After a short layover in Dallas we landed in Sacramento,California a little after midday.Natalie's cousin Catherine picked us up and we made our way to Willows where we would set up home for the next two months.An hour later we arrived on the ranch,it was in the middle of nowhere and that is exactly what i was looking for.Nothing around us except miles and miles of flat land and in the distance beautiful rocky mountains
view from my front door
.At the entrance to the ranch was an american flag high on a pole motionless,there was no wind,infact the previous day i'm told they had a rare phenomenon....rain!! We enter and the first stop is a small bungalow on the left.Its time to introduce ourselves to Natalie's grandparents and they are excited to meet us,the first thing we are asked to do is point out where exactly we are from on a big map of Ireland hanging from a wall in the kitchen.Lovely people and a good start to the day.The next house is our house,we were not aware we would have our own place so we stop off to leave our bags in and move on to meet Natalie's parents who live in the third house.Its just Lisa there at the moment and we are made feel very welcome,a very warm,caring and funny nature about her.I could get used to this.
the ranch
We move down to the barn to Natalie's father and brother ,Danny and Adam,whom we will be working with for the next two months.They are welding some sort of trailor to the back of a tractor,i ask no questions at the risk of looking stupid so soon.I decide to ask if I can help, 'lets see what you city boys got' said Danny as he passes me the safety glasses,I felt under pressure already but that soon faded because at the end of the day I am a city boy.I may not know much about farming but I could wire that barn with my eyes closed! We start work the next day on their orchard 30 minutes away so we are given directions,a lunch box and a truck.I sit out on the porch ,light a cigarrette and take in the view as the sun sets,the first night of my Cali adventure and i love it.
I awoke about 6.30 the next morning,my first full day here and i'm ready for work.I agree to drive in the mornings and Lar on the way home.That first drive was something special,as i pulled out onto the road a small plane flew right over me no less then 50 feet above the truck and as it flew into the next rice field dropped its load.
This is a frequent thing around here,the planes drop chemicals over the crops to stop insects from destroying the rice and is pretty impressive to watch.I continue on my way along a lonely desolate road,on my left is nothing but flooded fields and on my right the Northern California railroad joins me on the journey.There is nothing out here but everything caught my eye.
We started work a little before 8 that morning and were given a kobota to drive up and down the orchard fixing and tying olive trees that had fallen over.We were in our element,the sun beating down on us,the radio in the kabota up full volume and our lunches in the trailor.It was great that we were left to our own devices and were in great spirits but we had a job to do.Our instructions are simple,fix the trees that need fixing,make sure to wear sunscreen,drink lots of water and go home whenever you want.Shaking off the city boys tag was important to us though.At the time although we had a lot of fun working on the orchard,too much fun some times,we let the working days pass us by because there was so much we wanted to do and see even around this small country town but looking back I don't think either of us realised how much fun we had in work.
On the Thursday the girls had organised to bring us to San Francisco to see a Giants game,by coincidence it happened to be on an Irish themed night.We made our way to Chico where we planned to meet Cherelle and start the journey but we wanted to see a bit of this place we had heard so much about so arrived a few hours ahead of schedule.This place unknown to us at the time was to be the area we would spent most of our time in California.We arrived about 10am and the first stop was coffee.Myself and Lar sat facing the street chatting and killing time,so far in the two weeks since we had left Ireland conversation and never dried up and I was beginning to think I had come with the right person.After coffee we walked around the town and made our way to the square in the centre.This is an open area with fountains and seats at every corner and was filled with people writing,playing guitar and running through the fountains.It really was a beautiful little town and I didn't feel like a stranger there.
After only 2 hours here we had already met a few people,the Irish accent is always a good way to meet new people and it hadn't let us down so far.Eventually Cherelle showed up and we were on our way.She was the first of Natalie's friends we had met and if they were all like this I knew I'd be going home with a lot of friends.The conversation was easy and polite until collecting Catherine and with the two girls in the front and Lar and I in the back it was back to messing again.We arrived in to San Francisco about 2 hours later and after meeting up with some more of Catherine's friends made our way to the stadium.On our way in to the field there were some girls Irish dancing and I felt proud that 5,000 miles away one of our traditions was on show to a different culture,I watched for a while but my ability to be immature in almost every situation was unfolding and i wanted to go get a corn dog and a novelty hand,I didnt know what I was gonna do with either of them but still....I wanted them.
I never got the novelty hand but i did get a leg......
The game itself was not the most exciting game and the Cincinnati reds won however after spending the entire game asking questions I did learn a lot of stuff about the game,I also learned you can be fat and still earn 4 million a year! It was a really great day ,I enjoyed myself so much and we went with a really cool group of people.
The next morning it was back to work but the weekend was nearly upon us,we were about to experience our first bit of nightlife in Chico.The dilema was that Chico is a good 45 minute drive form Willows so how would we get there? Lar doesn't drink so we decided to ask Lisa and Danny if we could use the truck to drive and have it back early in the morning,they agreed....problem solved.Again I said Id drive out obviously because I couldnt drive back if I was drinking and I had just parked up when A guy asked me for a lighter,once he heard the accent he was exchanging numbers and inviting us to a frat party,we knew we were going to love this place.There is quite a few bars in the town but only a few that we tried,Panama's which is like somebody's front room until you go out back for a smoke where there is a dance floor and a DJ playing old 90's tunes.Its the type of place you go to have two or three drinks before heading off and that's exactly what we did.Next stop was the Crazy Horse saloon,every bit as country as it sounds.The DJ plays a bit of chart but its mostly country music and half-way through the night the crazy horse horse girls do a dance routine.There's a mechanical bull near the back and after breaking my thumb on it first time around that was the last time I did it.We went to that bar quite a bit but that was only until we found Madison Bear garden,a bar with good food,but all the action is out in the beer garden and every Monday was karaoke night and every week we sang.A lot of friends were made in this bar.
A typical working day finished with us heading home after work,having some dinner and once we had showered we would normally head about 3 miles down the road to the neighbour's house a have a swim in the back yard.A lot of people had pools around here and they needed to with the heat and the view available around us.It was the perfect way to end a day and there is nothing better then watching the sun go down over the Californian mountain's from the comfort of the water,an amazing experience but just make sure you are out before the mosquito's attack!
We had by this stage met a lot of people and they were all offering to bring us places and show us new things but one offer couldn't be refused.I am a massive 'STAND BY ME' fan and i knew the bridge used in the movie was about 3 hours north from the ranch and a friend had offered to take us up to see it,normally I wouldn't want to inconvenience anybody but I just could not say no to that so on the Thursday we made the journey north.I had already done my homework on the bridge from Ireland so finding it wasn't a problem but I never thought i'd actually be able to stand on it,it really was a great experience for me and if I was starting to get used to being in America then this put things back in perspective for me,it reminded me I was still on holiday and I had by no means seen everything that needed to be seen.
My friend from back home was in Oregon at this time visiting his girlfriend and wanted to meet up,its funny how when he is 5 minutes down the road I don't visit but when he is 6 hours away in the USA ill go up to see him.We agreed to meet in a college town in Oregon called Eugene,this suited me because I also knew that the village used in Stand by me is about 30 minutes drive from there so I would take a trip to see that while up there.Myself, Lar and Natalie arrived in the motel and soon after Darren and Leanne arrived too.We had a few drinks in the room and got ready to head out,it wasnt quite the nightlife we had become accustomed to in Chico but nonetheless it was a holiday.
me and Leanne
me and Natalie
The next day we went on the short journey to check out the small town that the movie was made in,i'm pretty sure I was the only one really interested in seeing it but I'll always do what other people wanna do and this was mine.Again I had done my homework on the place so everywhere was easy to find.
Teddy Dueschamps house
Gordie's house
Vern's house
the treehouse
The next day we parted ways and drove the long journey back to Willows.Our Californian adventure was coming to a close and we were both sad about that but our travels had by no means come to an end just yet,we had A LOT more to see before we returned home.The work dried up and we finished two weeks early which at the time was a disaster for us but it did enable us to take advantage of Chico's nightlife which we certainly did.Twelve of our last 14 nights were spent out in Chico,we really did finish our time here in style!I knew myself I'd really miss this place,it was the people we had met,the places we had seen and how the people we had met had helped us to see this beautiful place.Barn party's,fireworks displays,Jewish weddings,concerts,baseball games,dodgy haircuts,strip karaoke,hookah bars,midnight swimming the list goes on,not bad for just 8 weeks.
Travis Tritt concert
Stevie,Savannah,me and Natalie
spot the city boys
me and Lar
me and Cherelle
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