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.

Peak Experience Post Five

In the last Peak Experience Post I had stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. I was told that California Hot Springs was straight up the vary road I was on. I was told to stop at the Community of Coarse Gold. Now coarse gold is good news. Every placer miner finds coarse gold a pleasure. He might want nuggets as big as quail eggs and he knows that 'fines' hide in heavy black sands. He also knows that coarse gold pays for beans and may even pay-off the mortgage.

I headed for Coarse Gold. I was hungry when I arrived and ordered a carne asada meal. Such a whole meal could be produced without being pulled apart to accommodate my dietary restrictions. The meal was a peak experience. It was the simplest of Mexican meals: beans, rice, vegetables, and beef. It was well prepared. The corn tortillas did not come up to quite the standard of the rest of the meal, but they were good enough to ask for a second helping.

Before I ate, while I ate, and after I ate I spoke with many about California Hot Springs. We spoke of many ways to get into hot water, especial of those close to where we ate and of some all time favorites. No one knew of the California Hot Springs.

After eating I ask at a couple of more establishments on my side of the road and then crossed over to the other side. I the near distance an antique store took my eye. I entered that attractive shop and saw that it wasn't all glass and china and that there was no dust. There were also three or four well-dressed mature ladies.

The youngest of them offered to use their computer to help me find my hot water goal.