TUESDAY AFTERNOON MUSINGS

By Debbie Bulloch



Today I want to share two recent stories from my local newspaper. One story deals with the increasing local homeless population; the other story deals with the “healing” power of bike riding.

NUMBER OF HOMELESS FAMILIES CONTINUES TO INCREASE

Ventura County is one of the most affluent counties in all of California and it consistently ranks among the top 100 most affluent counties in the entire nation. It is thus shocking to read that the homeless population Ventura County has grown by over 10% over the last year. This is proof that not even the wealthiest areas of the country have been spared the adverse consequences of the economic downturn.

The increase number of homeless people is also a call to action; as I have written here on several occasions the homeless are not lazy, shiftless, crazy, drug-addicted people – the homeless are US and we are THEM. We must be willing to take all necessary action to help the homeless; if we fail to help them we fail to help our own brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughter then we fail as a society. The homeless situation is not a “homeless problem,” it is a problem of our entire society.

TANDEM RIDERS HELP FIND A CURE FOR PARKINSON’S DISEASE

As you all know, I am a big fan of bike riding. I fully believe in the restorative power of bike riding; so it is not surprising that this second story is about the good work done by two local bike riders. At the recent Los Angeles Marathon (Monday, May 25, 2009) two local women rode a tandem bike to raise money to combat Parkinson’s disease The two women have been training for months on a tandem bike to ride on the pre L.A. Marathon bike ride. Although the ride is perhaps a relatively short ride by Monsieur Odriscoll’s standards (only 26.2 miles) riding a tandem bike presents problems of its own. Climbing hills and maneuvering around tight turns is difficult on a tandem bike and coordinating a common cadence takes practice. On the other hand, riding downhill on a tandem is a lot of fun because the added weight of the second rider makes tandem bikes extremely fast on the downhill part of any climb.

In addition to training hard, the two women, Jessica Chadbourn and Debbie Jew (ages 48 and 42 respectively) have also been busy gathering sponsors to raise funds for a cure for Parkinson’s Disease And while training and finding sponsors, the women have also been raising the public’s awareness of this debilitating disease that afflicts millions of people throughout the world.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with one single step. Maybe we will not be able to completely eradicate homelessness during our lifetime, and maybe a cure for PD is not yet around the corner. But with all of us taking small “baby steps” we can work together to solve these, and similar, problems.

MEMORIAL DAY BIKE RIDE

For Memorial Day I had originally planned to ride my bike out by the beach. But when I stepped out my front door the morning was cool, overcast and slightly foggy – ideal conditions for a little hill climbing. So instead of putting my bike on the back of the car and heading for the coast, I decided to just ride out.

The ride was very nice; I covered about 25 miles (about the same distance as in a marathon) in just under 2 hours. There were long hills to climb, which were then followed by fast descents. Lowest speed was about 7.5 mph (during a long, steady climb against a headwind) while the fastest speed was about 29.0 mph. I was using my mountain bike and because of the fat tires and “taller” sitting position speeds of 30 mph or higher are hard to achieve.

Along the way I paused to take a few pictures. As you can see, this ride took me through some of the “back” country around my home. Most of the roads where I rode are back, country roads that carry less traffic than the main roads. Riding in traffic can be hazardous (see Ghost Bikes) and so I prefer to take to the back roads, where the traffic is lighter and the view are nicer.

Now please join me in my Memorial Day bike ride.

(Please remember to click on each individual image for a larger view. Thank you.)

As you can see in this photo, there is a lot of empty country where I ride.



Here you can see where the road begins to climb. It is not a steep climb, but after a while it begins to add up.



Here is one of the back roads that I traveled on Monday – notice the lack of motor vehicle traffic. I like these shots in black and white.





The sign, spray-painted on the pavement points to a bike path that leads back to Thousand Oaks, California. One photo is a close-up of the sign while the other shot shows where the signs is pointing to.





The road that I ride on takes me within eye shot of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library The Reagan Library is located in the city of Simi Valley, California It was a foggy, hazy morning when I took these photographs so the library compound is hard to see on the pictures. On a clear day, however, it is possible to see the Pacific Ocean and the Channel Islands from the Reagan Library.

(The Ronald Reagan Library compound can be seen on top of the ridge, on the upper right hand side of the picture. The big square building to the left houses the former Air Force One used by President Reagan. The only other place in the US housing former Presidential airplanes is the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.)



(The Ronald Reagan Library compound can be seen on top of the ridge, on the upper left hand side of the picture. The big square building to the left houses the former Air Force One used by President Reagan. The only other place in the US that houses former Presidential airplanes is the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.)



Ventura County has often been referred to as “horse country.” Some of the finest horses in the entire country (and possibly the world) are raised and trained in Ventura County. Will Simpson a rider from Thousand Oaks medaled during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.







I hope that you have enjoyed riding along with me on this bike ride. Thanks for coming along!

All photographs are original work. © Copyright 2009, DB. All Rights Reserved.

SUNDAY PHOTO HISTORY CORNER

By Debbie Bulloch



The December 7, 1941, attack by Japan on America’s Pearl Harbor threw the entire country into a war frenzy and it led to the U.S. declaring war on Japan and Germany. The effects of the Japanese attack were especially felt on the West Coast, from Washington to California. Reports of sighting of Japanese vessels became as commonplace as reports of UFO sightings.

On February 1942, Californian’s worst fears were realized when the Imperial Japanese Navy's submarine I-17, under the command of Commander Nishino Kozo, surfaced and shelled the ellwood oil refinery near Santa Barbara. Before the war, as skipper of an oil tanker, Nishino had refueled there. The shelling did only minor damage to a pier and to an oil well derrick. The attack, however, managed to fuel "invasion" fears along the West Coast.

Contemporary newspaper accounts reported the attack on the Ellwood oil fields, approximately 12 miles north of Santa Barbara. The papers reported that 16 shells fired, beginning at 7:15 p.m. on February 23, 1942. Three shells struck near the Bankline Co. oil refinery - the apparent target of the shelling. Rigging and pumping equipment at a well about 1,000 yards inland were destroyed but otherwise no damage was caused. One shell overshot the target by three miles and landed on the Tecolote ranch, where it exploded. Another landed on the nearby Staniff ranch, dug a hole five feet deep, but failed to explode. Eleven other shells fell short and dropped into the sea.

The first report of the attack was called in to police by Mrs. George Heaney of San Marcos Pass, who observed the submarine through binoculars and reported it was about a mile offshore. Oil refinery worker Bob Miller also called in a report during the attack. According to the official report of the 11th Naval District, the I-17 surfaced at 7:10 pm, Pacific War Time (2 hours ahead of standard time, so about a half hour after sunset), shortly after President Roosevelt's weekly fireside "chat" began. At 7:15 pm, the submarine began firing from its deck gun at the oil refinery and ceased firing at 7:35 p.m. At 8:30 p.m. it was observed, still on the surface, exiting the south end of the Santa Barbara Channel.

The attack threw the entire West Coast into a state of heightened alert. After the attack American coastal defenses were improved. The mainland suffered only one more submarine attack by the Japanese during the war, at Fort Stevens in Oregon.

I ride my bike along the trails around Emma Wood Beach, in Ventura County. On a recent ride I got off the trail and walked my bike on the sand across the mouth of the Ventura River. It was low tide and the mouth was passable on foot. While heading North (technically West at that point) I came across what looked like some strange, round rock structures. The structures were too round to have been the work of Nature. I did not have my camera with me (a rare event because I almost always have my camera with me when I go bike riding) so I was not able to photographs these unusual structures.

When I returned home, I did a little research and this is what I found:

Immediately after the Japanese attack on the Ellwood oil fields, the 2nd Battalion of the 144th Field Artillery (California National Guard) was rushed from Fort McArthur near Los Angeles to set up artillery batteries along the Santa Barbara coast. One such battery was established near the mouth of the Ventura River where two 155 mm cannons were hastily set up on the beach. Fearing another attack on oil production targets, the National Guard chose this location because Ventura’s rich oil fields were located just up the Ventura River. In what had been a nearby city park, soldiers set up a small tent camp in the camouflage and shelter of a grove of cypress trees. They positioned a mobile searchlight to illuminate targets at sea, and prepared for the worst.

These two photographs, which I took in an earlier outing, show what is left of the road leading to the gun battery's location. Due to the constant pounding of the surf, the road is almost gone now. Portions of the seawall, however, can still be seen.





Here is a map of the area. The gun batteries are to the West of the Ventura River. (Click on the image for a full-sized map.



These are photographs of the railroad bridge that crosses the Ventura River. The bridge can be seen on the map above. The line marked "levee" is where part of the bike trail runs. The gun battery is located near the surf, to the right of the first photograph.





I plan to return and take photographs of this historical site. In the meantime here are some photographs of the location taken by Ventura photographer Don. You can see Don’s entire photo gallery at Don’s Guns of Ventura Gallery

As a footnote, the Japanese attack on the Ellwood Oil Fields was immortalized (or lampooned) in Steven Spielberg’s ”1941” a comedy featuring comic talents Dan Akroyd and John Belushi, as well as Japanese super star Toshiro Mifune. In the movie, panic grips California following the attack on Pearl Harbor and people are suffering from war nerves. An Army Air Corps Captain, a civilian with a deranged sense of nationalism, civilian defenders, and a motor pool crew all end up on the trail of a lost Japanese submarine that has picked Hollywood as its own target.

In one of the movie’s funniest exchange, two Japanese submariners have stolen a large radio from an American beach home. As they both struggle to get the large radio down the submarine’s hatch, one of the Japanese sailors, named Mr. Sony, looks at the other sailor and exclaims:

“When we get back to Japan, I must find a way to make these (the radio) smaller!”

Ventura's beaches are not just a place for abandoned gun batteries. Our beaches are also a place for weddings, for lady bugs and even for squirrels.







Enjoy!