Day 72 -- June 11, 2003 -- Wednesday

We drove from Monrovia to Los Angeles and on to Buellton, California. As we had already been to both Monrovia and LA, the day was spent driving along the Pacific coast, seeing Malibu and Santa Barbara.

I had a business meeting in Los Angeles this morning. Nothing trip-related. We did spend some time in the world's finest parking garage at the building we visited. Seriously, the garage was incredible, and it had the tightest security I had experienced anywhere -- all kinds of guards and security features. We were searched twice before we got into the elevator. There had to be something or someone pretty important in the building I was in.

I regretted the two hours that this "business" took from the trip. But as we were heading to the Pacific Coast Highway, I spotted what had to be the world's largest Mexican holding a plate of Mexican food. So, out of the car I went for the photo, and I was smiling again. Just think...if we hadn't gone into LA for this business meeting, we would have never seen the "World's Largest Mexican holding a Plate of Mexican Food."

The Pacific coastline in Malibu is just beautiful. We saw the Malibu Pier; it was used in a number of movies. We saw a lot of surfers. We saw a film crew and some actors filming a movie of some type along the coast. We saw some gorgeous mansions, including a castle-like home on the side of a mountain near Malibu Beach. Most of the fabulous homes could not be viewed from the road, but when we were able to see something, it was usually spectacular. We drove by Neptune's Net in Malibu; it is a popular restaurant frequented by many stars.

We drove around Pepperdine University in Malibu. I might not have ever attended a class if I'd gone here.

The farmland and barns we saw in Oxnard were very pretty. We saw a sign: "Thanks Oxnard for destroying this Farmland." It looked like something was happening in Oxnard that the farmers didn't like.

Neither Barbara nor I had ever been to Santa Barbara. It is incredibly beautiful, and Bozzie Jane said that if money and grandchildren were not considerations, she would live in Santa Barbara.

We saw the courthouse, Mission, the downtown area. It didn't matter what it was. Everything in Santa Barbara was beautiful.

I photographed a tree in downtown Malibu that appeared to have donuts growing from its branches. I do not have the slightest idea what type of tree it was, but as I am into donuts, I choose to believe it was a Donut Tree. If it is a Donut Tree, it was a Krispy Kreme variety rather than a Dunkin' Donuts variety.

In a parking lot in Santa Barbara, we met Brother Onefeather. He lives in a van "down by the river" in Santa Barbara, California. A 1976 Dodge Sportsman van to be precise.

Brother Onefeather and his amazing van will certainly rank among the most interesting sights that we stumbled across on the trip. Bozzie happened to see the van parked in a lot near the Santa Barbara Visitors' Information Office. Seven years in the making, Brother Onefeather's van (called an "art car" in grassroots art circles) was a most impressive work of art featuring a variety of images and messages. The entire van, inside and out, is covered with art -- primarily toys, figurines, and paintings -- glued to every available surface.

Brother Onefeather, who has a Jesus-like appearance, says he checked out of the rat race and started living for himself and preaching his message of peace and God's Love following a divorce. He is well-educated, articulate, and seemed to be a genuinely nice, real person. He took great pride in showing his van and sharing his story. "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" figures battle it out on the roof of the van. Mickey Mouse and friends wave from the grill. Beads hang from the van's undercarriage, and 40 dozen red apples line the windows. Brother Onefeather says the apples are a tribute to 9/11. The van features a Beatles Yellow Submarine mural, bumper-to-bumper traffic artwork, an Angels mural, The Last Supper plus Aladdin scene, a Rainbow Family mural, a Tribute to Bob Marley, and more. We were sorry to see that Brother Onefeather endorses marijuana use through various displays on the van. There was a chalkboard with a message that changes periodically. When we saw it, the message said: "One cannot simultaneously prepare for war and peace." There's a little bit of everything on Brother Onefeather's van, but it all seemed to have a somewhat logical place when Brother Onefeather explains it.

We corresponded with Brother Onefeather following our visit to Santa Barbara. He was looking for someone to store his van while he went on a trip. We hooked him up with Ros from the Grassroots Art Center in Lucas, Kansas. There couldn't be a better place in the country to store and display his van.

We stopped at Ruby's Cafe for dinner in downtown Santa Barbara. It looked great from the outside, but the meal was disappointing.

We ended the day with two excellent pieces of pie at Baker's Square in Buellton. The desk clerk at our hotel recommended it.

We saw a lot of beautiful coastline today, but the various areas we saw in Santa Barbara took top honors for the day.

Random Comments:

Unfortunately, today was one of many days where interviews and great information was lost because of tape recorder issues. We've broken one tape recorder after another, and we have had a number of days like today where the tape malfunctioned or became damaged. We may have to try a digital tape recorder next trip, and then download and check the recording every night.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we've been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we've seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this web site. Other pages of interest include the running report of "vital statistics" on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you'd like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest and the full itinerary is shown.

Click here for Page 1 of the photos from Day 72 -- June 11, 2003

Click here for Page 2 of the photos from Day 72 -- June 11, 2003

Click here for Page 3 of the photos from Day 72 -- June 11, 2003