Peak Experience Six

In my previous P.E. post I was getting some satisfaction in an attractive antique shop.

The intelligent, soft-spoken lady with large brown eyes and full wavy hair quickly found the correct website for California Hot Springs. There she got a phone number for the Springs and dialed it on her gem-like cell phone. She talked, then I talked and she took notes, then she talked again.

We found that the closest city to the Hot Springs was Porterville a useful piece of information!

Porteville is a fair drive from Coarse Gold and it had taken me most of a day to get that in mind. I remembered that the spa had been far from most other facilities and that was confirmed. My helper suggested that I reserve a room and I declined. My helper got the number of a possible room source near the mineral spa, dialed it, and passed me the phone. I talked with a ill older woman who said that she was waiting for a call from her doctor. I didn't take the hint and chatted on. I found out that she wasn't accustomed to illness and just begun to feel serious symptoms that very day. She said that they were closed and that even the people who ran the restaurant were leaving for a couple of days out of town. She said that it was the first place on the right after leaving the spa and that if nothing else she would have a key left at the door of number eight upstairs. I t had begun to seem like a reservation!

At the Antique shop I was told to hit the road and that they had been waiting to eat. I'm sure I thanked them. I headed south and managed to get lost several times. If you make the trip I suggest that you take 99.

I arrive in Porterville I the late afternoon supposing that everyone would know were the Hot Springs are. They didn't. One kind store manager called his boss and home and had me ask him. The 'boss' gave me clear and accurate directions and suggested that I not call him at home at dinner time.

Following the directions of the man whose dinner I had interrupted for some distance south without entering the hills, I began to wonder if I had gone wrong. I pulled off at the last house in view and found a man about my age in the back yard with his great grandson and a number of animals. He told me to stay on the road and I would find it difficult to get lost.

The sun went down.