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DISCOVERY IN BIG SUR
Joey
was unable to discern why he felt apprehension about traveling to Big
Sur, which previously had induced nothing but pure joy for him. Frank
stayed overnight at Joey’s to make sure they got an early start Saturday morning
for the two-hour drive down the coast to Grandpa Karl’s digs. They
brought along plenty of camping equipment. Grandpa Karl hated phones, so
they weren’t concerned that he didn’t call to confirm he was back from
his trip back east. They would manage at his place even if he wasn’t
there, sleeping in a tent and shopping for groceries further south along
the coast highway. Karl lived in a one-room shack, and although they
could all fit on his floor with sleeping bags, it was more fun to pitch a
large tent and manage their own schedules. Unlike his life at home
where he struggled to get up for school, Joey always jumped up at first
light when he was in Big Sur. He loved the smell of moist pines and
redwoods, the frigid, misty mornings, being surrounded by forest, within
earshot of loudly barking sea lions cavorting along the ocean’s edge.
Joey didn’t have to go far from Grandpa Karl’s to where he could watch
these exotic creatures, as well as seals and sea otters, gallivanting
and floating among the rocks and kelp.
Once
he even saw Gray Whales passing by as they migrated south to their
winter breeding grounds in Baja California. On their way to Big Sur they
passed by Carmel where tourists actually pay a road fee just to drive
around Carmel looking at the plush homes that they heard celebrities
like Doris Day, Clint Eastwood, or Paul Simon lived in at one time. But
the drive further down the coast to and along Big Sur is a completely
different story from carefully carved Carmel. The winding road is
flanked by guard rails that don’t always prevent a car’s plunge down a
steep incline and even into the ocean. Just the previous week, a woman
had gone off the road and down a steep embankment, and was only rescued
two days later because she managed to get to her cell phone and call for
help.
As
Joey contemplated the woman’s plight, he thought of the famous rock
musician who was reputed to be a physics genius; found dead in his car
long after it went off a road and fell into thick brush. But that
accident was far from the coast, somewhere east of LA. There were rumors
about the last communications from the musician darkly suggesting his
possible assassination because of some great mathematical discovery that
he was on the verge of achieving. While pondering this, Joey developed a
feeling of cold on the back of his neck; it seemed his body might be
communicating a warning to him. What warning could it be? I’m no genius
like that rock star. He shook his head and tried to dismiss the thought
by looking out the car window at the scenery. Then Frank engaged him in
conversation, and he forgot the strange sensation. It was a typically
sunny day in the Bay Area when they started out in the morning, but it
was drizzling in Big Sur. This was actually ideal from Joey’s view point
because the flora looked especially beautiful with drops of rain on it
and puddles everywhere, and the moisture brought out wonderful
fragrances.
Eventually,
they turned off the coastal highway, wending their way along the bumpy,
pocked private road that brought them to Grandpa Karl’s abode. He drove
an ancient 1948 Ford truck that he managed to keep going by scavenging
parts wherever he could. Because of this scavenging, there were quite a
few auto parts near his shack, enough to ironically mimic a junkyard in
the midst of a natural paradise.
Many
people in Big Sur were essentially bohemians who rebelled against
pressure to conform to orthodox aesthetic standards. In this respect,
they were like many residents of Bolinas on the coast above San
Francisco, a town that is locally famous for its hippie and iconoclastic
population, much of which likewise junkyard their otherwise picturesque
properties. Bolinas is a beach town that isn’t tree-laden like Big Sur,
but Mendocino, a short distance north, sports a mil ion of acres of
dense forest. Big Sur residents became the subject of a school report by
Joey after the one he wrote about San Francisco. Many of them could be
described as relics of the old 60’s counterculture.
This young adult series of sci-fi fantasy novels begins with The Reality Master and continues through four other exciting and amazing stories about time travel and mysterious alien devices. Joey and the reader will face dangerous shadowy criminal organizations, agents of the NSA, bizarre travelers from other times and even renegade California bikers and scar-faced walking dead.
- Vol 2 Threat To The World
- Vol 3 Travel Beyond
- Vol 4 Missions Through Time
- Vol 5 The Return Home
