California; The Golden State

California is an extremely diverse state, it combines all types of terrain, going from beautiful long white sandy beaches with the Pacific surf rolling in to the barren Mojave desert, from desert to the highest mountain in the US, Mount Whitney, to the lowest and hottest at Death Valley, also sporting the Giant Redwood forests.

California is a state of records, the highest, hottest, busiest, tallest, largest and so on.

While on records, California’s central valley is the largest crop and fruit growing area in the United States, it stretches from just north of LA to just south of San Francisco.

California has a very high population of Spanish speaking people, due obviously to its border with Mexico just south of San Diego, it also borders Arizona, Nevada and Oregon.

California is host to the second largest city in America, namely Los Angeles, and the second most populous state in America.

The best known landmark is of course the Golden Gate Bridge, a huge graceful “orange” suspension bridge spanning the narrows of San Francisco Bay, most impressive.

The Capital of California is Sacramento, not LA as some would believe

California stretches almost 770 miles from Mexico to the border with Oregon, 770 miles of beautiful Pacific coast.

Southern California also plays host to the US Navy’s Pacific fleet at the huge dockyard in San Diego.

San Diego claims to have the most perfect climate to live in, I agree wholeheartedly, I love it.

I arrived in lovely hot sunny Temecula on the 26 of January2007, I stayed with my son and his wife in their lovely big air-conditioned one level house.


Like all the houses in the area, it is Spanish looking, it has a tiled roof, arched windows and doors, mesh covering every window to allow them to be open but not allow bugs in.

At the front is a triple garage with electric up and over doors, handy to drive into without getting out of the car into the 100 plus degrees in summer, not like here, to save you getting wet.

For me to be able to stay in America, apart from needing my son to be a citizen, means using a lawyer to set up all one hundred and one forms needed, you do not get to live in America easily, tedious and slow, the only thing that moves quickly in America is the traffic, finger prints of all ten fingers, photos of my retinas etc, none being done at the same time or even in the same city with the same appointment, it took three months to receive the first sign of acceptance, my work permit, the last thing in the world I wanted, it was followed by my social security number then my green card. I am now a permanent resident.

Another item to be looked into is health care and the cost of it, no National Health Service here nor E111, I had looked into it before leaving home so had a fair idea of what the cost was likely to be, I found cover designed for visitors who would not be staying longer than five years, by that time I would be 71, probably time I was home anyway, that was for me.

Temecula is in southern California, almost half way between Los Angeles and San Diego, it lies about forty miles as the crow flies (or should that be the vulture flies) inland from the Pacific Ocean in desert country, sheltered by the coastal range of hills most of the year it has a hot dry climate, reaching three figures often in the summer months.

In the late 1800s the Butterfield Overland stage called at Temecula on its run from St Louis Missouri to San Francisco, this was later replaced by the California Southern Railroad which was built to ship out cattle from the huge cattle ranches in the Temecula valley, also to ship out granite from the local quarries, the railroad was washed away in a winter storm never to be replaced, so no trains pass through Temecula any more.

Although the City of Temecula with a population of 102,604 is in an affluent part of southern California and sits astride Interstate 15, it has no public transport links to either Los Angeles or San Diego other than the dreaded Greyhound coach, the car is king.

The above Interstate runs from the Mexican border to just south of Calgary, a distance of some 1500 miles.

Modern day Temecula or “Temeeku” in local Pechanga Indian language is a centre for both electronics and wine growing, at the last count there were 25 different wineries in the surrounding area with new ones starting up all the time.

Temecula has its “old town” which I will describe later, the modern day city is delightful, with many beautiful areas of housing all laid out among huge areas of beautifully manicured grass with many winding paths for joggers, walkers, roller bladers etc, all surrounded by flowering shrubs and bushes which attract many Hummingbirds, it is lovely to stand still when you hear the whirr of tiny wings and watch the brightly coloured little birds flit from one bush to another.

Sometimes if you stand still for a few minutes one will fly over and hover in front of your face for a few seconds, just checking you out, have you any pollen?

The City planners dictate every so many houses built require a junior school, a middle school and a senior school, also a small shopping mall and a communal swimming pool, not every house has a pool, and everywhere you will see a “tot lot” a small playground for tots with a chute, a roundabout and a swing all on a soft base.

The City also dictates there will be no fences, walls or hedges around the front yard, only neat grass running down to the sidewalk, they also dictate there will be no parking of trailers, boats or other vehicles in the front yard reducing the impact of the area.

Back yards are the important ones, this is where the owners enjoy themselves, they often have beautifully shaped pools, interesting built in bar-b-q areas, lots of colourful shrubs and flowers and of course a selection of orange, lemon and grapefruit bushes and a palm tree or two.

There will probably also be a large TV to allow uninterrupted viewing of any ball games.

There is NO litter and NO graffiti and almost no crime.

The local wildlife to be found in most yards consists of possums (mean little critters) the odd skunk and every night you hear the coyotes howling nearby.