Saturday, September 18, 2004
Day tripping
Today I took a day trip about an hour east of San Diego to Julian, to enjoy the Julian Bluegrass Festival. The music was very good; headliners were Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen and The Reeltime Travelers. I had dinner, including the mandatory apple pie ala mode (Julian being most famous for its apple harvest and related pastries), in a cafe in historic and "'quaint" downtown Julian and then headed home.
While the music was lively and enjoyable, the day was most meaningful for me b/c it's the first time I've gone on a day trip outside the city of San Diego since I moved here. Julian is in the mountains (the town itself is at around 4,000 ft elev.) and it's amazing to me how quickly the terrain changes as you head east out of San Diego. It is just outside of Poway that one enters the hills. And once one does that, the "beach" feel of SD is utterly gone, and the surroundings are much more like the Appalachians, but with desert colors and western foliage. But the general topography is very similar to that of central Virginia, which is also a transition zone from ocean to mountains. Much of the drive felt very similar to the twisting turns on Va 231 between Cismont and Gordsonville while, driving into Santa Ysabel, I could have sworn I was somewhere along Va 15 between Gordonsville and Orange--I was having real flashes of deja vu until I looked more closely at the foliage. The cafe I had dinner in could easily be uprooted and placed somewhere along Rte 33 near Elkton, just below Harrisonburg, Va. And I'm sure Julian and Winchester could trade notes on how to celebrate the apple harvest.
There must be more of a connection than just visual, as the Julian Bluegrass Festival has a long history, and of course Bluegrass has its origins in the Appalachans. I must not be the first to note the similar feel of the two regions.
One of the major differences, however, was made clear as I noticed the still-visible damage from last year's massive forest fire, the "Cedar Fire." Though growth is coming back, there are still many barren and subtly blackened acres. While there are occasional forest fires in the Appalachians, the mountains out here are truly on the edge of a desert, and the foliage is tinder-like. All the Forest Dept warning signs today said the current fire risk is "Extreme." I suspect it' s been at that level for months.
Overall it was a very good day. Visually and culturally I felt like I'd suddenly been transported back East for a visit; I kept expecting to run into some of my friends from Charlottesville. Emotionally, it was an act of faith to take a Saturday and do nothing "productive" with regard to hunting for a job, and to spend a small amount of money on "entertainment" even though I am about to lose most of my income. By spending my time and money this way today, I was acting "as if" everything will work out alright, and in fairly short order.
While the music was lively and enjoyable, the day was most meaningful for me b/c it's the first time I've gone on a day trip outside the city of San Diego since I moved here. Julian is in the mountains (the town itself is at around 4,000 ft elev.) and it's amazing to me how quickly the terrain changes as you head east out of San Diego. It is just outside of Poway that one enters the hills. And once one does that, the "beach" feel of SD is utterly gone, and the surroundings are much more like the Appalachians, but with desert colors and western foliage. But the general topography is very similar to that of central Virginia, which is also a transition zone from ocean to mountains. Much of the drive felt very similar to the twisting turns on Va 231 between Cismont and Gordsonville while, driving into Santa Ysabel, I could have sworn I was somewhere along Va 15 between Gordonsville and Orange--I was having real flashes of deja vu until I looked more closely at the foliage. The cafe I had dinner in could easily be uprooted and placed somewhere along Rte 33 near Elkton, just below Harrisonburg, Va. And I'm sure Julian and Winchester could trade notes on how to celebrate the apple harvest.
There must be more of a connection than just visual, as the Julian Bluegrass Festival has a long history, and of course Bluegrass has its origins in the Appalachans. I must not be the first to note the similar feel of the two regions.
One of the major differences, however, was made clear as I noticed the still-visible damage from last year's massive forest fire, the "Cedar Fire." Though growth is coming back, there are still many barren and subtly blackened acres. While there are occasional forest fires in the Appalachians, the mountains out here are truly on the edge of a desert, and the foliage is tinder-like. All the Forest Dept warning signs today said the current fire risk is "Extreme." I suspect it' s been at that level for months.
Overall it was a very good day. Visually and culturally I felt like I'd suddenly been transported back East for a visit; I kept expecting to run into some of my friends from Charlottesville. Emotionally, it was an act of faith to take a Saturday and do nothing "productive" with regard to hunting for a job, and to spend a small amount of money on "entertainment" even though I am about to lose most of my income. By spending my time and money this way today, I was acting "as if" everything will work out alright, and in fairly short order.
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