Sunday, July 22, 2012

Center for Spiritual Living, San Jose; Rosie the Riveter; Solyndra; A Coast Guard Campground Where? A Cougar...


Today was a great day! It started with driving from Gilroy (Garlic Capital of the World, in case you missed that post - you really can smell it all over town) to attend services at the Center for Spiritual Living in San Jose. What a wonderful experience... it started with lively music and a skit with spiritual lessons. The skit was based on the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder. (It was one of Suzanne’s favorite movies as a kid; Ty was at sea, and didn’t see it).

Reverend David Bruner, the minister at CSLSJ, was an engaging, eloquent speaker, and had much to say about the recent tragic events in Aurora, Colorado. Suzanne and I were introduced and welcomed, and the Messages of Hope documentary showing on Thursday evening and S.O.A.R! Workshop on Saturday were announced. We look forward to meeting more of the CSLSJ community later this week at these events.

We then drove north to our next campground. But on the way, a couple of sights of interest caught my attention. Just north of San Jose is the now-closed Solyndra solar panel plant; Solyndra, controlled in large part by a major Obama fundraiser, was the first company approved for a loan under the Obama administration in 2009, even after an Energy Department panel recommended unanimously that the loan not be approved because of high risk. It is unlikely that the $527 million dollar loan funded by taxpayers will ever be seen again. It was a depressing sight.

The more positive encounter was passing the Rosie the Riveter Memorial in Richmond, CA, at a former WWII shipyard. This poster made everyone aware of women’s contributions to the war effort. The memorial sculpture, made of stainless steel, evokes a ship’s hull being built, and honors the estimated 18 million women who worked in US defense and support industries between 1941 and 1945. For more information about the memorial and women’s efforts in WWII, see http://www.rosietheriveter.org


Driving around San Francisco Bay, we saw the Golden Gate Bridge looming out of the fog. Suzanne’s step-grandfather worked as an engineer designing the bridge in the 1920’s/30’s. We hope to make a visit to Golden Gate Park later this trip.



We arrived at our new campground this afternoon. It consists of only six sites, the smallest RV campground we have ever seen. It is located on a small lake at the US Coast Guard Training Center in Petaluma, in the middle of a ranching and farming area. You can’t see the Pacific Ocean from here, but I guess it’s a good place to learn (the Coast Guard has EMT, medical, culinary, operations specialist and electronics training here). We have seen more deer here in two hours than anywhere else on our trip. Here are views from The Bus and on the lake shore. 


“Cougar?”  Even though we don’t watch TV, we have heard the term “cougar” in the pop culture vernacular. No, Suzanne has not told me that she’s replacing me with a young Chippendale guy. This warning sign in the campground gave me pause to reflect. Guess I’ll be carrying my knife when I walk Rudy and Gretchen. 

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