April 28, 2004: If it’s mid-spring it must be time for bluegrass in the Central California coastal hills, and this year there’s a double header.

The people who put on the annual Camp Rude festival at Parkfield turned it over to another couple, who changed it to the Mid-State Bluegrass Festival, moved it to Paso Robles, and set it for one week earlier. Some other people, who have enjoyed visiting Parkfield every Mother’s Day weekend, started a new festival there, so although it’s the same place and same weekend, it’s not the same festival. If you’re fully confused, just forget all the above and read on.

I set out this morning about 9:45 for the short, pleasant drive to Paso Robles. Since we’ve been having record heat (and it got up to 100 over here yesterday), I was glad to see that the forecast is for a brief cooling period. It has been very nice here all day, at the fairgrounds right next to the junction of US 101 and State Highway 46…warm but breezy when I got here a little after noon, and quite cool with a strong breeze now at 7:30.

After I got set up I read the paper and rested a bit, then set out for Señor Sancho’s Mexican restaurant. One of the problems with spring bluegrass festivals is that they conflict with the hockey playoffs, a particular problem this year with the San Jose Sharks looking like they will reach the conference finals. Before I left, I called the restaurant to find out if they had a TV that would be showing the 4 p.m. playoff game, and the results were positive.

I had a drink, then a chimichanga, then another drink, and enjoyed watching the Maple Leafs defeat the Flyers, who had been leading two games to none. The conditions were not ideal (TV up where I had to tilt my head uncomfortably, view from an angle, and no sound), so I decided to pass on the later game, which would last from 7 to 9:30.

Earlier today I called and made reservations for a tour of Hearst Castle tomorrow, a place I have never been. I will probably stop and check out Cambria while I’m at it. I have been there many years ago, but all I remember is that it seemed nice.

April 29, 2004: The typical bluegrass festival starts on Friday, but I like to arrive on Wednesday, to get situated and get a good camping spot. This leaves Thursday available for other activities, so today I enjoyed my first visit to Hearst Castle. The guided tour starts with a bus ride from the visitor center, five miles and 1,500 feet in elevation up to the hilltop where William Randolph Hearst spent about ten million in 1947 dollars to build a place that would leave his visitors awed. He certainly succeeded. Of course $10 million went a lot farther in those days.

The tour is very well done, with a personable and knowledgeable guide. This particular tour includes the two swimming pools, the medium guest house, and the main floor of the big house. When you think swimming pool at the Hearst estate, think of a 100 foot wide pool with Greek columns and marble sculpture surrounding it. In the case of the other pool, indoors under the tennis court, picture blue and gold tile (real 22 karat gold) in one inch squares surrounding the pool and making up the bottom of the pool itself.

Everything else is equally impressive – remember, this is a guy who purchased 20 complete ceilings from Europe and had them installed throughout the estate. We’re not talking acoustic tile, but rather ornately carved hardwoods.

I must admit I had a somewhat negative impression of Hearst, and there’s no doubt he understood the power of money. On the other hand, every indication is that he treated the staff of his estate very well, paid employees in his various enterprises a good wage, and made arrangements for the estate to be given to the people of California when he died (it’s officially a state park, as well as a registered museum). He had an interest in all forms of art that started when he spent a year in Italy at age ten, and made what he called “the ranch” a place to collect and display an amazing variety of ancient and modern art.

When I got back to my trailer, I had to go to work. This morning when I woke up I realized that drops of water were falling on me. Apparently last night’s heavy dew had found a leaky seam at the edge of the trailer roof. I picked up some calking compound and coated the seam, so tomorrow I should find out if my efforts were successful. I’ve tried fixing minor leaks on my house and on my old trailer, and have only had one success so far, but that was my most recent attempt, so hopefully I’m on a roll.

April 30, 2004: No indoor rain this morning, so either my roof repair was successful, or weather conditions weren’t right. There was plenty of dew on the truck, and low temperatures were about the same (40 on Thursday, 38 this morning), so I am going to claim success.

The show starts in about a half hour (9:45) and goes till about 9 p.m. There is a dinner break from 5 to 6 p.m. Some shows stop in the early evening, usually about six, since so many people like to spend the evenings pickin’ in the parking lot. If the show runs late, they just stay up later.

My daughter Teri and youngest grandson Mikie will join me this evening, driving over when he gets out of school.

It’s now 5:10 and time for dinner break. For me it’s cocktail time, since I’ll wait till Teri & Mikie get here to eat.

It’s been a good day of music – a couple of groups I like that I’ve seen before, and several that were new to me. The best surprise was the Bear Ridge Bluegrass Band, which is kind of an informal ad hoc group, but they have a killer female singer and were very good overall. The highly touted John Murphy & Carolina Special seemed to me to have very little energy, but then, I needed a nap. There will be three more groups tonight.

May 2, 2004: The Mid-State festival is over, finishing off with hot music and hot weather. The first two nights I was inside the trailer before dark, closed the windows and vents, and wore a sweatshirt and long-sleeved shirt inside. Friday and Saturday nights I needed a long-sleeved shirt outside late at night (9 p.m.) but we left the windows and vents open all night.

Teri and Mikie arrived about 6:30 Friday, and left this morning about 9:45.

There was good bluegrass music all weekend. A couple of groups I’ve seen before but didn’t like that much seemed better this time – Sidesaddle & Co., and The Cache Valley Drifters. Lost Highway, which I’ve seen many times since my very first festival in Mariposa, were great as usual, as was the James King Band (one of the top groups in the country).

I’ll stay here tonight, then spend Monday through Wednesday night at an RV park in Atascadero - one that has cable TV so I can watch hockey playoffs. Then I’ll head for Parkfield Thursday morning.

May 3, 2004: I could not check into the RV park here in Atascadero till noon, so I hung around camp at Paso Robles till a little before then. Even then I was not the last to leave.

I got here about 12:30, got set up, and had dinner (leftover BBQ ribs from the festival, fork-tender and exceptionally good). I’ve spent the afternoon reading, napping and making a few phone calls.

It is hot here, close to 100, but right now at 5:30 I am inside with the A/C going. Hockey does not start till 7 p.m. so I will work on this report and do some more reading. Tomorrow I plan to go to San Luis Obispo and/or Morro Bay. I am thinking of returning to Hearst Castle Wednesday and taking one of the other tours (they have four different tours, each focusing on different parts of the estate).

Tonight’s game is Redwings v. Calgary Flames. I have to cheer for the underdog (Flames), who are ahead 3 games to 2. You can never count the Redwings out till the final buzzer of the final game.

May 4, 2004: Good news (but not for Detroit fans), Calgary won 1-0 in overtime, advancing to the conference final. Tonight is Sharks v. Avalanche (Sharks ahead 3-2); and Philadelphia v. Toronto (Flyers ahead 3-2).

This morning I drove down to San Luis Obispo. Just drove around a little, then went into a coffee shop/Internet café and checked my Email. I went to Avila Beach  and San Luis Bay, and walked out on the pier. Then I came back by way of Morro Bay, where I just walked around a little. I was in Morro Bay at the beach ten years ago or so, but have not been to SLO for 30 years, and never to Avila Beach.

Tomorrow I am going to take another tour at Hearst Castle. I enjoyed the first one, and you never know when the chance to go will come again. Right now it’s time for hockey (4 p.m.)

May 5, 2004: First, the hockey news – the Sharks defeated the Avalanche 3-1 to make their first-ever trip to the western conference final (they will face Calgary). In the east it’s Philadelphia v. Tampa Bay. Powerhouse teams from Detroit, New Jersey and Colorado that have won eight of the last nine Stanley Cups are gone in the second round (as is Dallas, the other cup winner during that period).

I had a nice trip to Hearst Castle today. The tour I took goes through the upper three floors of the main house, and includes the kitchen. This is a kitchen that would serve most large restaurants – probably close to 100 feet long. The weather was cool and foggy at the visitor center, just above sea level, but at the estate, 1,500 feet elevation, it was probably 15 degrees warmer.

Following my habit of repeating good experiences, I went to Señor Sancho’s in Paso Robles for dinner on my way home.

I bought gas in Paso last week after my trip to the Castle, and paid $2.17 per gallon. Today it was $2.27 per gallon.

Driving around this area provides some beautiful scenic views. There are quite a few wineries, laid out in rolling hills. The highways go through stands of live oak and valley oak, with a few pines at the higher elevations. Grassy areas are still green, but starting to turn brown, even next to the ocean. It’s kind of strange to be driving around towns that have hills in them. All in all it’s a beautiful area, but as we know, it takes lots of rain and some cool foggy weather to have the kind of vegetation you see here.

I emptied my holding tanks, took down the awning, and folded up my table and chair, so I won’t have so much to do in the morning. Of course, it’s not like I have a long drive – it’s probably 40 miles or so, back up to Paso Robles on US 101, west on State 46 to Cholame, and about 15 miles north to Parkfield. My Rand McNally trip planner program makes it a 125 mile trip, sending you north to Monterey, then somehow on to State 198 (not sure that’s possible), and over local roads to Parkfield, virtually telling you to go north 55 miles then back south almost next to your northern route another 55 miles. Other people have told me that trip-planning web sites told them to use the road from Coalinga to Parkfield, which is unpaved, terrible for trailers, and sometimes impassible in the wet season. It’s always good to know a little geography.

May 6, 2004: It’s nearly 10 p.m. and the first day of the Parkfield festival is over. Music started today, on a Thursday, which is rare. The people running this festival seem to be really disorganized – the show started 45 minutes late; they don’t have programs available; the MC seems to have little idea what’s going on, and has trouble announcing the groups even with notes in his hand. There are not many people here – fewer than I have seen by Wednesday evening in the past. Of course, more will arrive Friday and Saturday (if not, someone is losing money).

The music is good, so everything else is tolerable. The mediocre bands were just that, none of them bad, and there have been two really good ones so far. There are some fairly well known national groups on the program.

The weather has also been cooperating – warm but not hot like it has been. There was a very strong breeze for a while, but it died down. It’s cool enough for a sweatshirt and another flannel shirt for me, but quite pleasant outdoors. Since it’s been a warm spring (we had some record and near-record highs for the date in March and more days above normal than average), it is very dry here – the hills, which usually still show some green, are completely brown, and the grass in the camping area is dried up and partly trampled down. Trampled is good, since the stickers are not too bad unless you venture into the outer perimeter, where the dry grass is tall.

May 7, 2004: The festival is still not on schedule, but otherwise everything is going fine. The best groups so far are Iron Lasso from Montana, and the Chris Jones Coalition from Nashville. Most of the people in Iron Lasso have been at every festival in Parkfield, under one name or another. These are the guys I saw and talked to at the weekly jam at the High Hat saloon in Missoula on my trip in 2002. The dobro player, Ivan Rosenburg, also plays in two other groups here. Chris Jones has been around for a long time, once playing with Special Consensus, a long-running band that I saw in Arizona earlier this year. I have a video tape of them on the Nashville Network in the mid 1980’s when Chris was the lead singer. He’s been here before with Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, but the current line-up includes some Night Drivers and some members of the Grasshoppers, a band from Idaho that had some success but broke up a year or so ago.

Tonight’s featured group is Lynn Morris, one of the top east coast bands (from Virginia). She was at one of the Mariposa bluegrass festivals in the late 1990s.

My trailer is situated so that I can hear the music pretty well from my patio, so this morning I had a couple of nice bloody Mary's, watched the first group, then fixed and ate hash browns outside while listening to a couple of bands that I saw yesterday that did not require my close attention.

May 9, 2004: The festival is over, and there was some great music. The best band overall was the Fox Family. They are originally from upstate New York, and I have seen them at the Mariposa festival. They are now based out of Nashville, and they were even better than I remembered.

Also excellent was Chris Stuart and Backcountry, a fairly new band that played here last year. They have really come together well and were nearly on a par with the Fox Family.

Also very good were the Chris Jones Coalition. Chris has played here under other names, and has also played with nationally known bands like Special Consensus and the Lynn Morris Band (he joined them for this performance).

The Lynn Morris Band was somewhat of a disappointment, mainly because there is very little Lynn. She had a stroke about a year ago and is only up to performing one or two songs per set. This band did have the best banjo player of the festival.

Tomorrow I will get started when I get up and ready, and hope to stop and visit friends in Avenal for a short while. Once I get home, planning will start for a month-long trip across country this summer. Stay tuned.

Nature Report:

Last year at Parkfield Mikie had a good time catching lizards (one is still thriving), so he wanted to do the same this year. The fairgrounds at Paso Robles did not seem to offer much except a few tiny bugs, but some friends we’ve known since the first Parkfield festival steered Mikie to the local lizard hang-out, and he soon caught one by hand. He forgot his net, and we didn’t expect success, but we had one up a tree, and I was trying to catch it with a cup. While it was watching out for me, Mikie grabbed it.

At Parkfield I saw a boy holding two lizards, so later I asked if he was taking them home. He said he was letting them go, but was trying to break his record of catching seven last year (all by hand). I know he got up to six this year, but did not get a final report. (2009 update: This boy was Austin Ward, stepson of Eric Uglam and now the bass player for Chris Stuart & Backcountry.)

While in Atascadero, there was a report on TV that a mountain lion had been seen walking down a street in San Luis Obispo. This was right after my visit there.

Sunday morning at the Paso Robles festival the MC said there had been an earthquake that morning. I did not feel it (at 6:30 a.m. ??!!) It was apparently an aftershock from the big one in December.

--Dick Estel

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