Drawing the Line - 23

Early on July 17^th I had a chance to roll out another segment of my Line Around The World Project. If you have been following the progress of this project you know that it is nearly two miles long now. About a third of a mile of its length was done along the coast of Big Sur earlier this year, but the majority has been done north of my residences in Santa Clara, California.

With this segment I reach a major goal, with is El Camino Real. I don't know about the rest of the US or the world for that matter, but El Camino Real is famous to us Californians. When we are in grade school it is a rite of passage to build a model of a Spanish Mission in order to learn about the Spanish influence on this area. Every school kid learns about the string of missions, forts and other sites which were built by Spain to secure their territory in North America.

A great part of their method was to use missions and their economic structure to convert the natives. There were 21 missions along the length of California from San Diego to the Mission San Francisco Solano up in Sonoma. Here is the Wiki page that explains the mission system much better than I can. These missions were linked together by a road called El Camino Real and part of that route in its modern form is where this segment of the Line ends up.

Anyway, here is the start of roll 79.

Here is the view from the end of roll 79 looking south.

Looking north you can see I had to cross another side street.

Here is the view of the Line after crossing this small street.

Here if the view from the end of roll 80 looking towards the south.

To the left is a house and right where roll 80 ended is a window. As I was attaching roll 81 to the end of roll 80 I was approached by a guy. He seemed to be quite interested in what I was doing. He asked me what in the world I was doing and I replied, “I'm drawing a Line around the world.” This didn't seem to surprise him much, because he asked me where I had started it. Since he was a local I could answer with a street name, “Newhall Street.” He nodded thoughtfully and asked the question I think had been on his mind from the beginning, “Do you have a dollar that you can spare?”

After parting with a dollar I lost my audience. Or so I thought, for once the guy had wandered off the window in the house next to me opened. “What are you doing?,” the guy at the window asked. I think that you can guess my reply. He looked at me like I was out of my mind and I explained that I would be picking up the paper when I was done. “Good Luck,” he said, pulling the drapes closed but leaving the window open. I figured that he was going to check to make sure I cleaned up my mess.

Here is the end of roll 81 looking south.

Looking north you can see that we have almost reached El Camino Real.

And here the Line has reach the crossing. The El Camino Real is like a great mighty river, except for the fact that there is no water and you don't need a bridge or swimming skills to cross it. It is quite wide and a very busy street. Luckily Sunday morning is the best time for a crossing.

Here is the view north. Actually it is to the west, but going north on the road.

And here is the view east or south along El Camino Real. I'm rolling out roll 82 at this point.

Fortunately I had thought to bring along an extra roll of the line, because roll 82 (the fourth roll of the segment) ran out before I reached the other side of this wide road. I sat on the median strip and attached roll 83 to the end of roll 82 and made it across.

The Line turned to the north. We are on the way to San Francisco and El Camino Real can take us all the way there.

Roll 83 didn't quite make it to the other side of Monroe Street, but this is the end of this segment.

That's it for this segment.

Jonathan

Drawing The Line - 22

Last Sunday, July 10^th, I again set out early in the morning to roll out another segment of my Line Around The World Project. With the Line segment on four rolls of cash register tape, an old roll of masking tape, some scotch tape, and a camera in my trusty backpack I drove down to the end of the last segment. It would be nice to walk to the end, but I'm not up to it yet.

Here is the view of the start of roll 75.

Here we are looking south from the end of roll 75.

And now we are looking south from the end of roll 76.

This is what the segment looked like after it crossed Harrison Street.

The view from the end of roll 77 looked like this.

Finally the view from the end of roll 78 to the south looked like this.

And looking north towards El Camino Real it looked like this.

It was a boring segment. There were no people around to talk to and there wasn't much to look at. I suppose there will be plenty of boring stretches on the way around the world. This segment makes the Line 1.93 miles long.

That's it for today.

Jonathan

Drawing The Line - 21

The following segment of my Line Around The World Project was rolled out last Sunday, July 3^rd. Again I was able to get out and about early in the morning. This time there were several people out walking and jogging, but I was only able to talk to one of them. An older gentlemen stopped and asked me what I was doing. I replied. I'm working on an art project.”

That seemed to satisfy his curiosity and he turned away to continue his walk. So I added, “I'm drawing a line around the world.”

This made him turn back and look at me like I had lost my mind. He shook his head a little and said, “Good Luck!”

“Thanks,” I said.

Anyway, here is the start of roll 71.

By the way, for those people interested in where this is, I'm moving north along Monroe Street in Santa Clara, California. The road that I'm crossing here is Benton Street. 

The storm drains in this area spill out directly into San Francisco Bay. That is why most of them have a reminder on or around them

Here is the view of the end of roll 71. There are several nice old homes along here.

Since I'm planning on a North to South path around the world I will not be passing by the castles of Europe. It would nice to see my Line passing the castles on the Rhine, or even the ruins of Stonehenge. But I did pass a smallish castle during this segment. Here it is.

Here is the view north along the end of roll 72.

The owner of this house or a previous occupant was an arty type. Look at this tree. I almost passed by this without seeing it.

I like the way the Line looks along here.

Here is the view north from the end of roll 73.

Looking to the south roll 73 looks like this.

Roll 74 crossed Fremont Street. Here it is.

Now we come to the end of roll 74 which is the end of this segment. Here is the view north.

We are coming up to El Camino Real, although it is still a couple of segments away. When I get there I'm have to think about where to head next.

So far I've completed about 1.8 miles of the project. This is almost 0.007 percent of the total. I'll have to slow down so that I can savor it longer.

Jonathan

Drawing The Line - 20

Last Sunday morning I managed to get out of bed early enough to roll out another segment of my Line Around the World Project. This was the first time I had worked on the project since my stroke and I wanted to do it without many other people around. As it turned out I only saw one person out on the street.

This segment goes by a small shopping area called Franklin Square. The public radio station I like, KKUP, once had their studio in this square, but it has since moved. There once was a cool Stamp and Coin Collector shop in it too. Once upon a time I thought it would be fun to collect stamps and I went in this shop to check it out. As a total novice I didn't have a clue about what stamps I wanted to collect. When the shop owner asked be what I collected I came up with the brilliant reply, “I like stamps with famous people on them.”

I still remember his smile and comment, “Most people on stamps are famous.” Unfortunately I often leave myself open for witty replies.

Well, my flirtation with stamp collecting didn't last long. It was a little too exciting for me. And now the shop is gone.

Anyway here is the start of roll 67. As you can see, there aren't any people around. Spooky isn't it?

Here is the view to the north from the end of roll 67. That's a pretty cool fountain huh?

Here is the view to the south from the end of roll 68.

Many years (28 of them) ago I use to wait for the bus here on my commute to Menlo Park. I had almost totally forgotten about those long commutes. Oh, it didn't take 28 years for the bus to show up, it just seemed like it.

Here is the view looking north from the end of roll 68.

Here is the view south from the end of roll 69.

Here is the end of roll 70.

This segment ends in front of a small Italian restaurant that has been around forever. Well since 1992 anyway. The food is pretty good.

This is a view of where we went during this segment. You can just see my MINI back at the start.

Here is another picture of the cool fountain I took while gathering up the line.

That is it for the day. I will be putting more effort into this project in the future.

Jonathan

Drawing The Line - 19

Finally I had to shallow the fact that Subway was not going to come through with any sponsorship for my Line Around The World Project. Of course I haven't actually asked them if they would sponsor it. In fact I doubt if they have any idea that such a project exists. For now the financing of this huge undertaking is entirely up to me. Fortunately the end of the Line is still within walking distance from my digs. Unfortunately the end of the Line is still within walking distance of my digs. I have fallen far behind the schedule I calculated in an earlier post. So it is time to get to work.

After the segments out on the wild coast of Big Sur, the sidewalks of Santa Clara make a rather pedestrian backdrop. I had been rather nervous about continuing the Line now that it has reached busier streets. Stage fright. That's why I rolled this segment out in the morning. Not very many people were out and about at seven in the morning, at least not on foot.

Here is the start of the segment, roll 63.

Almost immediately I had to cross a street. This street goes down to a busy post office so I had do a full scale street crossing operation here.

This is the view back from the end of roll 63. Notice that the section in the street has already been removed by me. The person in the view is someone walking to work or school. They are about to hear my usual, "Hi, I'm drawing a line around the world."

For some reason the lady just smiled, nodded and walked away even faster. Here is the view from the end of roll 64.

Here is a shot of the view looking along roll 64 to the west.

Here is the view back from the end of roll 65. The building to the left was once the location of a bakery. It closed a couple of years ago. No new business has moved in yet.

This next picture is looking south at the start of roll 66.

Here is the end of roll 66 looking south. The guy in the car responded to my, "Hi, I'm drawing a line around the world", with, "You've got a long way to go."

This is looking north from the end of roll 66. There was one of those vacuum trucks heading my way.

When it got even with me the driver yelled out, "What's going on?" To my standard reply, "Hi, I'm drawing a line around the world," he just stared at me a little crossed eyed (maybe that was because I had to lean in very close to his face to be heard above the noise of his truck) and put his foot on the gas.

So far I have done just slightly more that 1.5 miles of the Line Around the World. There is more fun ahead!

Here it is all in one shot.
 

Jonathan