He was often criticized for having his two children late in life (he was 44 when I was born). His friends’ thoughts being that he would be too old to do active things with us when we were teens, and probably would never see his grandchildren. Boy, were they ever wrong! He took my sister and I hiking and horseback riding, and was last asked to be master of ceremonies at an installation when he was 92. He saw all three of his grandchildren graduate from high school, read to them nearly every day as they were growing up, and shared his whacky sense of humor with all of us ‘til the very end.
His favorite nickname for his grandsons was Watanabe, hence the series name. He often picked the boys up from school, and took them on intricate tours of the nearby rural area, sometimes taking an hour to drive the half-mile distance between the school and his house. If there was a pattern to these drives, we never discovered it. The names Boondocks, Constantinople, and Timbuktu were usually part of the itinerary, though their locations appeared to mysteriously move from one day to the next.
Constantinople could be any spot east of this bridge. The drive through the thriving agricultural fields was the fun part. The boys were also likely to recognize names and pictures on the vineyards signs they passed from the labels and boxes they saw at our family business, which made boxes for the farmers, and supplied them with most of their growing and packaging supplies.
Several of those vineyards and groves have recently been replaced by date off-shoots - an expensive undertaking that gives me great hope for the future of agriculture in my small corner of paradise. A newly planted date off-shoot does not begin to produce a money-making crop for at least 15 years, which means the grower is firmly convinced they will still be harvesting those trees twenty or thirty years from now.
I remember, in my teenage years, on a day years before this bridge was built, standing at the edge of broken asphalt, looking down at the raging water that had ripped all evidence of the road away. The drainage ditch that is part of a huge network of such ditches throughout the eastern valley, had done it’s job. The road was gone, but there was no flooding of homes or businesses in our end of the valley. That particular year we did have a huge storm that parked itself over the valley. However, we can have clear and sunny skies here, and raging water in the storm drains that are the result of thunderstorms in the mountains, the Banning Pass, or the high desert.
In more recent years we’ve enjoyed bringing our family, and our Girl Scout troops, to this bridge to bird watch. It is part of the Salton Sea Flyway, and thus a temporary home to a multitude of species of migrating birds. Hawks, geese, herons, killdeer, sea gulls, and swallows are among the most common to be found here.
In memory of Rewell “Doc” Carlton, October 1910 - July 2004.
WATANABE - Japanese, which means “cross border”. The first to be named this were court nobles and samurai warriors.
CONSTANTANOPLE - Capitol of the Western Roman Empire, now known as Istanbul. It was, and is, a beautiful city, with a coastline nearly eight miles long surrounding the city on three sides, and a protective wall on the fourth side that does not appear to have protected it at all. It was perfectly situated on the Silk Road trade route between Asia and Europe. Sadly, this strategic location made for a history that includes a long and confusing list of attacks, sieges, conquests, plunders, and name changes - Lygos, Byzantium, Augusta, Nova Roma, Constantinopolis (The City of Constantine) are all names that I recognized from childhood geograruphy lessons. In 330 Constantinople was officially proclaimed the new capital of the Roman Empire. In 1923 the new Republic of Turkey insisted the city be called by it's Turkish name of Istanbul only. So why were people always going to take a trip to Constantinople? All I can think of is the gorgeous scenery, clean air, and a more or less temperate cllimate.
You'll find it easiest to park if you approach the bridge from the east. As always in the desert, be mindful of desert creepy crawlers.
Also, be aware that coordinates can, and do, bounce a lot in this end of the valley. This cache IS available during road construction. In fact, it's even easier to access right now.