Given the opportunity, I’d encourage my high-tech friends who are transplants from other nations and states to drive South on the 101 past San Jose and on to Los Angeles. The journey will take one through a hint of America’s heartland where people drive Ford trucks, wear cowboy hats and boot and mean it…they are NOT on the way to a company western-themed BBQ at the CEOs house in Woodside. This past weekend I took a trip through American’s heartland with my wife. We drove south to Paso Robles to attend the California Mid State Fair.
Going to a State Fair is a great experience and a reminder that the leading contributor to California’s GDP is not high technology, but agriculture. I’d guess that purveyors of the Ag culture probably amass to a heard much larger than the gaggle of high-tech people I run with. Instead of herding online users to use eBay and pay with PayPal, these Ag workers herd cattle into a corral and pay by the head.
The Ag industry occupies the land in between the three largest cities south of the Oregon boarder; San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles.
Dee Dee and drove down to Paso Robles early on Saturday morning quickly transforming the surroundings of heavy traffic, sparkling Mercedes, and concern about the Dow’s 600 point fall on Friday. The Ag industry occupies the land in between two of the largest cities San Jose and Los Angeles, among other regions of the state North of San Francisco. The scenery quickly changes from rolling fields spotted with cattle to a lonely freeway sign informing drivers of the next town coming up in 20 miles. We passed by Salinas, Soledad, Gonzales, King City, Chular and eventually into Paso Robles.
Paso Robles is really cool…and fairly hip as it slowly transforms into a “romantic destination” for wine tasting and a few nice restaurants. The downtown area is very similar to Sonoma with a town square surrounded by buildings dating back to the 1920s. Dee Dee and I had lunch with some friends at , a very “California Cuisine” restaurant replete with modern design elements common in the “snooty-palooty” eateries of Napa. The restaurant was in a small town, but the small town was NOT in the restaurant by any stretch of the imagination.
Wait, Paso Robles seems so quaint and nice…and a destination for a quick weekend escape from the Silicon Valley! Where’s the local “color”? The residents and culture of all the towns in Central California came through loud and clear at the Mid State Fair…and I loved every minute of it.
The reason behind our trip south was to see Dee Dee’s new heart throb, Daughtry, of American Idol fame. I’m not sure what the appeal is…he seems to be nothing more than a formulated, balding, scruffy, pseudo-grunge front man who sounds like Linkin Park. But chicks dig him…and my wife is a chick. We agreed to go to the fair in the mid afternoon so I can soak up some “culture” and Dee Dee can fix her make-up for when she gets pulled up on stage during the concert.
Wow, did I get an eye full!
First of all, the life stock: over 10 varieties of chickens (including a breed from Poland), several varieties of rabbits (I don’t know which breed has the luckiest foot), cows, pigs (it turns out there are several breeds of those too!) and horses.
Second, the various competitions: it turns out that if anything can be made within a household, it can be entered into a fair: flower arrangements, baked goods (Best Pie), paints, photographs, landscape designs, clothing, etc. Not to mention the “best of” the live stock including pigs, cows, sheep, etc.
Third, the Fair food: 12” corndogs, teriyaki beef sticks, bbq meats, sushi, crepes, soft serve ice cream, large pickles (and yes I was happy to see her), lemonade, beer, sangria, margaritas. I indulged in a foot long corndog and a pickle while standing to the side of the corn dog stand. Several people walked by and looked at me in disbelief that a human being of my stature would indulge. I finished both culinary undertakings…but almost booted on the last bite. One can only digest so much batter dipped frankfurter. Burp. Peeeeeerp.
Fourth, and the most enjoyable, the people: It’s clear that most of the attendees enjoy the variety of foods on a regular basis. The average daily caloric intake rate was well above 5,000…and the results were packed into very tight jeans and accompanied by muffin tops. However, I must admit the Beauty Queens we saw standing in line for a soft serve ice cream had things under control. As a matter of fact, they were the epitome of small town beauty queen. Dee Dee did a good job of pointing out whale tails swimming by or outright ass-crack on display.
The Daughtry audience consisted of mostly the female, under 18 crowd…and their parents who paid $38 to see their American Idol on display at the Fair. Our seats where 5th row center…not bad by any standard…if one is willing to sacrifice their hearing. The team of Idol worshippers behind us were Nicole Richi wannabes with the oversized sunglasses, half shirts, “clam digger” length pants and heals. These girls were working hard. They were screaming, texting, taking pics with their camera phones and singing along at the same time. Wow, the effort they go through to verify to their friends “that I was there!” One girl had a “Daughtry: Just do him” shirt on. In contrast a “wannabe 18 again” trio of 35+ year old women sat in front of us. Wow, it was as if they never turned 19…and went right to 35. The hair and overdone makeup. The THICK eye liner. The HEAVY tan base make up. And the very tight, breast enhancing tops revealing well kept cleavage gone bad….accompanied by a large dose of ass crack that appeared ever time the bleach blonde stood up. “Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean to give you guys such an unattractive eye-full! Ha ha ha!” Then why did you wear those jeans? I guess all of hang on to pillars of our youth. My pillars are my Star Wars action figures…and these girls carried pillars of tight jeans.
The warm up band was a Bon Jovi knock off accompanied with hairspray, cop sunglasses and ripped jeans. Daughtry came on and played his entire CD of 12 songs in 45 minutes…which included 2 encores…seriously. Dee Dee thought he was “so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!” I was surprised he so many people turned out to see him…there was probably 5K people there. It was obvious that we were watching the “test marketing” of a potential new rock-star that appeals to the 14 – 25 crowd. The show got out a 9:30…just in time for most of the audience to get home before their midnight curfews.
As we exited the concert area…we realized we had enough of the state fair. We had seen everything there was to see, ate all the food to eat and took in all the eye candy imaginable. We sucked down a quick pint of Firestone Ale (a Paso Robles beer that is GREAT) and took the shuttle bus back to the Paso Robles Inn. This is actually a really cool, historical hotel...if you've got the $220 a night handy, it's worth a stay...and be sure to take advantage of hanging out at the historic bar and main lobby.
The next morning we took our time and drove up Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway. I highly recommend taking this winding, two lane roads when you don’t need to be anywhere! It’s great…and provides a glimpse into the many small towns that speckle the coast between San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Be sure to gas up before driving…there are NO REST STOPS FOR SEVERAL MILES. Seriously…it would suck to run out of gas. Take the drive at a leisurely pace and enjoy the coast line…it’s BEAUTIFUL and a reminder why people come from the world over to sunny California.
We passed by Moro Bay, Cambria and San Simion..where Hearst Castle sits on the hill. My favorite town just south of San Simian is Harmony…a town of 35 people that dates back to the late 1800s. The town consists of one street about 100 yards long…with one post office, one small chapel, one dairy building…and a restaurant. However, Hearst and several of the Hollywood stars of the 1920-1930s used to stop by for milk from the dairy on the way to Hearst Castle. For a small town, it had some big time,world class visitors.
The PCH eventually lead us back up through Big Sur, Carmel, Monterey…and back home to Morgan Hill, CA. Sigh…back to work Monday.
Going to a State Fair is a great experience and a reminder that the leading contributor to California’s GDP is not high technology, but agriculture. I’d guess that purveyors of the Ag culture probably amass to a heard much larger than the gaggle of high-tech people I run with. Instead of herding online users to use eBay and pay with PayPal, these Ag workers herd cattle into a corral and pay by the head.
The Ag industry occupies the land in between the three largest cities south of the Oregon boarder; San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles.
Dee Dee and drove down to Paso Robles early on Saturday morning quickly transforming the surroundings of heavy traffic, sparkling Mercedes, and concern about the Dow’s 600 point fall on Friday. The Ag industry occupies the land in between two of the largest cities San Jose and Los Angeles, among other regions of the state North of San Francisco. The scenery quickly changes from rolling fields spotted with cattle to a lonely freeway sign informing drivers of the next town coming up in 20 miles. We passed by Salinas, Soledad, Gonzales, King City, Chular and eventually into Paso Robles.
Paso Robles is really cool…and fairly hip as it slowly transforms into a “romantic destination” for wine tasting and a few nice restaurants. The downtown area is very similar to Sonoma with a town square surrounded by buildings dating back to the 1920s. Dee Dee and I had lunch with some friends at , a very “California Cuisine” restaurant replete with modern design elements common in the “snooty-palooty” eateries of Napa. The restaurant was in a small town, but the small town was NOT in the restaurant by any stretch of the imagination.
Wait, Paso Robles seems so quaint and nice…and a destination for a quick weekend escape from the Silicon Valley! Where’s the local “color”? The residents and culture of all the towns in Central California came through loud and clear at the Mid State Fair…and I loved every minute of it.
The reason behind our trip south was to see Dee Dee’s new heart throb, Daughtry, of American Idol fame. I’m not sure what the appeal is…he seems to be nothing more than a formulated, balding, scruffy, pseudo-grunge front man who sounds like Linkin Park. But chicks dig him…and my wife is a chick. We agreed to go to the fair in the mid afternoon so I can soak up some “culture” and Dee Dee can fix her make-up for when she gets pulled up on stage during the concert.
Wow, did I get an eye full!
First of all, the life stock: over 10 varieties of chickens (including a breed from Poland), several varieties of rabbits (I don’t know which breed has the luckiest foot), cows, pigs (it turns out there are several breeds of those too!) and horses.
Second, the various competitions: it turns out that if anything can be made within a household, it can be entered into a fair: flower arrangements, baked goods (Best Pie), paints, photographs, landscape designs, clothing, etc. Not to mention the “best of” the live stock including pigs, cows, sheep, etc.
Third, the Fair food: 12” corndogs, teriyaki beef sticks, bbq meats, sushi, crepes, soft serve ice cream, large pickles (and yes I was happy to see her), lemonade, beer, sangria, margaritas. I indulged in a foot long corndog and a pickle while standing to the side of the corn dog stand. Several people walked by and looked at me in disbelief that a human being of my stature would indulge. I finished both culinary undertakings…but almost booted on the last bite. One can only digest so much batter dipped frankfurter. Burp. Peeeeeerp.
Fourth, and the most enjoyable, the people: It’s clear that most of the attendees enjoy the variety of foods on a regular basis. The average daily caloric intake rate was well above 5,000…and the results were packed into very tight jeans and accompanied by muffin tops. However, I must admit the Beauty Queens we saw standing in line for a soft serve ice cream had things under control. As a matter of fact, they were the epitome of small town beauty queen. Dee Dee did a good job of pointing out whale tails swimming by or outright ass-crack on display.
The Daughtry audience consisted of mostly the female, under 18 crowd…and their parents who paid $38 to see their American Idol on display at the Fair. Our seats where 5th row center…not bad by any standard…if one is willing to sacrifice their hearing. The team of Idol worshippers behind us were Nicole Richi wannabes with the oversized sunglasses, half shirts, “clam digger” length pants and heals. These girls were working hard. They were screaming, texting, taking pics with their camera phones and singing along at the same time. Wow, the effort they go through to verify to their friends “that I was there!” One girl had a “Daughtry: Just do him” shirt on. In contrast a “wannabe 18 again” trio of 35+ year old women sat in front of us. Wow, it was as if they never turned 19…and went right to 35. The hair and overdone makeup. The THICK eye liner. The HEAVY tan base make up. And the very tight, breast enhancing tops revealing well kept cleavage gone bad….accompanied by a large dose of ass crack that appeared ever time the bleach blonde stood up. “Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean to give you guys such an unattractive eye-full! Ha ha ha!” Then why did you wear those jeans? I guess all of hang on to pillars of our youth. My pillars are my Star Wars action figures…and these girls carried pillars of tight jeans.
The warm up band was a Bon Jovi knock off accompanied with hairspray, cop sunglasses and ripped jeans. Daughtry came on and played his entire CD of 12 songs in 45 minutes…which included 2 encores…seriously. Dee Dee thought he was “so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!” I was surprised he so many people turned out to see him…there was probably 5K people there. It was obvious that we were watching the “test marketing” of a potential new rock-star that appeals to the 14 – 25 crowd. The show got out a 9:30…just in time for most of the audience to get home before their midnight curfews.
As we exited the concert area…we realized we had enough of the state fair. We had seen everything there was to see, ate all the food to eat and took in all the eye candy imaginable. We sucked down a quick pint of Firestone Ale (a Paso Robles beer that is GREAT) and took the shuttle bus back to the Paso Robles Inn. This is actually a really cool, historical hotel...if you've got the $220 a night handy, it's worth a stay...and be sure to take advantage of hanging out at the historic bar and main lobby.
The next morning we took our time and drove up Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway. I highly recommend taking this winding, two lane roads when you don’t need to be anywhere! It’s great…and provides a glimpse into the many small towns that speckle the coast between San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Be sure to gas up before driving…there are NO REST STOPS FOR SEVERAL MILES. Seriously…it would suck to run out of gas. Take the drive at a leisurely pace and enjoy the coast line…it’s BEAUTIFUL and a reminder why people come from the world over to sunny California.
We passed by Moro Bay, Cambria and San Simion..where Hearst Castle sits on the hill. My favorite town just south of San Simian is Harmony…a town of 35 people that dates back to the late 1800s. The town consists of one street about 100 yards long…with one post office, one small chapel, one dairy building…and a restaurant. However, Hearst and several of the Hollywood stars of the 1920-1930s used to stop by for milk from the dairy on the way to Hearst Castle. For a small town, it had some big time,world class visitors.
The PCH eventually lead us back up through Big Sur, Carmel, Monterey…and back home to Morgan Hill, CA. Sigh…back to work Monday.
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