City Slickers III: Curly's Gold in Princeton, CA
Travelers: Adam and Max
This was a great roadtrip that almost never was. As of Friday afternoon
I was feeling somewhat wishy-washy about the whole endeavor. My car
is from 1970 and I had just retuned it so I didn't know how it would perform
or how much gas it would use. I usually like to have at least one
full day in a place on a roadtrip too, so the leave on saturday, return
on sunday seemed a bit short - but the idea of relaxing next to a river
and seeing my friend from back in school completely won out in the end.
I started to get really excited about the trip and called to confirm with
Adam on what time we would leave the next day. I needed to change
a spark plug and then we'd be ready to go. I spent friday night in
a bar until about 12:30 and I know Adam was having a completely decadent
party complete with fondue fountain and cranium. I hit the sack and
did something I'm usually not one to do on a weekend - I set my alarm.Saturday morning I rolled out of bed and really looked like garbage. I met my neighbor in the elevator wearing a sleeveless t-shirt and dirty old 501s with a toolbox in my hand. I love first impressions. The spark plug changed relatively painlessly (unless you count smashing my hand between the ratchet and the engine block when it broke free... which I don't... naturally) and I showered and headed over to Campbell to pick up my roadtrip brother. I think we both had an unspoken agreement that this would be a really laid back trip, and that included not worrying about timelines or even leaving right away. We each enjoyed a PBR sitting on the front stoop and Adam enjoyed a Marlboro Red. After he packed (which was a mandolin, a package of lifesavers gummis that Ami gave us as she was leaving, a sleeping bag just in case and a hooded sweatshirt) we got gas and were on our way!
The first part of the drive seemed like disaster may have been looming as I noticed a lot of grey to blacking smoke coming out of my exhaust around Pleasanton (30 minutes in). But I stopped and it seemed like everything was in order so I chalked it up to bad gasoline from the rotten robbie and slightly overfilling the oil reservoir (causing too much pressure and oil pushing past the rings into the cylinders to be burned). We pressed on and the smoke went away so we were golden again. Sing-a-longs abounded to Minor Threat and Op Ivy and after an exhorbitant bridge toll in Benicia we hit the 505 freeway.
San Jose was in our dust
before noon as we headed up to farm country. We city boys were ready
to have a relaxing break from our corporate jobs, fishing, drinking and
relaxing. The drive was quick on the way up. We crossed the
Benicia bridge into nothing-land California, at which point Max said aloud,
“this kind of setting makes me really want a frost Budweiser from the bottle.”
Sure enough at the next exit we stopped into a little nothing town called
Dunnigan. We could see about 5 buildings and an equal number of houses,
so stopped by the biggest one – a restaurant called Bill and Kathy’s.
Incidentally this was a wi-fi hotspot for the area – it just goes to show
you never know who is on board these trends.Bill and Kathy’s parking lot was hosting the annual Union Church of Dunnigan’s Flea Market. This was about 6 pick-up trucks parked backwards in a big community rummage sale. We noticed that not a single car in the area was anything other than a pick-up truck. But low and behold I found a bit of treasure. A very warm old man sold me an accordion for $40. I walked away from the flea-market proudly playing my new toy. We headed over toward the general store and bought a six pack of Bud, and I could be wrong but I think the clerk was flirting with Max in his own way. He was saying things like, “82 huh? Pretty old guy, but you look really good. When I am old I am gonna’ be all gray around here. I will probably need something soft.” [we assume this is what he was saying – it was actually fairly impossible to understand anything he was saying.”
So we swung the car around a couple country back roads and parked in some old field. We perched our butts on the hood of his GTO and sipped our Budweiser, taking in the birds chirping and cicadas singing. We knew already this was gonna’ be worth the drive. We got back in the car and cruised up the road, nearly missing some suicidal ducks and pheasants. Then we pulled into the destination: Princeton, CA with a whopping population of 405 people.
Dunnigan is a small 'town' off the 505 that Adam really summed up by saying
"I can't believe anyone can call this a town." It consisted of Bill
and Kathy's restaurant (a WiFi hotspot), 2 general stores, a taco truck,
a few houses and some railroad tracks. There was a flea market going
on in the parking lot (dirt field) behind Bill and Kathy's and Adam bought
a Cellini accordion for $40. Even though a key is stuck and the lock
seems to work only when you don't want it to, it was a pretty good deal and
sounds really nice. I'm sure the man who sold it to us will use the
money for some more skoal or antique hunting to get ready for the next antiques
roadshow. As I always love to do in the country, we bought a 6-pack
of original Budweiser longnecks, parked in the middle of a grassy field and
enjoyed a cold adult beverage for a few minutes - taking in the scenery.
What we spoke of remains a secret between roadtrippers, but it was as nourishing
for our minds and souls as the cold Budweiser was for our tum tums.
It had been about three hours since we left San Jose so we decided to get
going and make it to our final destination, Princeton. |
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We were going to visit and old friend of Max’s named Matt, and right away
I felt comfortable with him. His parents were very generous and nice
as well, and we got into some good conversations with them. Some background:
his mom is sort of a hippie from Santa Monica, and his step dad is a rice
distributor. Apparently Colusa County is one of the biggest rice producers
in the country, so he knew quite a lot about rice – basmati short grain,
medium grain extra fancy – I am making this up, but he wasn’t I assume.We went out to sit in the hot valley sun while Matt got out a whole bunch of instruments; a music maker, a melodica, a violin, some rhythm instruments from Mexico and the best, his blues guitar and slide. The only things I rolled up with were the clothes I had on and a mandolin. We jammed for a couple hours, Matt played us some really relaxing blues, covering some songs by Robert Johnson, and also doing some originals. We jammed on for a while, and then decided to take a walk.
Princeton is a small town (population 405) about 30 minutes
into the country from Chico. One of the first things I noticed about
it was a big sign that said 'now entering a home rule county'. So Colusa
County is home rule! Which is basically the golden rule - i.e. don't
mess with other people's stuff and they won't mess with yours. Everyone
in the town seemed really nice and we went for a walk with Matt. Matt
has a small dog named Misha who was really cute (and I usually don't like
small dogs) and playful who wanted to come with. His house itself used
to be a duck hunting cabin and it's built on stilt supports on one side so
the river can rise all the way to just underneath the deck. It's really
peaceful and picturesque and we spent a lot of time on the porch swinging
on a benchswing, playing music (and attempting new instruments), talking,
and just being quiet and enjoying the scenery. Matt's mom Patty was
really cool and very welcoming as was his step-dad Guy. Really great
people and I felt completely relaxed the whole time.
The walk was right out of Stand By Me, three guys walking down a gravelly
levy trail. We went to check out a small rope swing from Matt’s boyhood,
but somehow or another it wasn’t there anymore. We decided to take
a little trip down the road. Matt new of this place across the river
from his house where there were a bunch of old abandoned houses. We
found a good old farm property, complete with an abandoned barn, and two
story house. We went into the barn first, with Max’s shotgun, Beretta
and an 18 pack of Coors Light. Right away we set up bottles all over
the place and max began shooting the place up. For the first five minutes
it sounded something like this – “I’m gonna get that light, put in your earplugs…BANG!!
I’m gonna see about that chain….BANG!! “ and so on. Then he passed the
firearms and me and Matt took our turns blowing holes in things. We
finished up the barn and headed into the house.
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After our walk, which was reminiscent of stand by me, we
bought an 18-pack of the silver bullet and drove to Bayliss (a town about
half the size of Princeton that you get to by taking Road Y to Road 67 and
then winding around for a while). There are a lot of abandoned houses
in Bayliss and we found one with a barn in the middle of nowhere. I
had brought my Beretta 92FS 9mm pistol and my Mossberg 590 12 gauge.
We had some beers, explored the abandoned houses and barn (where we found
a barn owl! how appropriate!!), and shot stuff. The house must
have been condemned although I saw no signs, because we were sure it was
about to collapse beneath us at any moment. We ventured upstairs though
and looked around and it was really cool and creepy. When the sun started
to set we went back to Matt's house and had a great dinner of sweet potato
mash, asparagus, garlic clove bread, and Matt and Adam enjoyed what I gather
was delicious chicken. Adam spent most of the weekend trying to convince
me to eat meat. It didn't work. Matt played us some songs which
were really good and we sat on the porch way past dark. 2 episodes of
Aqua Teen later and we were off to dreamland.
Trigger happy Max began emptying whole clips in the side of the house,
as well as all the rounds in the shotgun into the backboard where some dad
taught his son to play basketball. There was also a single rose still
growing from their old garden, surrounded by an entire field of weeds.
How poetic, right? So we finished of the rest of the 18 pack, with some
little shards of broken glass on the cans, and headed back to Matt’s house
for dinner. Max got the car up to 110 mph but I wouldn’t give up my
war with the bugs that had been eating us alive, so these kamikaze mosquitos
were hitting me at 110 and it hurt pretty bad. We got back and ate
some delicious chicken, asparagus and sweet potato mash. Then we went
out for a bit more music, before watching some television and going to bed. |
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I woke up early on Sunday morning and sat outside on the
porch with my shirt off enjoying the sun. I should probably mention
that all the flowers and grasses were in bloom because of the heavy rainfall
and although Adam seemed immune, Matt and I were plagued with hay fever pretty
badly. Lots of sneezing, itchy eyes, and other irritations but I really
didn't care too much because I was enjoying myself. After some cereal
with fresh strawberries we set up the fishing poles and headed down to the
river to fish. Basically we all got covered in anchovy smell and managed
to get all 3 of our lines stuck on underwater branches. It was a bit
of a failure as far as catching anything but I caught a lot of delicious
sunshine and Adam caught the fishes' attention. From here we drove
into Chico and went to the Sierra Nevada brewery. The food was SO GOOD!
We ordered the beer sampler which was 16 different beers in little 2oz. glasses.
We felt like giants holding the miniature beer glasses, talked about travels
to foreign countries and enjoyed our really cool circular booth which was
constructed of a lazy susan bench seat!! After a long leisurly lunch
we took the tour of the brewery which was somewhat interesting but mostly
canned speeches. I felt like the tour guide really didn't quite know
what he was talking about and answered Adam's questions with strange explanations
with no basis in scientific fact. "It must have a gravity of about
1.004." I helped myself to some costco muffins that were out even though
I don't think they were meant for the public. It was delicious!
I took a picture on a strange motorcycle, which was really warm in the sun,
and we headed downtown. There was a cool little record shop that had
the best cassette tapes I'd ever seen in one place (including Van Halen's
1984, Motorhead, Rancid's Out Come The Wolves, etc. etc.) and it was also
a head shop. The incense made my allergies really bad and after Matt
bought some records we cut out of there. I really wanted a drumstick
after seeing a big sign for one but we didn't pass any markets. We
went back to Princeton and watched the movie The Corporation which was really
good and made me really not want to come back to work at my crappy corporate
job on Monday.
The smell of fresh coffee and the morning sunlight reflecting off the Sacramento
river was what we woke up to and we were so glad we had made the trip up.
We sat out on the porch and just took in the sound of the morning doves,
the morning breeze and everything around us. After some cereal, we decided
to try our luck at some fishing. We went over to the bait store for
some cigarettes and bait, and came back and baited our hooks. We walked
to the end of his backyard, set up some chairs, and cast into the river.
Flooding season had just ended a week or two before, so there was a ton of
debris and brush against the bank. No matter how far we cast out, we
couldn’t avoid getting snared on something. We gave up fishing after
about an hour of sunburns, mosquito bites and nothing close to a fish.
Smelling like anchovy blood, we headed in to Chico to go to the Sierra Nevada Brewery. We took a guided tour of the building, seeing how they make the beer, and we also went into the pub and got some lunch. To settle the score with the fish of the world, I ordered some fish and chips. We also got two beer samplers, which means about 32 double shots of every kind of beer they brew. We drank through them and managed to still have some room in our stomach for the food we ordered. Somehow the table was also the opposite of the “lazy-susan” in which instead of the table spinning, the seats themselves spin around the table. So we did some teacups for a bit.
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We left for home at around 8pm and stopped for gas in Williams. I
finally got my drumstick and I got Adam a root beer because we had been talking
about how Japanese people don't like it but their marketing is really good
and it always makes you want one to see a label. The drive home was
fast and we listened to Sun Records collections and some sweet metal.
More sing-a-longs and we got back to San Jose at about 11pm.I had a really good time on this roadtrip. I feel much more relaxed than when I left and all my stress is gone. I'm not so worried about my job because I'd rather not work for a corporation anyway so anything that may go wrong is just one step closer to that happening. Matt and his family were such great hosts and I was in the sun, well fed, and well rested at all points of the weekend. I'm really glad we went on this trip and got our road trip in for April at the last second. I look forward to going back to Princeton sometime and to playing more slide guitar!!
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