my favorite thing about the west coast, is how easily you can find yourself in an entirely new landscape by just driving a little ways. beaches, mountains, rivers, lakes, deserts, national parks, and the grand canyon are all easy day or weekend trips.
my friends and i decided to take advantage of that this weekend with a little jaunt to a cabin in crestline, california with stops in palm springs and big bear on the way.
most entertaining was a spontaneous pit stop we made en route to big bear. in a beautiful area of the inland empire called mentone, california, there is a yacht captain from newport beach named peter van horne who collects yard art. the home is visible from the road mainly thanks to a giant fiberglass paul bunyan (apparently called a muffler man)!! the enormous paul bunyan was purchased for his son in the 80's from a gas station that was going out of business. he was missing an arm, so pete had a mold cast from the existing arm and attached it, hence both arms are facing downwards. pete's collection of yard art is incredible!!!! in a rare stroke of luck, he was home when we stopped by and offered to take us on a tour, which we gladly accepted. amongst his art is a spaceship, a melted harley, a statue of liberty head, giant rooster, tee pee, and the actual prop plane from the movie 1942. none of pete's ex wives have cherished his collection quite like him, so his home in mentone serves as kind of a private retreat and is looked after by grounds keepers and renters when pete's not there.
0 comments:
Post a Comment