big sur road trip-summer equinox

BIG SUR ROAD TRIP 1960'S SUMMER EQUINOX

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Music animation by KaliMarcum

this is a rehash for some and in case i missed e-mailing you....enjoy...a slice of the past...
my best friend and road dog Bart and our escapades...of a lost youth....

here's a story from the days of youth passed in san Francisco....when you have time...This was back in the late 60’s in san Francisco…somehow, probably a flyer Bart and I got wind of a summer equinox or solstice “festival” in big Sur California…and we figured let’s go…Bart had got a grand prix “boat’ and we took off on our journey….well, best friends that we were, and being opinionated we got pissed off at each other and we ended up, splitting the car in half, with some kind of tape…your half, my half…….so we get to Santa Cruz (don’t think it was Carmel) and we were going to rough it, had sterno cans and pans and cans of something to eat, well lo and behold here we are on a beach and being the outdoors men, but sans can opener…we tried everything to open the cans and the sterno , used to heat the food and to no avail…with limited funds…we had to be probably around 15 ½ cause Bart got his drivers license as early as legally possible….I think we went to the boardwalk out there, being from s.f , 15 ½ and rebels without a cause to a degree it was tourist-trap like and didn’t really have much appeal….we rented a room , and it was near the beach…..got up and headed out to big sur..i do remember it was a fantastic drive, high cliffs, ocean and endless beaches too……Well after what seemed driving forever we arrived at night…in Big Sur….and starving to death……so we parked , drove down a road to an area near the beach, separated by a small stream, in the festival area….so needing food we wandered around the campsite as it were…we were hungry, and lo and behold there was a guy with this huge pot of rice and something…offering it to everyone. we figured we were everyone, here's a story from the days of youth passed in san francisco....when you have time...This was back in the late 60’s in san Francisco…somehow, probably a flyer Bart and I got wind of a summer equinox or solstice “festival” in big Sur California…and we figured let’s go…Bart had got a grand prix “boat’ and we took off on our journey….well, best friend that we were, and being opinionated we got pissed off at each other and we ended up, splitting the car in half, with some kind of tape…your half, my half…….so we get to Santa Cruz (don’t think it was Carmel) and we were going to rough it, had sterno cans and pans and cans of something to eat, well lo and behold here we are on a beach and being the outdoors men, but sans can opener…we tried everything to open the cans and the sterno , used to heat the food and to no avail…with limited funds…we had to be probably around 15 ½ cause Bart got his drivers license as early as legally possible….I think we went to the boardwalk out there, being from s.f , 15 ½ and rebels without a cause to a degree it was tourist-trap like and didn’t really have much appeal….we rented a room , and it was near the beach…..got up and headed out to big sur..i do remember it was a fantastic drive, high cliffs, ocean and endless beaches too……Well after what seemed driving forever we arrived at night…….and starving to death……so we parked , drove down a road to an area near the beach, separated by a small stream, in the festival area….so needing food we wandered around the campsite as it were…we were hungry, and lo and behold there was a guy with this huge pot of rice and something…offering it to everyone. we figured we were everyone, so we waited for the food to be served, now we were starving to death. SO THE GUY HANDED OUT BOWLS OF THIS STUFF TO EVERYONE….WE SAT DOWN AND WE READY TO stuff our faces…shoveling in a mouthful, we both looked at each other and spit it out…it was curried and some unknown spice and flavor and try as we may we could not eat it…we were under some illusion that if we kept trying it, it would taste better…kinda like the poster boys for insanity, you keep doing the same thing and you expect different results…needless to say, we went hungry…and had the horrible taste left in our mouths that has scarred me for life from curry…..So we get back to the grand prix and it is a point of contention as to whose idea, but we were going to cross the creek and park at the beach…..Well we got to the middle of the stream and the grand prix got stuck……so will we were blaming each other for the idea to drive to the beach….the car started to fill up with water from the stream…so we had to bail out water with a cup…….so we're tired and hungry and stuck in a stream with water filling the car…..we came up with the idea to take turns bailing water out of the car…we had one watch, the guy bailing would keep it and every hour, I think it was, one would try to sleep in the back seat and the other would bail…sounds like a plan…so as you bail…people walked by and would say “you guys stuck” now this is where our sense of humor and of the absurd would come out full bore…usually amongst ourselves in snide comments about the most perspective people walking by….Well we got into an argument saying whoever was bailing was moving the watch ahead and cheating…..this went on all night……….I think both of us passed out and even thought we didn’t bail water it only went so high in the car and seemed to pass thru, about the level of the car door bottom….So the bailing process stopped…..Now, how do we get the car out???
Bart figured he was dead meat, as he had just gotten the car and it was already partially water-logged and stuck in a stream in big sur……so I thing his parents (smart) gave his a AAA card and I was left to keep an eye on the car and Bart ventured forward to hitch-hike to a pay phone (cell-phones were a thing of the jetsons) so I sat in the car, on the hood, on the trunk, probaly on the roof too-(the grand prix was a boat) since I couldn’t leave the car…..it was peace and love but there was always some boneheads…..so i kept watchMost people were friendly, some reminded me that the car was stuck, I either said something sarcastic or bit my lip ….so the day goes on and someone had mercy and brought me some brown rice that hadn’t been seasoned to death…I think had we eaten the over-curried rice we would have had a serious case of the Aztec-two –step (runs) which would have compounded an already awkward situation….it would have been funny now, but not at the time…So the day goes on and I sun myself sitting on the car and people coming wading thru the water……it had to be close to sundown, when some guy comes up to me and tells me he’s go a wench on his jeep……so bleary eyed I tell him great and he hooks up the grand prix and starts to pull it out…I look up at the road leading down here cause I see a car…no a tow truck……..it pulls up and there’s Bart-red eyes-his frizzy hair windblown and standing straight out-as if he put his finger in an electrical socket-after he spent all day hitchhiking to get to a pay phone…..almost gets jumped by some "you hippie commie fag" types…..waiting forever for the tow truck and when he get’s here, the car is being towed out by a jeep…….so Bart figures the tow truck guy had to use the card so he was in deep do-do...Don’t remember much of that evening…not sure if that’s good or bad. but we head back the next day and as we are driving…we see a snake wiggling across the road…so in order to save it from being run over, we put it in a plastic bag and put it on the dash…you can see what’s coming……..yes several hours into the trip…we said man that snake is comfortable….he hasn’t tried to escape or nothing…well, we had, thru sheer ignorance cooked the poor snake and he was no longer among the living, needless to say as we were going over the Oakland bridge to s.f. we were blaming one another for killing the poor snake……I imagine Bart got in some kind of trouble when he got home……..