Heading A Bit Further on 25

It's spring!

That was reason enough for the husband and I to head out to the Pinnacles National Monument for a hike earlier this week. The drive down highway 25 itself is spectactular. Sooooo green with bursts of wild mustard, poppies, lupines, and all sorts of wildflowers dotting the landscape. Here's a bit of what we saw. (Pictures of our hike to come another day.)

Ring a Ding Ding for the Ding A Ling Cafe

Haven't had the time or inclination to venture out and write about things in and about town. Maybe things will get better once my current project is finally complete. The other day, though, the husband and I went off to do errands. As a treat, we decided to have breakfast at the Ding A Ling Cafe. You heard right...just like the sound of a bell. Ding-a-ling. Ding-a-ling. Ding-a-ling. Hmmm. I wonder if that's why it's called the Ding A Ling Cafe.

When I was a kid many hundreds of years ago, the Ding A Ling was on Fourth Street in downtown Hollister. I don't remember when it moved out to the airport. The Hollister Municipal Airport, that is. That's all the directions you need. The airport is a few miles north of town on San Felipe Road. You turn into the airport and voila there's the Ding a Ling on the western edge of the lawn.

I've never thought about the Ding A Ling being an airport diner, but I suppose it is. I like the food there. Portions are big, but you have the option to order mini-portions, which I think are half-portions.

That day I had a yearning for pancakes and an Italian sausage patty. The two pancakes filled up the plate, but they were very light so I wasn't stuffed at all when I ate them alllll up. The sausage was delish. The taste reminded me of grilled venison. The patty was a wide rectangle shape with one edge hanging over the small round dish. My husband happily helped me polish it off.

The cheery cute-as-a-button waitress asked if we wanted salsa. I'm glad we got it. Another delish treat to put on my pancakes. Just the right combo of tomatoes and heat to create a mellow bang for me.

Ding-a-Ling serves breakfast and lunch. You can sit indoors or outside. If you want to eat there at the beginning of the week, call to find out if it's open. A few years ago, I've driven over on a Tuesday or Wednesday (can't remember) to be disappointed 'cause it was closed.

Some links to check out:

• Yelp Reviews of the Ding A Ling.
• FAA Info for the Hollister Municipal Airport.
• For skydiver want-to-be's, the Adventure Center Skydiving, Inc. is kitty-corner from the Ding a Ling. I jumped out of a plane with them a couple years ago. Definitely a flying leap of fun!
• And, for you folks who would like an adventure in a glider, the Hollister Gliding Club is right next door.
  

Four Places to Hike in San Benito County

(The photograph is courtesy of my hubby Dick. © Richard A. McDavid. All rights reserved.)

The mountains around Hollister are looking mighty green these days, and it won’t be long before all the poppies and other wildflowers are blooming wildly. Are you ready for a hike?

San Benito County has four parks that are worth checking out.

• Pacheco State Park is on the way to the San Luis Reservoir, heading east on highway 152. The above photograph was taken there a couple years ago.

• Fremont Peak State Park is south of San Juan Bautista, which is about 7 miles from Hollister. Once upon a time it was known as Gavilan Peak. It was named after Capt. John Fremont who supposedly defied the Mexican government in 1846 by camping there and raising the U.S. flag at the tippy-top.
  

• Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail is just outside of San Juan Bautista, also to the south. The trail is about 6 miles long and takes you into Monterey County.
  

• Pinnacles National Monument is about 30 miles south of Hollister, off of highway 25
  

Anyone know of other hiking places in San Benito County?

Pedaling around San Benito County

One of the first things that hubby Dick and I did after moving down to Hollister was to buy ourselves beach cruiser bicycles at Muenzer’s, which is the oldest sports shop in town. Hey, I can imagine I'm heading to the beach. :-)

Sometimes as we're riding around, we hear a guy call out to Dick, “Cool bike!” The guy can be a young geezer or an old lad. I think it's something to do with the manly flames on his bike. Now and then I get a middle-age gal say, “Cute bike.” And I know she's just taken herself back in time to when she was pedaling away on her precious pink bicycle.

Whenever we can, Dick and I hop on our cool and cute bicycles to do errands or to just tootle about for fun and sun. Our longest cruise has been to and from Tres Pinos. We think about going to San Juan Bautista, Dunneville Corner, to the end of Lone Tree Road, and other places around the county.

Since gas prices have gone up, we’ve noticed more people on bikes. Maybe with more bicycle lanes, even more kids and adults will choose to pedal to the store, church, library, wherever. Now, that’s a nice segue to the fact that the San Benito Council of Governments (COG) wants and needs public input into what the county Bikeway and Pedestrian Master Plan should look like.

If you'd like to put in your two cents about this plan, you can take a survey online at COG's web site. There’s a deadline on the survey that has come and gone, but since the Hollister Free Lance reports that COG is still seeking public opinion, I’d say go ahead. If you don’t want to assume, which is probably a good idea, then e-mail or call COG about the survey.

As a reward for taking the survey, you’ll be entered into a raffle to win a $100 Target gift card. Who couldn't use that? If I win, one of the things I would buy is a bicycle bell. Ding. Ding.

Hanging Out at the County Fair

A pocket holder for band-aids from Hazel Hawkins Hospital.

A yellow rubber stress reliever from the Seniors Council.

A box of cute note cards, by students of San Benito rural schools, from the E Cubed Foundation.

Trail maps of Henry W. Coe State Park http://www.coepark.org.


Six raffle tickets for a hand-made quilt fundraiser by the Community Pantry.

Those were a few things that we brought home from the San Benito County Fair. That and a cozy feeling of being relaxed and protected from realities, even when passing by the NRA, the Democratic and Republican parties', and the various law enforcement booths. It was ironic, though, that no one was manning the bank booth when we passed by.

I didn’t bring home an honorable mention ribbon like I had hoped. Qué bummer. Maybe next year, I’ll enter different crafts and flower arrangement categories to expand my chances for a ribbon.

There was quite a lot of good stuff to see, especially among the children’s entries. My favorites were

. . .the vegetable animals

. . .the flag made of marshmallows

. . .the white chick who reminded me of Phyllis Diller

. . .the ceramic piggy and the real piggy named Oreo

. . .the cake made in the shape of a ladybug

. . . the humongous pumpkins

. . .and these two gentle horsemen!

The San Benito County Fair

The San Benito County Fair will be this weekend. I’m ready to go!

It’s not an annual thing for me, but I like to go now and then. I enjoy wandering around the commercial exhibits and picking up freebies, as well as Ooh-ing and Wow!-ing as I gaze at the arts, crafts, food, and plant entries. Checking out the goats, chickens, pigs, and cows in the livestock pens is fun, too. I would love to raise a few chickens and a goat or two. To check out the Fair schedule, click here.

The last time we went to the fair, Dick and I each paid a buck to see The Strange Thing. It was a creepy, shriveled looking thing called the Chupacabra. Yuk! The buck was well worth it though. Not because we saw something strange and mysterious, but because we got to travel through a time warp and feel like kids again waiting to be surprised and coming out of the tent cracking up at ourselves for giving up our dollars so easily.

This year, I’ve entered something in the fair. Actually three things in the novice division of the photography category. Hee-hee. First time I've ever entered something in a county fair, and I've always wanted to do so. (Thanks Linda B. “Lady in Red” for inspiring me!) For all I know, there may be an honorable mention ribbon hanging from at least of ‘em right now. That’s what I hope.

Tuesday evening, Dick and I drove over to Bolado Park so I could drop off my entries. We had no idea where to go, but fortunately a couple walked by carrying artsy-looking stuff. So we followed them. They were delivering their kids’ entries. The mom was lugging a ceramic rendering of a stack of pancakes, while the dad held a firm grip on several photographs. We passed by people who were setting up their booths and tables. We heard (and smelled) livestock as we made our way to the appropriate building.

It was a wonderful joyous, and determined, feeling in the air. So much sparking and sparkle of energy as people flitted here, flitted there to make sure everything and everyone was where it, he, or she needed to be. That is what I missed all these years of not entering something into the fair. I’m glad had a chance to experience it.

I can hardly wait to go to the Fair. Maybe, there’ll be a new strange thing to see. Maybe I will have won an honorable-mention ribbon. Maybe I will see you there!

An Art Museum? A Vista Point? It's Both and More!

We have million-dollar art to check out for free in Hollister. Head over to the Briggs Building, which is near the corner of San Benito Street & Fourth Street. That’s the parking garage.

That’s right, I wrote parking garage. You can't miss it. It’s a four-story structure, the tallest one in town. It was built in the 1990s for about $6 million with RDA funds. At full capacity, it can hold about 140 vehicles, so I’ve read. I know, that’s a lot of taxpayers' pennies.


Few people use the parking garage. Maybe the building is just too beautiful to park in. Seriously, the building itself is a piece of art. If I didn’t know it was a parking lot, I would say it was a school (Gavilan College does hold classes on the first floor). Maybe a government building or a fancy department store. Maybe even an art museum, which brings me back to the topic of seeing some fine art there.

Start your tour by the stairway next to the elevator on the southeast corner of the building. First, admire the aesthetics of the stairway design.

Now, start walking up the stairs. Sure, you can take the elevator but there’s more joy in suddenly coming upon each piece of art as you gaspingly reach the top of a floor.

Pause at the top of each floor for your breath. Also, take note of the beauty of the art piece telling you what floor you’re on.

On the rooftop, I noticed a few more of these art pieces telling me I’m on the fourth floor. So I assume that’s the case on the other floors.

To tell you the truth, I no longer was interested in seeing and viewing man-made art when I came out on the rooftop. I was immediately astounded by the view of Hollister and the mountain ranges that surround it. The almost 360-degree view of Hollister is worth an occasional trip to the top of the roof of Hollister’s multi-million dollar parking garage.


There you go. A parking garage that's both a free fine arts museum and a vista point. Plus, you can park there.

Pinnacles National Monument

My mom loves to visit the Pinnacles. It reminds her of the Philippines. I don’t know if it’s the starkness of the mountains, the smell of the air, the feel of the breeze, or the way the sun warms your body as you trample along the trails. She’s never said. I just know that besides her gardens, the Pinnacles National Monument provides her with a sense of calm.

The Pinnacles is about 30 miles south of Hollister. It generally takes us (hubby Dick and I) about 45 minutes, but that’s because we are old farts who like to rubberneck the scenery. Not to worry. The traffic is sparse, but you do need to pay attention to curves the nearer you get to the park. You head south out of town on Highway 25. Depending on the time of day, we may stop at Flapjack's Country Café in Tres Pinos for breakfast. That’ll be a story for another day.

According to the scientists, the Pinnacles is actually part of the Neenach Volcano that erupted waaaaay down south near Lancaster, California. The volcano was split by, yes, the San Andreas Fault. Over 23 million years, more or less, the Pinnacles was slowwwwwwwwly carried northwesterly to where it stands today. At the same time that it was inching up, wind and water carved out the spires and crags that someone in modern-day history decided to call the Pinnacles. Then President Theodore Roosevelt came along and established it as a national monument.

This year, the U.S. National Park Service celebrated the monument’s 100th anniversary. Since 1908, it has grown from 5,000 acres to approximately 26,000 acres. (Thank you ranchers and rancher descendents.) The park service is currently developing a general management plan for the next 15 to 20 years. Public input is appreciated. If you’re interested in being heard, you have until October 31, 2008.

You can do a lot of things at the Pinnacles. Depending on the time of year, you can scramble through talus caves, which are home to Townsend’s big-eared bats. But you can't go through 'em if the bats are there. You can bring your ropes and things and climb on the spires themselves. And of course you can hike easy paths and not-so-easy ones, which may make your hands sweat at certain HIGH points. If you’re lucky, you can see a California Condor or two circling above you. You can also hang out at a picnic table and enjoy the day, while the rest of your party are getting sweaty and tired.

There are actually two entrances to the Pinnacles National Monument. The west gate is off Highway 101, near Soledad. You can’t drive west to east through the park. But you can easily hike through it. Camping is on the Hollister side only.

Hmm, I think it's time to take out the hiking shoes.