Coaching for Pizza

Monday, June 9, 2025

Summer 2025 Road Trip, Day I: California's Gold Chain Highway, Highway 49

Sunday, June 8, 2025

We were out of the house and on the road at 7:20 a.m. to start a road trip adventure in Laurie's Blueberry.

We needed to be in Seattle for a wedding next Saturday and opted to drive leisurely during four days of sightseeing all that California, Oregon and Washington had to offer.

On this first day, the goal was to get to the city of Jackson, California. Our route took us north on Interstate 5 over the famous Grapevine, on to Highway 99 through Bakersfield (Sun, Fun, Stay, Play) then to Fresno where we headed east on Highway 41 before joining Highway 49 in Oakhurst heading due North.

Highway 49 is also known as the "Gold Chain Highway" because it goes through several of the quaint, small towns that 176 years ago became boom towns during the California Gold Rush.

On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma about 45 miles northeast of Sacramento.

Word of his discovery spread like wildfire around the world as an estimated 300,000 souls descended on northern California in search of their fair share of fame and fortune. The peak year of this Gold Rush immigration occurred in 1849 and these miners thus earned the sobriquet, "49ers."

Thus the reason for the NFL's San Francisco team's nickname.

After four hours and 30 minutes of driving, we stopped for lunch at our first Gold Rush city on Highway 49.

Stop #1

Mariposa, California

Population: 1,526 souls

The historic Old Town is well preserved

Lots of neat old buildings

can be found in Mariposa

Who doesn't love an Odd fellow or two

The Mariposa Pizza Factory

beckoned

Once inside the Pizza Factory,

I was hooked

There was lots to digest besides

the excellent pepperoni pizza and

their tasty salad bar

Go Grizzlies, INDEED!

Grizzlies were all over the city!

A good lunch to be sure and

we loved their slogan:

"We Toss'em,

They're Awesome"

No argument from either of us.

A Gay Pride flag and a TACO sign,

CLASSIC!

Fun to learn some of the local

history as we patrolled the streets

The Blueberry needed lunch too,

at Grizzly Gas of course

A rather large Grizzly guarded

the gas pumps, a no brainer

One last mural as we left Mariposa

We continued on Highway 49

heading towards Angels Camp

Eerie clouds greeted us as

we worked north through sparsely

populated areas of the state

What we did see occasionally were old farm houses with old cars and farm equipment littering their yards. The look just screamed, "Meth Lab!"

But I could easily be incorrect.

Stop #2

Angels Camp, California

Population: 3,667

This Mark Twain story immortalized

quaint Angels Camp

The city embraced the tall tale and since 1928 has hosted a Jumping Frog contest as part of the annual Calaveras County Fair the third weekend in May.

The Jumping Frog is King

in Angels Camp

Frogs are . . .

. . . everywhere!

The winning frog in the year of

my birth was "TWA"

A winning leap of 14'4" was somewhat awe inspiring 78 years ago.

The start of the Steroid Era in
competitive frog jumping

Again, historic markers like this

one add to this tourist's interest

A massage would have been good

An old storefront

Again with the frogs

We wound up our visit to

Angels Camp with two small ice creams

I highly recommend their Banana-Oreo concoction.

Final stop of the day

Jackson, California

Amador County Seat

Population: 5,019

Our hotel for the night

Our charming hotel was erected in 1862.

It was late afternoon on a Sunday when we arrived and most of Jackson's business were already closed.

Cool hotel lobby

Did I mention that it's an

OLD hotel?

We love stained glass

Funky lamp shade hiding

a fire extinguisher

The National Hotel's

Entertainment Center

We opted to stretch our legs and stroll Jackson's Historic District.

Pack mules were big in

the lives of the 49ers

This store has seen better days

Jackson History

A 49er panning for gold with his

pack mule providing encouragement

You had to be there and

we weren't

What is going on with this hillside?

California's wine history has a

definite connection to Jackson

Laurie's Dad, Bill, was

a proud Rotarian

Our delightful concierge, Tamara, highly recommended dinner at Mel & Faye's Diner which was a short walk from our hotel.

It turned out to be a GREAT call!

We split a delicious sourdough burger, fries and a rich chocolate malt.

As good as the food was, having found a second shrine to local high school sports in one day was more than just a little exciting to me.

Jackson H.S. Tigers

1957 Undefeated

Mother Lode Athletic League Champions

We were seated at the

"UNDEFEATED BOOTH!"

In the 1980s, Jackson H.S. and Ione H.S. merged to form Argonaut H.S. which is in Jackson.

The walls were covered in

local athletic lore

The Big Game in Amador County

1950 Jackson H.S. Baseball Team

The new Argonaut H.S. Mustangs

have had success in football too

The Big Game again

Meanwhile, overseas today . . .

Italy's DIII football playoffs

started up

The European League of Football

was at it again as well

One close game with an eight point difference.

Two somewhat competitive games with 17 and 24 point margins.

Four no-contests blowouts with winning margins of 32, 32, 34 and 38 points.

The separations in each

Division grow weekly

Only two remain, the first year

Nordic Storm in Copenhagen and

the long time power Vienna Vikings

Two games of interest next week

Frankfurt Galaxy (3-1) at

Nordic Storm (3-0)

and

Madrid Bravos (3-1) at

Tirol Raiders (2-2)

Actually, this would be more

like Laurie in action

A good first day on our road trip completed, on Monday we will meander our way to a night spent in Grants Pass, Oregon.

Stay tuned . . .

Saturday, June 7, 2025

Graduation Day and Earning a Role in the Musical Play Annie

Tues.-Sat., June 3-7, 2025

Overall, a calm week but there were a couple of highlights.

On Tuesday, Dylan Moore graduated

from Camarillo H.S.

Dylan is the oldest grandson

of our good friend Debi Murphy

A fine celebration at the Murphy home celebrated Dylan's accomplishment and the voyage that will now become his next adventure in life.

Our granddaughter, Mary,

auditioned for and got TWO parts

in this upcoming production of Annie

She will put her singing and dancing talents to good use in play the parts of Pepper who is a bully orphan that rivals Annie as well as the part of Annette who is Daddy Warbucks' maid.

She is excited to play a bad person as she describes Pepper.

Speaking of the arts . . .

Laurie and I saw Director Wes Anderson's

latest movie on Friday

We liked several of the individual actors performances but we'll be in no hurry to see this film again when it hits HBO and the like.

It pales in comparison to Anderson's 2014 classic The Grand Hotel Budapest in our opinions.

Our Varese Skorpions lost their Italian

Wildcard playoff game on Saturday

to the Parma Panthers

The IFL Semifinals are now set

Parma Panthers (8-3) at

Ancona Dolphins (9-1)

Legnano Frogs (9-2) at

Firenze Guelfi (10-0)

Reading Is FUNdamental!

It was a calm week in part because I did a lot of reading.

A new author for me with

two detective characters reminiscent

of Holmes and Watson

I liked this one.

Maigret mysteries set in Paris

written by the Belgian master,

Georges Simenon

I relished finishing two of Simenon's

yarns this week

Time for a much needed road trip, stay tuned . . .

Monday, June 2, 2025

Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame Weekend

Thurs.-Mon., May 29-June 2, 2025

The big deal of the weekend is one of my favorite events of each year.

The Annual Ventura County Sports

Hall of Fame Induction Dinner

The dinner was held at Camarillo's Padre Serra Center on Sunday evening.

I serve on the Hall's Board of Directors and look forward to this ceremony that annually inducts five distinguished athletes, coaches and/or sports contributors from Ventura County.

Additionally, we honor the Male and Female Athletes of the Year for each of the fifty-four high schools and colleges in the county.

A fun night with some truly tremendous achievers to be sure.

As guests arrive they are shepherded

past tables displaying the plaques

of all 207 members of the Hall of Fame

We had over 350 people in attendance

With 2025 inductee

Connie Winsky Flanderka

Connie and I were both teachers at Westlake H.S. when it first opened its doors on September 11, 1978.

Connie was also the school's Girls' Tennis Coach and was about to launch an incredible career on the courts.

In that capacity she led the Warriors to four C.I.F.-S.S. Championships and 20 Marmonte League titles. Her Girls' teams won a whopping 601 matches.

For 15 seasons Connie also coached the Boys' Tennis teams at Westlake High School H.S. She led these Warriors to six Marmonte League Championships and another 217 wins.

Overall she coached her teams to four C.I.F.-S.S. Championships, 26 Marmonte League Championships and 818 wins.

When she retired, Connie had more coaching wins than any other woman coach in California high school history regardless of sport!

A well deserved honor for Connie that was long overdue in coming in my opinion.

Our other four Hall of Fame Inductees tonight were:

Jeremy Fisher, High Jumper, Camarillo H.S. three time C.I.F.-S.S. Champion and four time All-American at the University of Wisconsin

Sara Griffin Webster, Softball Pitcher, Simi Valley H.S. 1993 C.I.F.-S.S. Player of the Year and three time All-American at the University of Michigan

Bill Tokar, Ventura H.S. Cross Country and Track Coach winning 15 Channel League Championships, five C.I.F.-S.S. Championships and two California State Championships

Ruth Vomund, St. Bonaventure H.S. and Ventura College inducted for her incredible career as a Marathon and distance runner

A good night, INDEED!

After a long weekend of setting up the banquet and then tearing it all down, Monday required four of our Board members gathering up all of our plaques and returning them to their normal honored display cases in the California Lutheran gym.

This effort DEMANDED a reward . . .