Looking to meet some Nor Cal TC peeps while I am in the area

Not really an event but did not know where else to post.I am up in the Citrus
Heights area and Sacramento picking up more rattan furniture and visiting my parents,
and thought it would be cool to meet some of you folks that I chat with on TC .
Always nice to meet the people behind their TC names.You can PM me or just
respond back and I will get in touch with you .Look forward to meeting some
of you.I am hoping to go to Forbidden Island for the first time in the next couple
of days and maybe Tonga room as well.
Aloha-
Trader Bill

[ Edited by: 1961surf 2009-10-15 12:17 ]

Aloha Trader Bill!

Are you going to be in the central valley on Saturday? The Rock-A-Hula Pool-A-Party is happening in Modesto on the 17th... should be fun!

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=33422&forum=17&11

Oops! Double post!

[ Edited by: tobunga 2009-10-17 00:22 ]

I appreciate the offer Tobunga, I am not sure if I will be able to make
that, however if I found someone in the area that is going I would
highly consider it.I have a party to go to Saturday night so I could not
stay late.Sounds like alot of fun TOBUNGA.

[ Edited by: 1961surf 2009-10-17 01:00 ]

We'll get ya hooked up with some of the Sacramento Ohana today!!!

Looking forward to meeting new Nor Cal TC peeps.
Let the rum flow today baby !!!

Great meetin' ya Bill...had fun last night. Earplugs...we don't need no stinkin' earplugs!!! We gotta get ya to Forbidden Island next time you are in town. Good luck on the Tiki shopping today.

It was great meeting you Bill. You were in good hands with Marlene, Brenda and Brad........hell we both were. I think a lot of people may have still been recovering from last week's crawl...... Keep us posted on your upcoming plans.......We will hook up again soon!

I want to extend my thanks and appreciation to all that I was able to meet
and talk to at Brenda's party including Steve Soto .What a great group of
people you all are here in Nor Cal.My only regret was not having enough
time to make the trip and meet up with Trader Bill and Molokai Mike at
Forbidden Island.I promise when I am up here again it will be tops on
my list.

[ Edited by: 1961surf 2009-10-18 22:02 ]

What a rockin good time with VampiressRN and Moondog426 (Marlene and Ken)
at Brenda's.The Pyronauts were on fire last night.I want to thank Brenda
for being an awesome hostess, providing five star hospitality, and her
mixology expertise.Boy that gal can sling a drink and cut the rug too.
Great to meet you Duane(PyschoTikiD) and check out your incredible tiki collection .
Thanks to all the Nor Cal Tiki Ohana for your warm welcome and showing me
a great time during my visit .I look forward to my next visit to .
I will submit some pics when I get back to So Cal.

[ Edited by: 1961surf 2009-10-20 19:24 ]

Hey Bill, it was great meeting you!

I'm so glad you were able to make it to Brenda's party.

She is definitely the hostess with the mostest!

We need to plan a group trip down to Forbidden Island when you come back up.

Best,
Steve

While driving and logging many miles on the Jeep , you will notice in these small
cow poke towns that a little piece of googie mid century history has been left behind,
perhaps to remind us of our cool architectural past ,or maybe because they were too
expensive to remove .Many Cool googies signs are still in existence and are around
and lite up, however every one that I have photographed were not in use for many
years and all businesses were closed except for one motel.A real sad sight to see .
Here are just a few I shot while driving thru towns like- Pixley ,Bakersfield ,
Merced, Fresno , Stockton etc.There are probably a few I missed along the way.
Stayed tuned I have a good story about me exploring inside the old Islander
building in Stockton .

http://www.roadsidepeek.com/googie/

http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/googie

Moms Motel located in Tulare near Mefford air field.Another disregarded googie sign showing
many years of non operation

More pics and tiki exploration pics coming up.

[ Edited by: 1961surf 2009-11-27 13:09 ]

Ooooh, I love love love the Astro Motel one. I can just picture it in it's original glory. The cafe sign with the starbursts is great too. I like to do the same thing during road trips. Thanks for sharing, '61!

Before we went to Brenda's Tiki Hut we stopped at Mooondog426 (Ken's) place for some
pre party cocktails.Ken had a cool spread with a bar ready to make anything.
So VampiressRN and myself drank some mighty fine margaritas and then some Don Julio
shots , and thats all I needed to get the ole' motor running.

Ken and I behind his fun Tiki bar

MoonDog426 and VampiressRN toasting a drink

Then it was off to Brenda's for a divorce party , and yes that is a wedding dress
she is wearing -gotta love her sense of humor.I just love this gal, she has the
best personality and was the best hostess ever.Brenda really knows how to sling
a drink or two quite well also !

The Pyronauts just ripped it up at Brenda's

More pics, videos and story coming up so stay tuned!

[ Edited by: 1961surf 2009-10-21 11:23 ]

The last couple times driving on the 99 freeway I would notice this A frame building
and it looked familiar but could not place it because it was in an odd place off the
right side of the 99 freeway heading north in Stockton .When I was at Physcho TikiD
house I showed the pictures and said that is where the Islander building was towed
and ended up there for limited days as a chicken joint in Pollardville next to a
tourist mock up ghost town .After reading abstractiki thread on the Islander I
had to check it out for myself as well.Abstract nailed it in the description of
it is dilapidated . It was raining when I decided to hop the security fences to
take a look .The back of the building is all open and the rain was just coming
thru the roof and vents , very sad situation .I went and pulled the latter that
swings down and leads to the attic.I thought...gee maybe I will find an old
photo or something that depicts the Islander during it's glory days, but to no
avail.I must have looked in every little room and crevice thru out the entire
place looking for any sign or trace of its former tiki past.After scouring the
place,the only thing I could find was a broken piece of a carved wall panel.
It was buried under a bunch of debree and trash on the floor.Really weird to be
inside there by myself...very dark inside and musty smelling not even rats or
mice would want to live in there.I was born in the wrong era ,this was no doubt
a very cool tiki bar back in it's hey day.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=15550&forum=1&start=60

Pollardville sign at is current location

Cool old boat shaped building I believe used to be a dinner house right next to Islander building

Old time saloon behind the Islander building

Ghost town tunnel also behind Islander building

An old building behind and to the left of the Islander structure

The wall carving remnant I found inside- a little piece of the Islander will stay close to me for years as good mana .

[ Edited by: 1961surf 2009-10-26 19:37 ]

Fun pix Bill...love the signs. Sad how so many have become so dilapidated. :(

It was very sad to see the state that it was in.I was really trying to visualize
when I walked around the entire interior, how things would have been layed out
thru out the place -the decor , the lighting, the bar etc.

In just two short years the building structure had been totally disregarded .
Boy I am sure there were alot of good times that were had in that building
back in its prime 60's & 70's .

Hi Bill, Dan and I have had meals there many times and walked through the western village when it was open with antique stores. Those were really sad photos. It's terrific that you got the panel. Tikicleen bought the only tiki pole that remained and it's in her kitchen. Wendy

That was nice reading about your trip to Norcal and the stop at the old Islander. Sorry I missed you Bill. Maybe next time I can join the fun.

I left this lei on one of the outrigger beams a few weeks ago. It was my second trip inside and I wanted to give the place a little Tiki Mana.

Hey Abstractiki( David) how the heck were you able to reach up that high and place
the lei on the beam ? Inquiring minds want to know .BTW nice job, I will look for
it the next time I drive by .

I think I wrote about it in the posted story but when i left that morning for the Islander I hadn't figured it all out, I just grabbed the Lei. Right before I left the building I tore a piece of Bamboo off the Pit Bar overhang, I went outside and with that new fence up I felt like a sitting duck. I kept thinking the sheriff was going to be pulling up any minute and I was going to have to explain what a grown man was doing inside a condemned chicken restaurant taking a piece of 50 year old bamboo. This second trip had a lot more "fear factor" for me thanks to that new fence. Any way I quickly looked around realized there was no way I was going to be able to climb to the top outrigger beam of the A-Frame. I saw an old 5-Gallon bucket full of sand or dirt nearby. I drug it under the lower outrigger beam and stood in the dirt in the bucket (i almost fell off several times). I put the Lei on the end of the Bamboo, reached up and managed to drape it around the beam, I pushed it back as far as I could so It wouldn't come off. I then drug the bucket back to where I found it. To cover my tracks i guess I'm not really sure why I did this.

Unfortunately Just last Friday I noticed that the Lei was gone. The wind may have blown it loose and it may be laying on the ground. I couldn't think of a way to secure it any better under the circumstances. I was driving on 99 at the time so i didn't get a good look. It was kind a cool tho driving by, looking at it hanging there while it was up.

I almost fell when I jumped that fence.It was raining and not a whole to grab on to.
I sure wish that building could be moved some better place and turned back into another
tiki establishment .It kills me to see that legendary building left to rot away like
an old discarded shoe .

I found out yesterday that it is in "Preforclosure", the whole property is 12.31 acres and listed for sale at $2,400,000.00 I worked on several senerios to save the place that didnt involve a tikiphile winning the lotto, only one had a chance but it was a snowball in heck chance and I never put it into action.

Check out the Hop Louie thread, I just came into some Islander treasure!

Wanted to sweep the dust off this thread and update.Recently made another road trip
to Nor Cal .Stopped to check out to see if the A Frame Islander building was still erect !
Much to my dismay ...it was leveled along with the entire Pollardville ghost town caves
behind it and the showboat shaped restaurant building next door ....gone!

1961 Surf, It came down in the spring of 2010. I wrote all about it in the Hop Louie thread. Very sad pics of the demolition. I found an old Polynesian apartments in Lodi with two Vintage tikis of front. You should check them out when you back this way.

Abstract I just checked out that thread and saw the pics.How I missed that I don't know.
I guess it was just a matter of time , after I saw how bad of shape it was in when I had
walked inside and saw all the water leaking in from the rain.
Thanks for your contribution abstract !

Some photos of more signs along the roadside during my Nor Cal travels.

The famous Surf Motel in Sacramento off the 80 freeway .

down the freeway from this sign in sac town

While in Stockton

Modesto checking at several antique stores

As I was driving thru another cow polk town , in the corner of my eye , out in the distance I spotted this semi abandoned Airstream trailer in this farm workers field .I got off the main 99 freeway and got off on this small dirt road and hung a right.I know I wasn't seeing things ...kept driving and there it was in a field behind a small run down couple of wooden shacks !

I got out of the car to take a look to see if it was uninhabited .No one around anywhere .Took a look inside hoping not to get shot or who knows what ..I announced myself before I entered .The inside was in bad shape and there definitely wasn't anyone living inside except maybe a dog or critter !Stay tuned ....plenty more to this adventure !

[ Edited by: 1961surf 2011-08-13 21:09 ]

[ Edited by: 1961surf 2011-08-13 20:57 ]