Today and yesterday, my adventurous summer outings saw six very brave humans having extreme escapades that could easily have ended in their deaths, more thrilling and wild than most people ever dare.
I called 911 on one of them. You will have to view the photos and figure out who was the one I called the cops on. But all of these were wild and crazy folks
First up, the flying couples. Brutus and Caesar, and I parked at the south end of the trestle bridge and met two gals and a dude surfer. We were chatting, mostly about the adorable puppy Caesar when this flying contraption came down Glass Beach Drive, it came close to us, before turning back and disappearing somewhere into the Skunk Train property area. Its called a Powered Parachute, a newer kind of ultralight that has landing and takeoff gear, not Fred Flinstone foot powered like para gliders, which generally are launched off cliffs.
I advised the youths that Virgin Creek and Westport north were supposed to be better surfing areas. They nodded politely, like, why is old guy Sasquatch and his pack of too friendly German shepherds giving US surfer dudes advice on surfing?
More humiliating, the three of us went out on the trestle and I realized how wrong I was. While Pudding Creek Beach usually has waves resembling Lake Michigan, today it was closer to Mavericks. And there were already surfers in the water having a blast with the big waves, especially for July 15. Ok, not Mavericks material but way better than a usual great day at this G-rated beach.
There was one guy, way, way out there. Further than I have ever seen in this spot. Was this the guy I called 9-11 for?? Would he survive? He was so far out I couldn’t even photograph him from the trestle, so I headed across and out to the headlands. He was 100 yards out, then 150, then 200. I went to the furthest part of the headlands and tried to get photos of him, while the dogs pulled my arm out of the socket with enthusiasm for the adventure.
Then, they really went crazy. The big flying machine came back, sputtering and whumping like it was powered by a trolling motor with a ceiling fan attached.
What are these machines? Are they legal? Was it time to call 911 yet?
The one flew right over us and the dogs were fascinated. I had tied them together to try to take photos. Does this qualify as dogs on the leash? The photo shows a man with a dog on the leash? Isn’t that both Speciesism and Sexism?
Just as I was focusing in, I heard Caesar yelping. They had both been running about to look at the aircraft and got tangled up in the leashes. Brutus had sat down to try to end the panic by the puppy. I unwrapped them and missed most of the pictures. It’s all fun and games until someone gets tangled up in the leash.
I met a tourist who asked me if it was legal to catch and eat purple urchin we were looking at in the biggest tidepool on the Coast there, which is elevated too. I told him I had tried every way possible to eat purple urchin and it seems the only way is to grow up in Japan. They are Yucky!
Then a second flying machine came into the picture. Two couples, it appeared, but who knows?
Anybody have more info?
The other crazy guy I saw happened yesterday. A guy pushing two shopping carts down the road just north of the Pacific Star Winery. Had driven north to see progress at the emergency construction site. Check this story out if you haven’t already!
Tribes get Blues Beach BUT can Hwy 1 be fixed
The truck was in my lane, the rig heading into traffic at nearly sunset. A construction crew rig had pulled up next to grocery cart guy and was offering him and the grocery carts a ride to safety. The grocery cart guy was refusing any help. I turned around in the Bruehel Point parking lot and went back down just as the truck driver had abandoned his attempt to assist and had driven on.
The construction truck guy had lectured the grocery cart guy about how unsafe pushing two grocery carts down a road that would allow drivers to reach speeds of about 70 mph pretty quickly.
The grocery cart guy was in a pull-off, now on the West side of the road. I told him he was going to kill himself and maybe somebody else doing that and offered to help, although I figured if he had refused the big pickup guy he didn’t want a ride in grandma’s Honda.
He said he was fine. FINE! Then I told the grocery cart guy the sunset made his behavior much more dangerous and if he continued endangering traffic at dusk, I would call the cops. He didn’t respond to this and then, well I called 911.
CHP responded they would end somebody out. I figured he’d get off the road after I said that. He told me he had come all the way from Washington like that. WTF?
So you guessed it!
Myself, the surfers and the folks in the flying machines were each varying degrees of the “idle rich” by hard world standards and the adventurers could have each caused big trouble if they crashed the flying machines or rescue workers had to save the surfers from the ocean waves, but hey you can’t push tandem shopping carts down the highway in traffic at sunset dude!
Days worthy of remembering. Returning home to watch a Fort Bragg City Council meeting that lasted almost 5 full hours. That dreadful experience ALMOST negated the fun of the day. Im still mulling over my story and LInda and I are off to the Ukiah for fun at the bone doctor tomorrow!
