Ch. 35
A New Twist
I stopped at a roadside stand selling vegetables and bought a melon and some apples from Oregon and oranges from southern California and before I climbed into the Road Warrior I stuck the GPS unit that was part of my tail on a dump truck headed in the opposite direction .The steel bed of the truck made a perfect place to get a good grip, so that the GPS unit would stay on till somebody found it or whatever may happen to it. At least it won’t be on the Road Warrior any longer and maybe I might lose my tail.
I headed down interstate 5 out of Oregon and then took St. Rt .199 to Crescent City as I drove through the mountains down to the coast to the Jedediah Smith Redwood Campgrounds outside Crescent City. This was a long harrowing route and I was glad to have lost the Escape when travelling down this route into Northern California. It reminded me of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez as they tried to haul this long travel trailer all over the place with a Cadillac in one of their movies . My driving wasn’t quite so bad but some of the hills I encountered surely must be the ones where they filmed that movie. After about 5 hours of driving I ended up at my campground and soon set up camp. I had about 4 weeks to go till I saw Ann and Lee unless they decided to appear sooner. I just hoped they were having a good time and I would leave them alone per their request.
I booted the satellite and internet and was soon surfing on the internet for craigslist where I was looking for a vehicle I could tow behind the Road Warrior so I could travel around without pulling up stakes daily.
After scouring the ads I found me a 1980 Jeep Cj7 in mint condition with mudder tires and a Warn winch on the front. It was painted black and had diamond plate accessories around the doors and in the back floor. They said it had a recent engine rebuild an was a small block v-8. It was a soft top meaning I could pull the top down and off and use it as a convertible and it also had custom seats and had actually won a couple of car shows . I called the guy and he was local so I asked if he could bring it to the campground so I could check it out. He did and soon we were headed into town to find me a bank where I could cash a check, and soon I was taking him home with a pocket full of cash and a shit eating grin as I paid him a nice bonus for his jeep.
The Cj 7 ran great. I pulled the doors off and threw them in the back and stopped at a U-Haul dealership and bought me a tow bar I could mount it on the front of the Jeep so I could tow it behind the Road Warrior and soon I was driving around Crescent City and soon caught my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. It was fantastic and with the breeze coming from hinterland across the ocean, you could smell tropical aromas coming from far off lands. I stopped at a public park where I had access to the beach and just walked in the surf till nearly dark, then as I returned home I stopped and bought me a seafood supper and then returned to the Road Warrior. I had a hearty meal in the dark sitting in front of a campfire pondering my next move.
I had planned on getting up in the morning and would begin to search real estate ads and see what land was available on the internet. Although I like the tall trees in this park, residential and just land in particular in California is to damn expensive. I will look and see if there is anything available at a bargain rate but feel that my search would be in vain. But who knows. Maybe I can find an old factory site with buildings on it that can be torn down or even better set up a vegetable growing business inside them at a later date. A portfolio of land acquisitions to help the future should surely include land where seasonal changes don’t affect the growing of certain crops. Admittedly I am out of my field when I comes to growing anything in California and will have to do some research. Maybe a place by the coast or a bay somewhere were someone could eventually do some aqua culture would be nice.
Aqua culture is the science of raising seafood and fresh water fish from sea and freshwater sources. This area would have both fresh water and sea water to take advantage of. Shrimp can be raised in barrels or tanks of seawater as well as clams and mussels and a variety of fishes. The other problem with California is that they have some of the strictest environmental standards of any of the United States and sometimes favor grandfathered industries’ making it hard to start a new business. I just need to be vigilant and think of the future and what people will need in terms of land for growing food in the future. Surely somewhere in California there is a deal waiting to happen and I intend to start here looking.
I checked my phone for messages and had one from Ann’s secretary which no doubt has to deal with the money transfer and what Ann would expect from the both of us to accomplish what she had set out to do. I decided it was too late to call her tonight and would call her in the morning after I stirred. The park where I was at has tall redwoods and it acted like a canopy, trapping and insulating the sounds of the night as well the aromas of campfire smoke and food being grilled as I opened the windows on the Road Warrior to let my senses go to work as I lay in bed wondering what to do next. My mind was busy but soon relented to sleep I sorely needed to revive my soul. I thought of Babe and wished I had brought her with me if I knew I was going to be gone and alone for so long. I miss her company. She is a good dog.
I called Ms. Goins the next day and soon found out there was more to Ann’s request of me as I went along with her wishes. That Ms.Goins, Ann’s personal secretary had planned on coming to California and was planning on meeting me so that we could work together on this land acquisition project we had started. She was planning on flying in and would soon meet me here at the campsite and go over the process we would have to undertake to acquire the land we wanted to put in trust. She planned on flying into Sacramento and would then take a commuter flight to Crescent City, then rent a car and meet me here at the campsite after finding a hotel or motel to stay at. I told her I looked forward to meeting and working with her and that hopefully we could have a good working relationship. I wished her a safe trip and hung up the phone and awaited her arrival.
I began scouring the internet and real-estate rags as I was beginning to make up a list of potential properties in northern California I wanted to see and visit. Also I looked at the demographics of this area as a means of determining what kind of agricultural products are produced around there. After all we are thinking of utilizing this land for food for the future so we must be vigilant in acquiring the right land to serve our purpose. When Ms. Goins arrives maybe she will accompany me to some of these sites. I soon came up with a list of potential sites and decided to take a break and go for a hike in the redwoods. I found this place where they offered baths in individual rooms where you could soak in these huge hollowed out redwood tubs longer than me and totally immerse yourself in hot water created by wood fired heaters and relax and enjoy for an hour . The water was scented, it smelled of jasmine or possibly some other exotic fragrance. I broke into my stash before I came to this place and brought me a joint along since I had no woman to share this experience with I decided to smoke one and just relax. It was good for the soul. The water must have been mineralized as it would effervesce around you and send air bubbles to the surface. It was a very relaxing experience to have a tub I could fully stretch out my long body in and just kind of float at times. With the pot I as flying high, but to soon my time was up and the curtains around my tub flung open and I was brought back to reality .Surely I would have to find me a woman to share this experience with again.
All the time I knew Ann I had never met Ms. Goins but had heard about her from Ann as she was a reliable trustworthy person Ann had full confidence in . Ann must have offered Ms. Goins a pretty good compensation package to get her away from the Gunnite Corporation. Ms. Goins was Ann’s secretary y for years and she was pretty well planted with high respect from all she worked with. So losing her surely was a setback to the Gunnite Corporation. I looked forward to meeting her but at same time had reservations about how this was all going to turn out. It appeared Ann was going to push this investment thing the same way she pushed Gunnite for years, so bringing in the big guns was inevitable. Ms. Goins was part of that.
Ms. Goins soon called me and said her flight to Crescent City arrived on time and that she needed time to rest but would meet me at my campsite in the morning. For some reason I was nervous to an extent. Why I didn’t know. Just felt as if my world was going to change and Ms. Goins was part of that change. Again I fell to sleep that night my mind racing looking at all possibilities until I finally relented to forget it all and drifted off to sleep.
)
No comments:
Post a Comment