Sunday, December 21
390 miles
Novato to Lone Pine (Hwy 37 to 80E to 16 to 49 to 88 to 395)
We drove out of the driveway at 7:42a. I had coffee and yesterday’s WSJ, Bob had on ESPN, lovely sunrise over the Bay as we were going over the Petaluma River Bridge and zero traffic!
We made excellent time — an hour and 10 minutes to Sacramento and 3-1/2 hours to Caples Lake — which is only partially frozen over.
It was pretty warm most of the way– mid-50s — and overcast/ foggy — especially through Sacramento. We stopped in Volcano so Bob could get a donut at 4 Star Donuts. It smelled really good in there! The handwritten sign on the door said: Open Christmas Day! Lights on at 4:30am! We were fifth in line and the other four people all got a dozen. Bob got a chocolate covered twist for $1. Next stop was outside of Pioneer at a funny cafe slash antique shop — or shoppe — that had ‘espresso’ on their highway sign. The proprietors were an odd mother and son (I hope…?) and the son (“our barrista!” said ‘Mom’ proudly who was drinking out of a very large — grande? super grande? — Starbucks cup with a majenta lipstick smear on the lid…. ) made us two tasty Americanos for $4 and they had a clean bathroom — with the added bonus of a display of cut glass items for sale.
There was snow at about 7000 feet and it became very misty/foggy but the temperature only got down to 41*. Several cars with skis on top were going in the opposite direction so it must have been pretty sloshy. We made really great time and crossed the Nevada state line on 88 at exactly 11:42; four hours after we left the house. That side of Carson Pass, after Hope Valley, is still very dry.
Here is Bob’s sign at mile 89 on 395, just past the Sonora Pass cutoff.
We never had breakfast (Bob didn’t even eat the donut right away) because we were both full from the delicous dinner at our wonderful neighbors so we stopped in Bridgeport for a bite. We wanted to go to The Barn, good burgers and Mexican street cart food, but it was closed and Hayes Street Grill, an excellent breakfast and lunch place, was closed… so we ended up at the Rhino which would always be our third or last choice turns out to be the only restaurant open for the winter. Bob had grilled ham and cheese and fries and I had a cup of (good!) chili and part of a Pale Ale. It hit the spot. So sad though how the town just closes up in winter. We were the only people there until another couple came in just as we were leaving.
I drove the rest of the way to Lone Pine. We were sad to see that Rossi’s Restaurant in Big Pine is for sale and looked like it is closed. We used to stay in a dump (D U M P!) of a motel across the street just to go there for dinner. It was very old school with very good, not ‘gourmet’ food that was very reasonably priced — salads made tableside, good steaks, baked potatoes, Italian specialities, everything arrived on a cart served either by the main waitress or her daughter. There was a full bar attached and all the regulars brought in Fritos or little bites and shared with whomever, even strangers. But the real draw was the piano player who was a relative of the owners, a troubled maybe disabled young man who was desperately shy if you tried to engage him but could play anything! From Disney musicals to Sinatra to opera. He had stacks and stacks of sheet music so when someone made a request, he would dig through his stacks and play whatever. There was a terrible fire in Big Pine in early spring of 2011 and many of the houses were wiped out. We made a point of staying there that summer just to be supportive. The bartender was one of the people who lost his house and told us he, as well as most of the others, had no insurance. He had had an extensive collection of ancient handmade Indian baskets that was destroyed. It was heartbreaking. We guess the town never has recovered.
In Lone Pine we checked into the Best Western Frontier Motel. It is a ’50s? ’60s? style motor inn with large-ish updated rooms (good linen, no gross bedspreads, sanitized everything). This area was where most of the early Westerns were filmed in the Alabama Hills which when you drive through the same hills today, look just like those movies. There is a film history museum that is a MUST SEE if you have ever enjoyed or even seen a John Wayne/ Gene Autry/ name anyone movie. The first time we stayed here was in 2002 and Sierra was 5 months old. We had made last minute reservations and got the John Wayne Suite which meant photos of him were everywhere. It was pretty cool. It was one of the largest hotel rooms we’ve ever had in terms of square footage; two king beds and tons of empty floor space. Sierra learned to jump from bed to bed and we cried with laughter watching her; the more we laughed, the more she did it.
We unloaded what we needed from the car (Christmas cards to send!!!), watched the highlights of the football games and decided to venture out to the town’s only bar, the Double L, to see the start of the Arizona-Seattle game before dinner. It was closed. We crossed the street to another bar and were told by the rather surly bartender that they only had wine and beer. It seems the owner of the LL had sold his license (to a guy in Bishop) and retired. So the only full bar in a town of 2000 people is at Season’s Restaurant, which is closed til Dec 26 (more on this later). We asked what wine he served: Woodbridge White, Merlot and White Zin. We asked what beer he had: Coors, Bud Light. We looked at each other. We said ‘Thank you, sir’ and left. BECAUSE.: not only do we have a case of wine with us and a bottle of sparkling — because you never know. But I brought little bottles of Chivas and Absolut Vodka that my brother Dennis had given us as stocking stuffers at last year’s very bittersweet Christmas. We went across the street to the Bi-Rite to buy a little jar of olives and toothpicks. We went back to our room, got ice from the machine, made our drinks in plastic cups and watched football until dinner. Cheers!!
After dinner Bob said “How are you going to write about this??? It’s a whole damn entry by itself.” So here goes. When we planned this trip, one of the reasons we wanted to stay in Lone Pine was so we could go to Season’s for dinner. It is an excellent restaurant even compared to Marin or SF but exceptional for Lone Pine. When I called to make reservations, we were distressed to learn they are closed from today until Dec 26th. When I was searching ‘restaurants Lone Pine’ I discovered that Season’s is only #3 as rated in Trip Advisor. Merry-Go-Round is #2. What the what??? We had been to Merry-Go-Round on our first visit, 2002. It is indeed round. And small, maybe six booths around the edge and more tables in the middle to seat a dozen people in various configurations. The first time, there was a model train going around the edge of the ceiling and while the ‘American’ food of steaks, baked potatoes, trout, etc was quite good, the ambience/decor was a bit of a turn-off. The owners at that time were an ancient couple who had been dancers in Hollywood and part of the movie extras when Lone Pine was a movie town and they decided to retire here. The restaurant was as much a hobby as their model train. Bob ate there in 2009 when he was on his way to meet me in Las Vegas for the United Football League Championship Game at Thanksgiving. He ate there because…. Season’s was closed. Enjoyed his steak but …. So this time we made reservations sort of knowing what we were in for. I carried a good bottle of zin in my bag. Turns out the new owners, also a husband and wife, have the two original Mexican cooks from the old owners as well as a woman chef from Taiwan. All three have taught each other their specialties so everyone can cook everything. The owner was very proud and cute telling us all this. So there is the “American” menu and the completely separate “Chinese” menu (both labeled as such). Of course, I was intriqued…. and ordered a small hot and sour soup and the teriyaki rice bowl. Bob ordered the ribeye, baked potato and green salad. We ordered a glass of chardonnay each to be polite before we opened the Old Vin Zin from Lodi. The chardonnay wasn’t terrible (La Playa??) but not good. The soup, on the other hand, was fan-f’ing-tastic. Seriously. I swear they used beef bones for the broth it was so richly dark but maybe it was just a bunch of soy sauce? It wasn’t salty thought and had a good amount of ginger and chilis. It was also huge. At least a quart arrived at the table. Bob’s green salad was full of cucumbers, mushrooms, decent tomatoes, some grated parmesan and garbanzo beans. His ribeye was also huge and correctly medium rare. Besides the potato it was served with perfectly al dente green beans, broccoli and zucchini — sounds weird but it worked. My teriyaki bowl. As I expected/ feared, the teriyaki was overwhelming but it was only on the chicken which was just sitting on top so I scraped all of it off and was left with a bowl of rice and TONS of excellent snap peas, broccoli, zucchini, onions, fennel, and cabbage. Those cooks know how to cook some veg! I added a bunch of the homemade chili paste (HOT!!!), dabbed into the teriyaki and was in heaven. Bob agreed it was a good bowl. I just wish I could have taken the leftovers because there were a ton. We each had a glass of the zin — smokey and full — and corked it up to take back to the room. Weird but great dinner!! Atmosphere is still a bit funny/oftputting but there were at least a half dozen people coming in for take-out chinese while we were there so clearly they figured out a good sustainable business, in a town that is on the down slope not the up. And they are pretty charming people.
Bob played soduko and watched Prometheus while I typed and had a glass of zin. It was a very good day.
Bob and Sharon's Travel Diary 