– 11_17_10 – Edited

On 9-25-10 when Son #1 and Son #3 and I attempted to drive up to the property that my late friend once owned we were surprised to find a heavy metal gate across the road.

My comment then is best described as WTH!.

There was a “call box” on a post at least a car length from the gate

Son One and I exited the rental truck and Son Three remained behind the wheel.

There were three names listed on the call box.

The last name listed I knew was the current owner of what once was Gary Grody’s property.

I entered the number listed by the first name..

After talking to the person who answered for about fifteen minutes, explaining why we were there, he told us he would open the gate. He asked that we do not take any photos until after he had talked to us face to face.

He told us to drive up to his house at the very end of the road and not up to Gary’s former house.

When we finally saw the house at the end of the road the reason for the gate was evident.

To me it looked like a cross between a stone castle and a huge chalet.

Youngest Son’s comment was – “How they get those stones up here. A flatbed with those stones on it couldn’t get up that road!”

I think maybe a flatbed could have gotten up the road – IF IT WAS BEING TOWED BY A CRAWLER TRACTOR!

As a witness in court I have been cross examined by amateurs compared to the way we were grilled. The guy got our life stories as well as just about everything I knew about my friend Gary Grody. How I ended up being the executor of his estate and having his cremains.

Finally we were given permission to go up and take the photos with the proviso that the photos weren’t plastered all over the internet. When I told him that some of the photos I had taken thirty years ago were posted on a diary site he said that photos thirty years old wouldn’t matter.

As we were leaving the house he said to me; “I am not going to ask what you do with Gary’s ashes and I don’t really want to know.”

The west edge of the plateau the house sits on is actually in National Forest. That is where I spread Gary’s ashes.

As we drove back towards Chico I asked the Oldest and Youngest Sons if they felt we had been watched while we were on the property. Both said they had that feeling.

Youngest Son added, “By people with telescopes and telescopic sights!”

In retrospect I should have taken a photo of the gate and the call box. Hindsight is in some cases better than foresight.

Youngest Son was using the camera and he took a few photos of the Old Man

This is what is called the Devils Slide, a few miles north of the entrance to the park.

What I’m currently using as my desktop wallpaper.

Spread across a 19 inch monitor.