Today's goal was to drive to San Diego in time to make our evening reservation at the Santa Fe RV Park about two hundred miles away. We had only two other goals in mind and that was to fill the petrol tank and to drop off three sacks of California-oriented books at the library in my hometown of Altadena, California.
The old Altadena Public Library on north Lake Avenue (photo left) was just about my favorite place on earth back when I was too young to drive. Mom would tell me she was headed down Lake Avenue to the old "Market Basket" store, and if I wanted to come along she'd drop me at the library, and I could shop for books while she was shopping for groceries.
My main areas of interest back in those elementary school days was history in all its forms. I loved reading about Mel Fisher and Robert Marks and their separate searches for sunken Spanish treasure ships. I also loved reading about western history including everything from the Civil War to western mining camps and ghost towns. Thanks to Dad being a sailor in World War II, I loved reading about that epic conflict as well. For a time I loved science fiction, but that area of interest waned about 1962. Every time Mom would drop me off, I'd be ready with an armload of books when she came back to retrieve me.
The old Altadena library was the epitomy of what I loved about historic library buildings. It had tall ceilings, heavy wooden tables and chairs, subdued lighting, and knowledgeable librarians who demanded absolute silence. Even now, some 65 years later, I just adore that type of library. Unfortunately, along came the 1960s and libraries decided they needed to evolve with the times. The feeling of solitude and silence of the libary experience was banished in favor of a brightly-lit, single story building with modern plastic library tables and orange plastic chairs. Silence was still sought, but was not rigidly enforced. Consequently, yours truly never again visited the library with the same sense of research fascination and intrigue.
But lately, as I was combing through my many stacks of history books at home, I found I had quite a large collection of California-oriented tomes that probably should be made available to some history-loving current Altadena resident. Knowing that the Altadena library had a small area for the sale of such donations, I put together a score of books dating from the early twentieth century and foreward, and Concetta and I dropped them off this morning. As an added bonus, we visited the sales corner ourselves and came away with three books on CD that we hoped would entertain us while we're cruising in the RV.
The day was pretty bleak and foggy as we cruised through my beloved Altadena, so I wasn't tempted to shoot any photos. Sadly, it continued to stay that way through lunchtime and into the afternoon. Finally when we were getting close to San Diego County, the sun finally showed its face, but it was way too late to be stopping for photos.
So, tonight we're holed up in the Santa Fe RV Park which seems nice but which has no cable TV available for us to watch the Master Tournament of Champions games tonight on Jeopardy. But the site was reasonably level, and we have a freeway right next door to provide a continuous volumne of "white noise" for our sleeping comfort. As an added bonus the light rail trains going by are a tad less noisey and not all that frequent.
Tomorrow we'll be visiting relatives which will be fun but probably won't generate blog entries so it will be a few days before I get back to you my loyal readers. So ciao for now and happy travels of your own.
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