Road Trip 6: Modesto and Mariposa
TOUCH DOWN MODESTO: HOME OF THE NUTS.
So, it’s another road trip to the Central Valley in the middle of summer.
They swore to me last year this wouldn’t happen again and yet, here we are.
(Note to self: maybe I shouldn’t drink that last Diet Coke in the office frig. It apparently belonged to someone of great power.)
Quickly, we share a package of Claritin to head off the headaches before we touch down.
Poor Heather. She already has a nasty cold. We keep our fingers crossed that the air conditioning in the RV doesn’t let us down and this trip doesn’t do her in.
Modesto is another one of those California towns that really began its growth after the gold rush.
The sign that welcomed everyone to town, with its ‘Water, Wealth, Contentment, Health,’ was added in 1912.
We’re hoping, for the sake of the crew, that all are still possible.
And, it’s also the home of the Modesto Nuts…the AAA team of the Denver Rockies. We were hoping to catch a game but Autumn, fearing it was bat night, thought we might all use one on her for scheduling a Central Valley shoot during the current wave of heat and wildfires.
Our main reason for being in Modesto is a lead story on the town’s most dubious honor: The car theft capital of the nation.
It seems hard to believe but, per capita, Modesto has more cars stolen every day than any other city in the U.S.: one every 75 minutes!
And it’s not just a Modesto problem. Up and down Highway 99, from Stockton, to Visalia, car thieves are hitting fast and leaving residents furious.
Our San Francisco based correspondent, Craig Miller, came up here to look into why.
It turns out it’s a ‘need for speed.’ Not racing, but methamphetamine.
Craig also produced and wrote the piece and it’s really well done.
The cost of a stolen car may be high, but the hidden camera video he used of the thieves as they were stealing …
Priceless!
Also while we’re here, we’ll shoot an intro into a pair of pieces being produced and reported by the graduate students of the Annenberg School of Journalism at USC.
They’ll take a look at two communities in Southern California that have two very distinct reactions to the problem of illegal immigration.
To service that end, our first location is a strawberry field outside of town.
Ryan joins us again from San Francisco, and, of course there’s Heather and Autumn. I don’t leave the county without them.
But, Bill Sheehy and Joe are still shooting a series job that conflicted with our dates and can’t be with us this trip.
We can’t be mad. Bill’s daughter got into NYU for the fall. You can imagine how he’s keeping his schedule booked to head off the nightmares about that out-of-state tuition.
But we’re still in able hands with our newest “newbies.”
You might not know photographer Sam Sewell or sound man Bill Bass by name yet…
But if you’ve ever watched NBC Nightly News, Dateline, the Today Show or Good Morning America, you know their excellent work.
And, since they agreed to go where our itinerary is taking us this trip, you also know they’re brave men indeed.
After wrapping at the farm stand, we do what we always do when folks are nice enough to let us borrow they’re backdrop and try to buy as much as the RV frig will hold to say ‘thanks.’
The peaches, blackberries and nectarines were amazing but the real catch was inside a few little Ball jars. Homemade jams to die for. I bought four.
As we get into the RV, we’re thinking that this isn’t so bad.
It’s only 95 degrees so far and we’ve made a great find for tomorrow’s toast.
But, as we’re putting the jars in the frig we see the darker side.
The blackberry jam has escaped from the jar.
I look like I’ve been shot.
Autumn calls Randa, our head of research, back at the office.
‘Google it!’ She yells.
Within seconds someone in the office puts the search engine to shame… saying the cure for dark berry stains is a mixture of vinegar and cold water that you let sit for 10 minutes before rubbing with a stain stick.
I was about to be amazed by their encyclopedic knowledge and then heard the real reason for the ‘Beat the Clock’ answer:
It had been on the ‘Today’ show that morning.
We’ve got nothing, but everything to lose.
We’ve already done a half-day of shooting and have no extra wardrobe.
So we find a Rite-aid, buy vinegar and pray.
As we always seem to do in stressful situations, we have lunch.
This is actually the second visit to the Harvest Moon Cafe for a couple of us. We were here with Bill and Joe and the gang last year (again in the summer!) and still talk about the jambalaya.
Sam and Bill were doubtful at first….
But the empty plate says it all.
Lunch done, we headed back to the big blue blob we left on the big blue bus.
It’s gone.
Not the RV, though given the hot wiring skill in this hot valley town it did cross our minds, the stain. It was gone.
I can’t wait to write to ‘Heloise’ with proof of her ‘hint.’
The only problem now is that we have to keep working and our next location is the side of the freeway in 100-degree heat.
There’s not much more to say about this day except that we’ve proven how enticing it must be for motorists getting on or off the 99 to honk and yell when they see a camera.
After 12 takes of a script that should have taken 2, we’re done, in more ways than one.
I’ve nothing to add about hotels because, well, if you can’t say something nice…
WEDNESDAY MORNING.
We have just a couple of things to do here before we head for the hills.
(Literally. Our afternoon location is Mariposa, outside of Yosemite.)
So we charge out earlier than usual so we can hit the road before the heat smacks us down.
We’ve been asked to do a favor for another producer that shows the growth in the area and pull up to a new housing development to shoot the shingles as they’re going on the new homes.
While Sam and Bill grab some shots, we wait.
And, not for any particular reason except, well, he’s Jeff…
Jeff drops to the curb and gives us 20.
Autumn, not to be out done, gives it her best to prove she’s boss.
But, after 2 and a half instead of 20…
She thinks better of it.
And decides to sculpt those upper arms, instead.
Thrilled that she’s gotten in a workout and thrilled Sam and Bill finished the shots, she was overcome and had to do a cartwheel.
Jeff, well, because he’s Jeff, did one, too.
I watch Bill and Sam for they’re reactions.
I’m guessing Brokaw and Shriver may have better form.
11:00 AM
When was the last time you had a real root-beer float?
Well, we can tell you, it’s been too long.
The A&W drive-in in Modesto is a little slice of heaven.
The owner, Johnny Matthews, really went out of his way to rally some of the regulars who pull up every Friday night to celebrate hot rods, corn dogs, cheese fries, burgers and floats to join us for a ‘Greetings from CC’ video postcard.
There is real history in this little gathering of hot rods.
I’m guessing a little history with the Elvis’s, too, but more recent.
Apparently, when George Lucas was growing up in Modesto, he was part of that hot rod cruising culture that is still alive and well here today.
Though most of the street scenes were filmed in Petaluma, his memories of growing up here in Modesto were the basis of ‘American Graffiti.’
(Quick note: he’s not the only famous star born in Modesto. The Olympian Mark Spitz grew up here. And, if you’re too young for that, the actor who played ‘Spike’ on ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ is from here, too.)
The A&W has been here since the beginning. And, still today, on Friday nights, this lot is packed with families and proud car owners, musicians and, of course, the flying Elvis’s. I’m guessing all should get a cholesterol check.
As we shot a quick ‘Greetings’ segment, our incredibly skilled car-hop, Katrina Crisel, did her part to help us out.
And our reward after an hour or two of shooting was the best lunch you could shake a heart surgeon at….
The only dilemma?
Which one is one the South Beach Diet again?
The fries or the rings????
Again, I look over to newbies Sam and Bill and wonder what they’re thinking.
It can only be: Brokaw’s Elvis jumpsuit isn’t as nice as his!
1:00 PM
On the road again.
Heading toward Yosemite, surveying the ranches, the fields, and the cows, there’s only one thing that comes to mind.
The Ponderosa.
Heather and I both kick ourselves that we didn’t download the ‘Dum, de-di-dum, di-di-dum, dum’ onto our iPods before we left.
Mariposa, Mariposa. A name so nice you have to say it twice.
Our executive producer, Bret, kept chanting that with a grin as we left for the trip.
New Yorkers. You’d think a group who routinely says Sagaponick, Montauk, and Teeterboro with a straight face would think harder before teasing another state about its names.
Mariposa actually means ‘butterfly’ in Spanish.
But it’s real reason for being is the gold rush.
In the center of town the 5 stamp gold press still stands. It has nothing to do with the postal service.
The stamps are the giant cylinders that freed the gold from the hunks of quartz pulled from the mountains.
Most of the gold was found in quartz because, during the molten stage of the mountain’sbirth, gold and quartz had a similar melting temperature and tended to become entwined.
A chat with the locals proved the old prospecting spirit, and the old prospectors’ beards, are still alive and well.
As for Mariposa itself….
Only a mile and a half long, the town still has a good stretch of original old buildings and sidewalks.
And if that doesn’t make you feel like you’ve found a portal to the 1880’s, maybe this will convince you you’ve found one to the 1980’s.
More on Randy’s later.
First, there are 3 sets of intros and tags we need to shoot before we earned our supper.
The first is for a piece done by John Ridley on the search for darkness, which is now a vanishing resource because of light pollution all the way from Vegas.
The next 2 are both Judy Muller pieces.
One is a fairly straightforward piece on the battle between environmentalists and the Parks Department on whether Yosemite should have fewer or more campsites and tourist services. An old friend, Rick Wilkinson, who’s a long time star at ‘Nightline,’ produced that piece and did, as usual, a masterful job.
The other, which I happen to love, is just a little journal style thought piece by Judy about her favorite hobby.
The piece is called ‘Zen and the Art of Fly Fishing’.
Just a little more history here about Judy…
When I was a young reporter at ABC news, Judy, who was something of a hero to me, (not just because she was so nice, but she was so good,) told me, as we were battling the 1992 floods in Illinois, why she was really anxious to end her month long tour of duty on that story.
It wasn’t only because there was a shortage of decent food or potable water.
Or even because she had run out of clothes the first week…she solved that by hitting the local Gap and Banana Republic and cleaning them out of size 6’s.
It was because it forced her to cancel a long awaited fly-fishing trip.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Judy, you’ll know her, via her big love for the sport, after you see this piece. It’s lovely.
We found a great overlook area to do our business.
But the mother in me made me yell at Ryan to get off the roof.
Coming back down from the hills and back into town, we had one more quick stop to the local farmer’s market to get people’s thoughts on a piece Autumn wrote about the massive landslide, the Ferguson Slide, that’s cut this town, its workers and its tourists, off from the easiest access to the park.
After that, we took an hour to check in and get settled in our hotel before cleaning up for dinner.
While some of us unloaded equipment or checked our e-mails, Jeff, because he’s our Jeff, needed a dip to wash off his mountain road rage.
Okay, he’s from Ohio, it’s not rage as much as sunflower seed shells (he particularly likes the Bar-B-Q flavor) he needed to get off of him.
Jeff hadn’t actually brought a pair of trunks…
You can thank Ryan for his stunning attire.
DINNER
If in Mariposa, Mariposa, and hungry for a nice dinner, we found a terrific restaurant in the center of town called Savoury’s.
It is not only walking distance from all the inns, it has a good menu, good food, and is not expensive given the quality of the dishes. There’s a charming indoor dining room and an equally charming back patio.
After a good meal, there was nothing else that made sense than for Jeff to strike a pose….
….or, two …
… before making a 20 foot walk across the street to Randy’s.
The state smoking ordinances passed to save the health of bartenders and waitresses who worked in smoky saloons doesn’t count here.
Randy found a loophole, being the sole owner and sole employee.
And, if you’re not a smoker who dreams of the old days, or a closet shuffleboard fiend who can’t find a decent table in your neck of the woods, there’s yet another reason to come to Randy’s: THE WILDLIFE!
If you don’t have the luck to site a deer in Yosemite, or the money to do the San Diego Wild Animal Park, maybe this is just the ticket?
At one time, there must have been a busy taxidermist in this little town, but what they really need now, is just a ‘Swiffer.’
But, back to the wildlife…
I had to put this picture of the little instigator in because she looks so pretty.
And because it will make her crazy that I write about it.
THE NEXT MORNING:
For Jeff, nothing says ‘Hello, world,’ like a big plate of waffles with a cup and half of syrup.
For us carb-controlled gals….
The Pony Espresso.
And, there, Autumn found her perfect mountain hair.
After that, it was off to find our handlers who were taking us where no one is allowed to go.
Apparently, of the 2 agencies we had to clear to get to the location, one on site hadn’t been informed. It was an hour wait, and much chin scratching, while they sorted it out.
When we finally got there, it was worth it.
At the end of the day, there was nothing more to say than ‘Thank You!’
We would have never been so able to shoot what we needed without the cooperation of Yosemite Park Ranger Adrienne Freeman, Leslie VanMeter with the Forest Service, and Robert Boswell with CalTrans.
One last stop I want to tell you about as we headed out of town.
The River Rock Cafe and Inn is a charming place.
The boys loved the sandwiches…
And I had the best cookie I’ve ever had: chocolate chip, but with pistachios and chunks of candied ginger. I can’t wait to try it at home!
While the crew was loading up and gassing up…
I made one more stop at ‘Odelia’s’ for a big bag of antique linens. Of all the places we peeked into, if in Mariposa, go there….
So that’s pretty much it for this trip. It was a long drive back to the Modesto airport…
Luckily, Autumn bought a helmet for fifty cents that gave us a million dollars worth of pleasure.
Until next time, safe travels.
Lisa