lens was
smashed by vandals. The building was ultimately saved by investors who moved
the residence to Glen Cove
Marina in Vallejo. The residence (sans tower) now
serves as the marina office and a yacht sales show room.
It took a bit to actually get to the
marina, but once there it was a beautiful lighthouse even though there is no
longer a light or tower. Glen Cove is quite lovely, and the
marina was filled
with the blue and white of boat
riggings. We spoke to one of the boat
owners and he said the residence was being renovated and upon completion would be a B & B.
Next stop was in Suisun City at our
friend Zacharias Ledet’s home. A few months ago we received an urgent email
asking to call. Upon calling we found out Roy and my long time friend and
Zach’s wife (I met her through Roy after we were together) Bev Pomeroy Ledet
had passed away after a medical procedure. It was such a shock. We had been
talking about our finally getting together after so many years when we got up
that way on the road trip. But alas, it didn’t happen, and this is one of the
saddest legs of the trip as far as I’m concerned.
Zacharias was a judge, an active viable
man, when his health deteriorated and he was diagnosed with brain lesions and
MS. Their dream of a self-sustaining life in the Sierra foothills ended, as he had
to be at sea level in order to help with the lesions. So Bev found a place, put
things in order for his care, also took care of her ex-husband when he had a
heart attack and subsequently through cancer which took his life. Bev was the
glue that held everyone together—Zach, Zach’s family, her sister, nieces,
nephews---everyone.
It is apparent as we drive in, that a
huge process in underway. Boxes are stacked completely filling the garage and
spilling over onto the driveway and into a pickup truck, both the bed and the
inside. Bev was a sewer/crafter and as with all of us, we tend to keep things for some day. Her sister Jackie said the best things were all of the family photos they now have. But the rest will be donated to Goodwill.
Bev and Zach love cats, and at this time Zach
has 10 cats living in the house with him. This was quite concerning to Guayo as he was completely freaked out when we went into the
house. Saving grace was a fenced in back
yard, complete with a sweet little terrier named Rufus, who loved to play ball. Bev’s sister is living in her motor home in
the driveway, and Greg, a young man whom they employed to help with the “ranch”
in the Sierra, is there to help Zach.
Zach is doing better due to protocols
that Bev
had set up prior to her death…always taking care of things. He has gotten his law certificate reinstated,
and he is working on a couple of pro-bono cases, one involving a discrimination
case for his son. His eyes lit up when talking about the procedures and you
could see his love of the law in the sparkle of is eye! And it was uplifting just seeing his
enthusiasm.
While visiting, Zach informed me that
out in the boxes were many many boxes of fabric, and he knew that Bev would
want me to take whatever I’d like. It was all going to Goodwill at this
point. So I went out and checked it out.
First box had a canvas bag with “BEV” stenciled on it, same kind she’d done for
us with our names on them a few Christmas’ ago. I lost it. The realization that
she was gone was too much and I completely lost it. So as I cried, and went through boxes, I
forgot about the 110 degree heat, and the time, and when Roy came out to check
on me, he was concerned with the flush in my face, and that I had not been
drinking while out there. Needless to say, I was not feeling very well. Several
pieces of fabric for quilts and clothing were put into the Teardrop, and Roy
took me in for rehydration and some food. But the heat had taken its toll and I
was ill.
We took our leave after some dinner and
best wishes, and were going to check into a motel for the night, when Roxy
called. She established that we were only 1 ½ hours maximum from her house, and
gave us instructions and told us to not check into a motel, as our room was
ready and waiting. What a life saver! We
got there, unpacked what was needed, showered and basically went to bed. My
nausea and lethargy were huge, and I just needed cold water and sleep, and
that’s what I got.
wonderful visit, lots of laughter and good
food, and a good evening in general. We will await the announcement of Lizzy’s
wedding with great glee!
