After a long work-imposed exile from his brilliant photography, our friend and advisor Jason Weisberger has picked up the camera and gotten back to it.  He clearly hasn’t lost his touch.  You can see some of his other work here.  Good to have you back, man.

Muir Beach by Jason Weisberger

Like this?  Then you might also like our Highway 1 road trip from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border.

– Carl Bidleman

Here’s a shot of a place I never knew existed until I stumbled upon it by accident back in 1989.  I was traveling from Detroit via Las Vegas to film a television special along the the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I had never heard of Zion.  My photographer and I stopped every 300 yards to take stills of a landscape that continually surprised and delighted.  Here’s the visual evidence.  Thanks to Rene Schwietzke at Flickr.

Photo by Rene Schwietzke

Browse all of our stries on this interactive map.

– Doug McConnell

At the very turn of the last century, in 1900, my mother’s father, then 17, found himself in the little port town of Santa Monica in southern California. It was reasonably quiet with many long and largely empty beaches.  Ray Gregory wisely decided to stick around, and so that’s where my mom grew up, where she met my dad (who had been raised on a homestead near Flathead Lake in Montana) and where my two older brothers and I were born.

Avalon Harbor photo by The Ritters

As a little kid, I loved getting down to the beach and could often see some islands floating on the waves out to the southwest.  But I never got to Catalina until I was in my early 20s. I spent a few months in late 1968 and early ‘69 visiting high schools on behalf of my alma mater, Pomona College, located east of Los Angeles about 30 miles in the village of Claremont. In those days, there was a boarding school between Avalon and Two Harbors, and I flew out there in a seaplane to meet the students.   I’ll never forget that short flight. I boarded the plane in Long Beach.  The pilot was straight from central casting.  Deep tan. Aviator shades.  A fine head of dark hair swept back by ocean breezes or some powerful jell.  He was draped in a dashing purple scarf flung recklessly over his shoulder.   As the small seaplane lifted off and banked over the Pacific, I suspect he imagined himself to be a Pan American Clipper pilot, navigating by the sun and the stars and heading west with the night towards the Orient.  Suddenly it was the 1930s, and very romantic.   A little like Avalon on quiet days.  When we touched the water and taxied to a stop (he was a good pilot it turned out in addition to being a believable actor,) I half expected to see Amelia Earhart waiting for me on the beach….rescued at last from her ditching at sea.  All these years later I have no idea where that pilot and his plane have gone, and Amelia’s fate remains a mystery, but Catalina lingers in its own time zone anchored off the busy 21st century coast of the Southland.  That’s comforting to know.

CLICK HERE to see Catalina and Forestiere Gardens in Episode 5 of OpenRoad with Doug McConnell

I lived in southern California until I was 8, and then we moved to Fresno and for a time lived about a mile from the Forestiere Underground Gardens.  Back in those days, the Forestiere family had no control of the place and it was marketed by others as a cheesy roadside attraction…come see the work of the “Human Mole.”   It was even featured on a national TV show in the 50s as a strange roadside oddity.   And so we never visited it.   It wasn’t until decades later when I learned that the  family had taken control to honor the work of their uncle that I decided to  go.  And I was just blown away by the beauty and ingenuity of the Gardens….and by the amount of work it took to carve a castle by hand from the rock hard soil near Fresno. It was an amazing achievement.  You’ll especially appreciate its value on summer days when temperatures soar well above 100 degrees fahrenheit.  Step down into the natural cool grasp of the earth….and you’ll experience air conditioning that leaves no carbon footprint.

I hope you send us some ideas about your favorite “roadside attractions” and romantic getaways.   The world…and of course the West…are full of them…and we’d love to hear your stories.

–  Carl Bidleman

Loyd Schutte, friend of OpenRoad.TV and editor of Yosemite Blog,  recently posted this great photo of California poppies growing in the Merced River canyon along Highway 140, my favorite route into Yosemite.  The urge to play hookey on a Monday is getting very strong…

Our thanks to the hundreds of folks who stopped by this past weekend to meet Doug at the Bay Area Travel Fair in Santa Clara.  Have a look at the drawing that took place on January 28, 2009 at OpenRoad.TV World Headquarters.

Barack Obama today introduced Leon Panetta as the new head of the C.I.A. We’re pretty sure he’s a good choice to become America’s top spy since we happen to know first-hand that Mr. Panetta has a long history of keeping secrects and evading the truth. And we’ve got the video to prove it. Back in the spring of 2000, this former congressman and White House Chief of Staff toured us around the place he has always called home, Carmel Valley. We shared a few laughs and Leon, uncharateristically, shared a closely held secret from his childhood. See for yourself Watch now.