Good Ol Days

On this slow road trip we take? We get a chance to casually drop in on some old friends.  That's the kind of thing it was okay to do in the "Good Ol' Days." Wasn't it?

Heading North out of Los Angeles on 101 we find some way to ignore the horns and dirty looks. We let the speedometer drop below 60 m.p.h.?

Highway 5 is a North-South Drag Race between L.A. and San Francisco. Highway 1 is a slow, gorgeous, but treacherous route that mostly runs all along the ocean the length of the West Coast. U.S. 101 lies right in between the two. It has a few stoplights and speed bumps? But not many?

So for the casual traveler there are some really nice places that are just a blur as you head North? One of them is Ventura. Since we're going slow?

"Let's see now! Who do I know who lives in Ventura?"

That's Doug Rydbeck up there. He and his wife Donna live in Ventura. They own an ice cream store in Ojai, just east of Ventura.

Over the decades I've just screamed through Ventura and only driven through Ojai once.

Doug and I went to high school together. We loosely pretty much hung out with the same guys on the street.

Doug was highly envied by most males in our high school.  That's because he got to grow up living next door to Mary Ann Duda. I remember he got to occasionally walk her to school.  

I've known Doug lived in Ventura for the past twenty years, but just failed to slow down. Doug has really sort of invented slowing down.

In high school, and maybe one year of college years? Doug was one of the best junior golfers in the nation.  At that time he held three course records in the L.A. area.  I don't know if any of them stand...but I think I remember one of them to be in the low 60's? ( I'm sure he'll correct me if he reads this and I'm wrong.)

But Doug tells me there was something about all the tournament commotion he didn't like.  Instead, out of college, he spends several years just kickin' around Europe and Africa, just playing golf and finding ways to survive. 

He played a round with a head of state of one of the African nations. I think it was South Africa, but I'm not sure.

Doug settling in Ojai should be no surprise.  It's a bit of a golf and tennis Mecca. Doug still plays both games. 

He takes us on a tour of downtown. There is a free public tenniscourt where most of the major U.S. players over the past 50 years have played.  Their names are all on a plaque there.

Ojai, Doug characterizes, is where a lot of Hollywood celebrities like to hide out when they are not doing movies.  He plays golf with quite a few of them.

Jack Lemon, he reports, was one of his better ice cream customers. And they were golf buddies. (he told me Jack's favorite flavor, but I forget what it was.)

Ojai seems to attract a lot of people like Doug.  No one is surprised he just turns the joint over to a young employee [SEE PICTURE 2] . While we sit and chat out front for an hour? [SEE PICTURE 3].

No one seems to be in a hurry.

You can even get away with "jaywalking" on Main Street in Ojai. (That's pretty rare anywhere in California.)

Well, we go to dinner and Doug says stick around. Tommorrow morning I'll give you a tour of Ventura.  Hey, so we did.

[SEE PICTURES 4 AND 5]

I don't want this to sound like a sponsored travelogue.

But if you've been like us in the past? Slow Down! Stop and check Ventura out.  It has a wonderful artsy old  Historical Down Town. It has a beautiful old mission.  We loved all the shops, boats and restaurants on the harbor. We had a nice casual breakfast with Doug and Donna at one of them. ( I think I like it better than Santa Barbara.)

And, OH!  The Surf is pretty good in Ventura

So next time you're up that way? Stop in and say howdy to Doug in Ojai. It's the only ice cream shop in town. I doubt it'll get you a discount. But tell Doug?  

 "Paul Sent Me!"

If he asks, "Paul Who?"

Just say,"Rhino!"