Road Trip

The original gold rush boomtown of Sacramento boomed first as a tent city along the river’s mudflats, an area more or less defined these days by Front and J Streets, west of I-5—Old Sacramento. Then came California’s Great Flood, which inundated the entire valley for 45 days straight. Join us for more, just up the road.

Unless you’re long in the tooth, like me, you’ve probably never heard the Midwestern witticisms of Bill Vaughan, editor and columnist at the Kansas City…

This week I’d planned to head out on the first leg of our Great California Road Trip. But listener feedback convinced me that we need to talk more, first,…

We tend to romanticize California’s gold rush, picturing, in our mind’s eye, grizzled old guys in wide-brimmed hats wading into scenic mountain streams,…

We continue our appreciation of California’s unique state parks, this week stopping at a spot you’ve probably passed many times on the way to and from…

We continue exploring unique state parks—this week, Fort Ross. How many states can boast of Russian settlement? Just California, Alaska, of course, and…

Hearst San Simeon State Historic Monument on the Central California coast is one of those places you just have to see, no matter what you think of the man…

We continue exploring Southern California’s Channel Islands this week, this time the five islands that make up Channel Islands National Park.The discovery…

This week we head up the road to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, unofficially known as The Rock, where countless bad guys did their time in the…

This a perfect time for heading up the road, what with fewer fellow travelers, fall colors, and cool weather that’s not yet wet.For autumn road trips,…