Good Evening, my Darling,
Happy Friday, too. I'm still here at Pearl's. It's a busy morning, but I'll have a chance for a hike, so I think I am gonna head up to the Brown's Canyon area. That's the mountain road with the section that's supposed to be "private", for some ranchers who live there, but it really isn't theirs to determine, from everything I've read. I see that people drive up there all the time, to go to the park at the top of Oat Mountain, so the ranch property may be private, but the road that runs through it is public. I may not drive all the way to the top, where the park and the abandoned Nike Missile Base are located, but there is a trailhead about midway up the road, that I noticed the first time I drove up that way, last Fall. I don't remember if that trailhead has any parking or not, but if it does I can park and do a little exploring. This is a real backwoodser trail, and the whole reason I've never been up there so far is because of the public vs. private question, but it seems it's public, so long as you don't stop on the rancher's property. So, here I go........
When I get back, Grim is gonna meet me at my pad at 2:30. He is just learning how to use the Internet, and he wants me to show him how to put an ad on Craigslist, so I will do that. Then it'll be back to Pearl's, and at 6:30 I'll be off until Sunday afternoon. I'll check back in at 4:30, when I get here.
Enjoy your Friday night! I Love You, my Baby. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
4:55pm : Hi, Sweet Baby! It's super late, I know, but I love your squinty selfie, so I had to tell you. :) It's really not too squinty, and I am glad you got to go to Rome. That is one of my prime destinations. I hope you got to see Vatican Square as well, and all the other sights. So awesome! Well, I am at Pearl's, so I'd better get back to making dinner, but I just wanted to wish you Sweet Dreams and to tell you that you are beautiful, and that I Love You!
Sleep well, and I will see you when you wake up.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox :):)
12:50am : Good Morning, my Darling. I am really liking Sir Arnold Bax, so I am listening to a piece called "A Hill Tune", appropriate because today I finally did it. I finally drove up that ranch road in Browns Canyon at the north end of the Valley, and I drove all the way to the top of that road, where the Antonovich Park is located. As it turns out, there isn't anything to see at the park because the land up there is completely barren. No trees, no trails, no creeks - nothing. It's just a big, wide open mountainous space. But there is another road leading up from it, and that road goes to the very top of Oat Mountain, the highest mountain in the Valley. I decided to hike that road, because I had a feeling I knew what was at the end of it.
It was very steep, and about a 3/4 mile hike, but it was on an actual paved (though beat-up) road, and when I got to the top, there it was : The old Nike Missile Base, aka LA-88, where they used to have nuclear weapons sitting in silos during the Cold War years. The Valley could have been a prime target because of the aerospace industries that were here then, hence the nukes at this, and a few other sites. I know it's probably a Guy Thing, the military hardware fascination. I am an anti-war peacenik myself (though decidedly not a hippie, lol), but still, I have been fascinated with military hardware since I was a kid. Probably because my Dad took me to see all those jets at Edwards and all the battleships down in San Diego.
At any rate, I did what I said I was not gonna do : I went into the abandoned site. Now, I didn't go in far, but there was no one up there, and the gate was rusting, thrashed, and probably has been open for years if not a decade or more. The missile site was decomissioned in the early 70s, I believe, so we are talking 40 years it's been empty. Still, I've seen on Youtube that some risk-takers have gotten in trouble with the cops, and I obviously didn't want anything to do with that. I just wanted to see what I could see, and anyway, there weren't any "no trespassing" signs, and the gate was open, and the site is on county park property. I think if you just hike up there, go in for five or ten minutes and get your photos and don't sneak around, or touch anything, then it's probably cool.
I erred on the side of caution since it was my first time up there, and I only went in about 100 yards, just far enough to get a couple photos of some graffitied buildings. I did not see the missile silos I've seen on Youtube. Those must be further in. Next time I go, perhaps I will venture further, but it has to feel right, just like it had to finally feel like the right time to drive up there in the first place. So maybe next year, at some point, I will go back. There's nothing much else to see up there, unless you are gonna hike all the way over the mountains to the Santa Clarita side, and come out at East Canyon, where I've been a few times now. But to cross Oat Mountain would be an all day, probably 8 or 10 mile hike, and that's not in the cards anytime soon. I just do things for the scenery and for the historical and/or the weird/mindblowing factor, and the idea that we had nuclear weapons at the tops of our mountains here in the Valley has blown my mind for a long time. I'm glad they took 'em all down!
I am up late, my body and mind instantly revert to their natural rhythms when I have a day off, as I've said before. I actually am off til Sunday afternoon at 1pm, but nothing planned, just usual stuff.
I look forward to seeing more of your pictures from Rome, and talk about history! Man.....you see, that's a place where I'd not only want to see the historic sites, but also to soak up the vibes. Those feelings that you get at such places are genuine echoes of the past - energies of the past that live on and speak to anyone willing to listen. They speak in feelings, and even those are not overt - mostly subliminal. But they are perceptible, and that is how history is felt, in that way.
We can learn about the Romans, or about the Vatican and the catacombs, or the artists who worked in Rome and other cities. We can learn their history, and the history of the people in general, and that of the cities and country. But we can also feel that history by taking the time to perceive it when it communicates to us, in person when we visit. Because the energies of history persist.
I hope your Saturday is off to a good start. I will join you in having an awesome Saturday in just a while, about 8 hours or so. It's a sleep-in, so I will try to do just that! Maybe even 9 hours for good measure, lol.
That's all for now, my Girl. I Love You and You Rule!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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