Sep. 28, 2016: The former Ship Ashore gift shop and museum in Smith River, California.

Just south of the Oregon border, along U.S. Highway 101, sits the “Ship Ashore.” The former 500 ton, 1920s yacht was a combination billboard, gift shop and museum, but closed about five years ago.

In 1965, a dozen tractors pulling cables in unison, dragged the vessel a quarter mile inland. The dry land voyage took ten hours.

The “Ship Ashore”  started as the Caritas, a private yacht built in 1925 at Krupp Iron Works in Kiel, Germany.  Purchased by U.S. Navy on December 1, 1941, the Caritas became the USS Garnet, a coastal patrol yacht numbered PYc-15.  Armed with a three inch gun, machine guns and depth charges, and a crew of 50, the USS Garnet spent the war conducting patrols around Hawaii.

In 1946, the Garnet was sold and ending up as a restaurant in Smith River, California. In 1965 she made her last voyage - on dry land.

An April 20, 2015 article in Super Yacht World online magazine offered up the former Caritas as a “restoration opportunity” for someone with several million dollars of loose change.

My flickr album: 2016 Ship Ashore

.Sep. 26, 2016: Car in the Memorial Car Grove, Real Goods Solar Living Center in Hopland, CA.

 Yes that's a tree growing out of the car. Years ago, five muscle cars from mid-20th century became tree planters at the Solar Living Center. Today the trees have gotten big. A sign near the Memorial Car Grove announces,"Grow-Through Cars are betting than Drive-Thru trees!"

In 1994, the former Cal Trans dump site was converted into a demonstration center for renewable energy and similar sustainable living technologies.

Originally the center was part of the Real Goods Trading Corporation, but split off in 1998 into a non-profit.

The Memorial Car Grove is only a small section of the Solar Living Center, but is promoted in the Roadside America app.

A bigger grow-through car collection is at Old Car City located in White, Georgia. Some 4,000 cars are spread out over 32 acres.

My flickr album: Memorial Car Grove

Sep. 26, 2016  Hill of Crosses in Lafayette, California, in memory of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Nov., 2006, anti-war activists Jeff Heaton began placing crosses on hill overlooking the Lafayette BART station. About 5,000 crosses dot the hill - ran out of space in 2011. A sign keeps the current total updated - 7,006.

I posted 30 other photos in this flickr album: 2016 Hill of Crosses.

Oct. 6, 2016: Images from the Cambria Scarecrow Festival taken with hipstamatic app on iPhone..

Editors Note: I've not posted for a couple weeks because of a needed vacation.

During my recent road trip, I stopped in Cambria, California for lunch and check out the Scarecrow Festival. The planned two hour stop lasted all afternoon. I just love folk art.

For the month of October, hundreds of scarecrows line the streets of Cambria, California. Now in it’s eighth year, the Cambria Scarecrow Festival features hand-crafted folk art all made by local residents.

I split my images into two albums. The first album, 2016 Cambria Scarecrow Festival hipstamatic, are black and white images taken with the hipstamatic app. The second album, 2016 Cambria Scarecrow Festival, consists of classic color images of the scarecrows.

ps - If you stop in Cambria this month, the nearby communities of San Simeon and Harmony have joined in and also display scarecrows.