Places – Page 38 – GEORGE ROTHERT

You Can’t Make Up This Stuff

“Kentucky Coal Mining Museum converts to solar power”

“It is a little ironic,” said Communications Director Brandon Robinson, “But you know, coal and solar and all the different energy sources work hand-in-hand. And, of course, coal is still king around here.”

The Latest Tourist Destination

You may recall Salinas as the place where Bobby McGee slipped away. It’s also John Steinbeck’s hometown. Salinas was so proud if its native son that they burned his masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath on Main Street. Citizens felt insulted by the roguish characters inhabiting his novels Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men. Many of the picaresque adventures Steinbeck depicted took place in California’s Salinas Valley and Monterey Peninsula.

Over the years, stubborn Steinbeck fans have made pilgrimages to the California coast south of San Francisco to take in the settings and get a feel for the moods of Steinbeck’s novels. As the fortunes of the city of Salinas waned, and commerce moved away from the downtown core, the city leaders struggled with how to revive the local economy. The shiny new National Steinbeck Center opened in 1998 at 1 Main Street. The multi-media museum includes among its features “Rocinante,” the GMC pickup and camper namesake of Don Quixote’s horse that was Steinbeck’s traveling home as he toured the U.S. for Travels with Charley, his attempt to illuminate the soul of America. The facility’s archives contain original manuscripts of the author’s work, correspondence and video interviews.

The Center, and its annual Steinbeck Festival (May 5-7 this year) brings tens of thousands of visitors to the otherwise drab farming town. Restaurants and other tourist-oriented business on and around Main Street are thriving. Travel writers are spreading the word about Salinas as a vacation destination.

The National Steinbeck Center on its own is worth the trip. Only a short distance away is the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You will need more than one day to experience both.

Culinary note: If you like donuts, real donuts, not the fancy four-dollar “gourmet” kind, or the hipster Voo-Doo experience, go to Red’s Donuts in downtown Monterey. You will be satisfied.

Volunteer Fire Departments

A few decades ago, I served as a volunteer fireman. I proudly displayed the “Cannon Beach Fire Department” frame around my car’s license plate. We met at the station on Tuesday evenings for training, followed by beer.

For some of us, training sometimes included practice maneuvering the fire truck in reverse back inside the station. One of the volunteers, whose day job was driving a log truck, did it with his eyes closed, (Not literally.) We were paid $2.00 per meeting and $2.00 per fire call; even way back then not enough to compromise our volunteer status.

Once, I volunteered to assist EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) training by being a literal pincushion, for their practicing giving injections and taking blood samples. A major perquisite was the annual American Legion crab feed. Members of the volunteer department ate – and drank – for free.

Not all volunteer fire departments are thriving. In Sonoma County, where I spent the past twenty-plus years before moving back north, eleven volunteer departments are struggling with budgets and lack of volunteers and political bickering. A year ago the county had fourteen volunteer contingents. Response times have increased in rural area. Departments who viewed each other as competitors are now consolidating or putting up a united front for funding and administrative services.

Sonoma County is a microcosm of national trends. An aging population combined with those in the workforce commuting to urban areas and able to respond to emergencies in their rural communities only at night or on weekends.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

This week our President hosted Xi Jinping, President of China and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. What better place to have high-level discussions between world leaders than at an ostentatious, soon-to-be-underwater, private club in Palm Beach Florida that boasts our President’s brand? And where, allegedly, no visitor logs are kept.

Cost estimates of the President’s almost weekly stays at Mar-a-Lago are north of $3 million per visit. The New York Times has put together a handy chart showing how many days since inauguration the President has spent at Trump-branded properties and what he purportedly did there. We taxpayers are paying the Trump organization for lodging, meals, et cetera for these trips.