Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

This is the second in a series of three, and part 29 of a series.
[Index] [Part 1] [Part 3]

Click any the images to see a larger picture.

   

Armed to the teeth as a tourist and with a bag full of books to release, I set out on the way. My initial walk was down a long country lane which eventually bottomed out in one of the two main streets of Calistoga. Suddenly I was seeing motels, spas and other signs of tourism without actually having found my goal, Wapoo Street. I went looking and found it, along with an extra landmark on the National Register, a lovely bed and breakfast. The landmark itself, the Sam Brennan Store, was obviously a private residence but had a makeshift sign outside it. I left my book at a nearby bench and started on the main drag.

   

The next one was impossible to miss. The old train depot is a restaurant now, but it looks, oddly enough, just like an old train depot. To my delight, several old rail cars had been stretched out on the old line and were now a little network of unusual shops. I wandered around there listening to sixties’ music and poking my nose into windows.

Then I continued up Lincoln Avenue, window shopping and taking photos because I found additional plaques–don’t I always? After shopping for postcards in the old-fashioned Silverado Pharmacy my eye was caught by a bakery across the street, but when I got there I couldn’t find it again. It may just have been a mirage, a cunning ploy to bring me within range of the Candy Cellar. ;-) The sweet aroma of sugary treats drew me into a room with great piles of different traditional candies set on pedestals around two walls, a third being for display and a fourth selling exquisite fudge and fine chocolates. I treated myself to a small $3 slab of maple fudge and it was wonderful: rich with cream and sugar. The shopkeeper offered me a knife and napkin: apparently it was not uncommon for people to wander down the street with a mouth full of fudge. ;)

   

I walked all the way up to 129 to look at what I thought was the two non-snarfs, but turned out only to be one. Several California landmarks have the distinctive quality of a) there being nothing left to see and b) no plaque either. Both the Hudson Cabin and the York Cabin–homes to early settlers–are landmarks, and I thought that both fell into this category. I later found out that the York Cabin does indeed have a plaque, and I missed it. :: grumble ::.

It was all downhill from there, at least in terms of the gradient. I retreated back into town and located the museum, which is also where the Sam Brannan vacation cottage was to be found, a little white structure with scalloped edging.

   

Sam Brennan was a Mormon pioneer and editor of California’s first newspaper, The California Star, and had lived and worked here in Calistoga. He made $50,000 the first year he ran his store, and he named the town itself, wanting to “create a little Saratoga.”

I didn’t want to go to the museum, being tired, but did check out the intriguing city hall just opposite (another snarf).

I was done! For once, I’d been able to find all the landmarks I set out to find, and had had a nice relaxing walk around town to go with it. I went home, and feasted on fudge. ;)

To be continued…

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