VW Camper Trip- Jocko's Steaks, “The Birds “ , “Gunsmoke” & gold rush glamping

I'm here with Priscilla Presley. This man is all about the fun. I'm here with actress Tia Guerrero. Good. Welcome to the Best of California. I'm your host Pat Pattison. This is the show where we get on the road and uncover the people, places, natural wonders, history, and mysteries that make up this golden state of ours. Today's episode we're going to jump on the 101 and head north. So let's go out and find out what's the best. Follow me. So a fun little tradition I have before we get on the road is to pick an antenna ball. Past life I did these for Disney and other companies. Jack in the Box and In-N-Out Burger. So I'm going to pick the guy at the top, Sorcerer Mickey. Keep it simple. There we go. Now we're safe. Buckle up. We're even more safe. Can't wait to see what's out there. Let's get going. And our first stop on our Northern California journey here at Jocko's in Napomo, considered one of the best steakhouses in the world. I'm here at Jocko's in Napomo with Shelly McHenry, the kitchen manager. And Shelly, I just had a meal and it was incredible. And tell me a little bit, how long is this place been here? This place started like across the corner in 1886 and then went to across the street to the other corner. And then this building has been here since 1960. And we've just been renovating it now this past couple of years. And same family owner? All this time. And you were telling me a fascinating story that the owner was over in Japan. Yes, and she saw a bumper sticker that said Jocko's. Follow me to Jocko's. And she took a picture of it. Wow. World famous. And I just had the Spencer steak. What's the favorite here at Jocko's? The favorite here is the Spencer steak. It's like a ribeye. Unbelievably good. It's really good. And when I pulled up, I made the joke that I thought maybe there was a fair nearby. I mean, there's got to be a couple hundred cars in your parking lot. Oh, it's always that way. Every night. And are most of your customers local or You know, I'd say like 40% are local, but 60% come from Southern California, Northern California, over from Bakersfield and that. And how do most people find out about you? Word of mouth? It's word of mouth. This is a little off the beaten path. It is way off the beaten path. But this street right here, Thompson, used to be Highway 1. I gotcha. Of course. Yeah, that makes sense. And so Napomo's population, do you know? I don't. Oh, I think it's like 16,000. Okay. So yeah. 16,400 and something. So you got to come try Jocko's Steakhouse here in Napomo. And I'm here with Randy Anderson from Colorado Springs. Used to be in LA. What made you come to Jocko's? I heard from my Uber driver that it's one of the best steakhouses ever. The Uber driver knows? The Uber knows. And you're vacationing where? Gizmo Beach. And I eat usually in another steakhouse, which is the best. So I decided I'm going to check this one out to make sure this is the best. And when you drove up, were you like me? Did you think there was a fair or festival? There were so many cars? Yes, there were so many cars and this opened at four. And I thought, well, I'm going to beat the crowd, but no. And we're here in the breezeway, which gives us a view of the kitchen. And we kind of are a special group. Randy and I got to know each other because we're alone here in the breezeway. Randy became the official greeter of the breezeway. Yes, I have. Anytime someone walks by, I welcome them to the breezeway. So what are you going to tell the people back in Colorado Springs about Jocko's? I don't know yet. I haven't gotten my steak. Oh, well, oh, we're going to wait for the steak standing by. We're back with Randy from Colorado Springs. Bit of a wait. Yes, it was. OK, but what do you think? It's yummy. It's worth the wait for sure. And the breezeway was an experience. The breezeway is a definite experience. I've never had one like this at all. And you said in terms of getting a reservation, this was... I would not do a reservation for one person. And when I came in, it was a two-hour wait for a table. But the breezeway, use the breezeway. Come on. Look, wait, watch. I think we should expand the breezeway. Randy, you're a lot of fun. You're a lot of fun. It was nice meeting you. Nice to meet you and have fun. You made my meal really lovely. Well, good. Are you the best? Like us on Facebook, subscribe to the YouTube channel and we'll come cover you. Stick with us. Where in the Cal am I? And as we wind our way up the 101 north of San Francisco, we hit Bodega Bay. This is the place I want to check out all the locations of the classic Alfred Hitchcock film, The Birds. But we find much more here. Incredible clam chowder, crabbing. Let's go check it out. Here in Bodega Bay at the Potter Schoolhouse, now a private residence. Iconic piece of Hollywood history. Those poor kids running out of there being terrorized by birds as only Alfred Hitchcock can deliver. We continue our bird tour of Bodega Bay. Here's St. Teresa of Avila Church that was featured in the film. As you know, Hitchcock was a master of making things look different than they are. The layout of Bodega Bay is obviously very different than what's represented in The Birds. So here we are at The Tides, the diner where so much of the action took place in The Birds here in Bodega Bay. Obviously, this has been redone. Here's the gas station across the street from The Tides, but it was done as composite when it was blown up by Alfred Hitchcock. So The Tides here in Bodega Bay, another part of the tour, another reason to come up and check out Bodega Bay and this whole area of the Sonoma Coast. And I'm here with Gina Anello at Spud Point Crab Company. And Gina, it's reputed that you have the best chowder in Bodega Bay. Well, thank you very much. We're very proud of that. And we heard that from very reliable sources. My girlfriend just bought some. So we're going to check that out. But what makes you guys so special? I really think it's the family love that went into the recipe. It started with my mom with the white clam chowder and it was her recipe. And it took me years to get it out of her to help her out in the kitchen. But so we're there. And then my grandfather was actually the creator of red chowder on my dad's side. So it really is a family recipe. And tell me about the double boiling and the pots. How does that work? Well, the double boiling is my dad kind of did this whole restaurant with the thought of Fisherman's Wharf. And he has a fire background, right? He does. He was a firefighter for 37 years in this. 37 years as a firefighter. This guy is a Renaissance man. So we double boil our chowder so that it's not directly on the stove. And so that way the cream doesn't scorch and that it's heated correctly. And that's what gives us our consistency. Well, Gina and Ella, thank you so much for being a part of the Best of California Award. Check out Spud Point Chowder Company, Crab Company. Pardon me. I keep messing up the name. Spud Point Crab Company here in Bodega Bay. Pat Patterson with the Best of California Award. Talk to you soon. Enjoy my coffee in Bodega Bay. So far, everything's normal. Are you the best of California? Like us on Facebook. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and we'll come cover you. Tell us all about it. Stick with us. And as we head inland in our trusty VW camper van along the 80, easy stop is Sacramento, one of my favorite historic towns in California. And what I understand has some of the best fried chicken in the state. My mouth is watering. Let's go have a look. And I'm here in Sacramento and we've just eaten at South and this is Ruth Jacobson, who's a native of Louisville, who knows fried chicken. So we thought we'd put South to the test. What did you think? They have really good fried chicken. What else did you get? The hush puppies were some of the best I've ever had. And we tried the cornbread. Delicious. Not the kind I grew up with, but it's very delicious. Tell me about that. What was that cornbread you grew up with? Well, my grandmother and mother made something called scalded cornbread, which is different. Nothing like baked cornbread anyway. Their biscuits are to die for. Really good biscuits. And the kale. Kale was great. And so what makes a good fried chicken? Well, it is a really hard thing to make properly. The meat inside has to be moist and tender and juicy, but cooked through. And then you want the breading to be just like deliciously shattering, crumbly, yummy goodness. And they hit it off out of the park. They have two types of fried chicken here. They have their fried chicken and then you can order it Nashville style. And I had to ask about that because I grew up in Kentucky. I never heard of Nashville style, but apparently it's spicier. And we stuck with the kind I grew up with. Okay, so here we are, Sacramento. Name of the place is South. It's a great place to check out. Pat Patterson with the Best of California Award here in Old Town, Historic Sacramento. Beautiful place in our state capital. One of my favorite places is the Railroad Museum. It commemorates, of course, the railroad that went out and joined up the Eastern bound leg that was coming west in Utah that gave us the transcontinental railroad that bound together our country. Old stores here that are fun. Great place to bring the kids. You can check out the Pony Express Memorial and it's just a great place to have some fun. Now that we're fed and we decided the great fried chicken controversy, we continue out the 80 to Nevada City, hotbed of women's suffrage, home of the 19th Amendment. We meet up with a cutting edge entrepreneur who's developing a glamping campground. Now this I got to see. Here with Erin Thieme, we're in Nevada City and Erin owns and operates the outside inn we stayed in, but she has this incredible other business, which is this campground in town. Erin, so tell me about this business. So we're here at the in town campground, which as Pat said is a campground. We're in the heart of downtown Nevada City and what's unique about our campground is that we have three different types of camping. We've got tent sites, we have RV hookups, and we also have glamping tents. Erin, this is unbelievable and I particularly like our California bear over there, but explain how this all works. Sure. So we're once again in a glamping tent here at the in town campground and this is a canvas wall tent. It's got electricity. As you can see, I turned on the light. I've got a bed. This is a queen size bed. It's got linens, a heated, yeah, a heated mattress pad for these cooler evenings. Yeah. Or a fan if you're here in the summertime. And it's all set up and ready. So when you want to go camping, but everything is just too much work, you just bring the food and you come camping and you can come sit outside on the deck and look at the trees and soak up the nature and just get outside without quite as much work. And it's just a beautiful spot. I mean, I camped a lot as a kid. It feels like that. And, uh, this is just kind of a new version for people that want something that's a little more convenient. You can kind of, you could, you could walk to town from here, right? Yeah, we are only one mile from downtown Nevada city. Um, so not quite as close as the outside end, but definitely in town. Um, and we always tell people that, you know, you get the feel of a state park with all the beautiful trees we're 15 acres over 2000 trees here, but you have the amenities of a private campground. So Aaron, I know that your family is in this business that you kind of took it over from your family, the outside. And tell me a little bit about what it's like to run a family business. Sure. So the outside in was originally started by my mom. Um, in 1998, she opened having no experience in the hospitality world before, but she, I don't know, she liked to play house. She drove it. She's a risk taker. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so she, uh, started that I worked, I have worked at the outside in for almost 20 years. I have owned the business for just shy of 10 years. Um, so definitely been in that industry for a long time. And then my husband had this dream of a campground. Uh, we lived in New Zealand for five years and we really took the model of a holiday park, which they do in New Zealand really well, where that's a communal building. They have different types of camping, close access to town. And so this was sort of his vision. And so we built this. So this is a husband and wife were moved on, you know, next generation, um, agenda for this. So, and, and this year in the land of COVID and short-staffed and all of the challenges of being a small business ownership, we put our children to work. Yeah. I wouldn't say they always want to be a part of it, but in the reality you asked about a family business. So in the land of 2020, sometimes what they want and what we have to do are not always the same answer. Right. Well, Aaron theme, good to talk to you, Pat Patterson with the best California ward. Are you the best? Like us on Facebook, subscribe to the YouTube channel and tell us about it. We'll come cover you. Hi, I'm here at the Rock Haven sanitarium in La Crescenta abandoned now, but it's one of the mysterious and weird stories. We're going to tell you in the coming months, right here on the best of California. Everything's up to date in Nevada city. They've gone about as far as they can go. Oh, that's something else. So now we're going to jump on the 49 head South, a trip back in time to Columbia historic state park, probably the best preserve gold rush town in the world. I love the hidden gems of the state park system. And this one is one of the best, but let's check out Columbia, California here on the best of California ward. So Columbia might've been the state Capitol, but here's what happened. I'm outside the justice department. Jim Hardwick was put on trial for murder, a crooked DA tampered with the jury. He was convicted, but Hardwick's lawyer and fiancee knew that there was a petition to make Columbia the Capitol 11,000 signatures in the DA state. They stole it, rewrote the front page to be a pardon for Hardwick attached signatures, presented it to the governor and he gave him a part, but that stopped the whole thing of getting a Columbia to be the Capitol. So Jim Hardwick was acquitted. Columbia did not become our Capitol. Here's another natural benefit as well as historic for California state parks. Look at these incredible rock formations preserved forever because they're at the California state parks, support California state parks, visit as many as you can. They're all over. There's one near you. And this is an incredible restoration story here. The old Columbia school house here at the Columbia state park built in 1860 for $6,000. And Mr. Donegan was responsible refurbished in the 1870s. A couple of times operate until 1937 when it was declared unsafe due to earthquake problems. And in the 1940s, the state bought it, show you what it used to look like. Now it's being refurbished again. We're told it's going to open up in about a week. Let's take a look. I'm here with park ranger, Ryan at the Columbia school house. He was nice enough to let us in. It's not open yet. It's going to be open soon, but gave us a sneak peek and you're doing all the windows. You said Ryan and what else is going on? We're doing the window and door restoration and state parks on our half. We are restoring a dozen of the windows on the East and South side. And you can see all the desks, the period desk behind us. Some of them original, some of them have been brought in and just the, the two story old school house, something you probably can't see anywhere else in the state. And Ryan, uh, part of what you told me is they're going to start kind of a interactive program. What they do is they like to have our docents recreate what an actual classroom and lesson would be like and every, and they dress in period clothing. And as you can see behind you on the chalkboard, there are still chores listed. And so they bring in, uh, groups of school children and they give them lessons and then they switch out. And what we're looking to do with the restoration complete is to vamp up those interpretive programs here at the schoolhouse. We believe this to be the oldest two-story brick schoolhouse in California. And it's really important to us to bring the public in and let them get a good view of, of what still exists here. All of which is original artifacts. And as we head back home to Los Angeles, one of my favorite things to do for the best of California, old Hollywood locations. This is just at the corner of the 101 and the 23 in thousand Oaks, Wildwood Park. So we're almost home. We're in the home stretch on our California adventure and our vintage VW wagon stopping at thousand Oaks. Let's take a look at what famous Westerns were shot here at Wildwood Park. This is the home of Gunsmoke, the Rifleman, some of the shows I grew up with, the man who shot Liberty Valance, Spartacus, some old Hollywood movies. Now a hiking area, a hidden gem. I'm here with Josh Palmer and Josh, you're from where? I'm from Washington state originally. And whereabouts? Seattle area. And we are here at the Wildwood Ranch hiking area. And Josh, are you a movie fan? Oh, big time. I've lived down here in Los Angeles about four years and I've been to Hollywood a few times. What are your favorite types of films? Oh gosh, I love sci-fi. Big fan of that. I like historical movies and of course, Westerns are a big favorite of mine. Have you ever heard of the TV show from the 50s, Gunsmoke? Yes. My dad knows that show. He's told me about it. Rifleman? Yep. Rifleman. Also, I've heard of that one. Yep. Well, check this out. This is where they were shot. Those two ridges are those ridges right behind us. Oh my gosh. Isn't that wild? That is. That's awesome. Isn't that Wildwood? That is wild. God, that's awesome. I had no idea that it was just right here. John Wayne. Jimmy Stewart. Oh, the man who shot Liberty Valance. Yeah, yeah. I know that movie. So do you know much? I mean, have you been to other locations? I haven't. Do you know much about this area and movie ranches? No, not outside the city. I don't. Okay, so the Iverson Ranch is out in this area. The Paramount Ranch where they shot MASH and all those shows. Oh yeah, I know that show. Corriganville is another area and then the Spawn Ranch. Have you ever heard of the Spawn Ranch? No, I have not. So, did you see the movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? Yes, I've seen that one. Yes. You remember where Charlie Manson was supposed to stay and where Brad Pitt goes? Yeah, where they're in the desert. Yeah, that's right out in this part. Really? I didn't know that. Now it's all houses. Oh my gosh, that's crazy. Well, that's awesome. Thank you. Are you going to see more locations? Oh yeah, definitely now. Excellent. I am. And that wraps up our safari van odyssey of Northern California. Went all over the places that we thought we should take you to. I want to talk about the van and if you're thinking about going camping, you're coming in from Europe, you're coming in from Canada. Great way to camp during the pandemic. But let's look at the van a little bit. The total California vintage VW experience. And I'm here at Vintage Safari Wagons with owner Bill Stagg. And Bill, this is an incredible business. How did you get started in this business? By accident. Yeah, it was a combination of providence and experience and a lovely wife who encouraged me to take something that's been a passion of mine for years and try to make a lifestyle out of it. How big of a fleet? I mean, we see some of them here. We're showing the one that we went up north and how many models do you have? Well, we've got three different models of the Volkswagen camper vans, but we've got the Vanagans, the Bay Windows and the one like you have is a Eurovan. I mean, anybody that wants that California experience, this is the way to go. Well, I think it is. This Volkswagen van really started the whole van life movement now. It's I mean, folks, old, young, in between couples, families, you name it. We encountered that on our trip, just the people with their bigger RVs and then people like us that were just coming in and like you say, kind of leaving a small footprint. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, these lend themselves to real simplifying your lifestyle. Can't haul a lot of stuff. So you got to be real picky about what you bring with you and you tend to find yourself gearing towards stuff that can be used more than one way in these cars. It kind of alters your life in a lot of ways, but we just like to see people have an opportunity to try them out. But we have people come from Europe and Canada and all over the world really that want this California lifestyle, you know, the sun and the beaches and stuff. And of course, I try to introduce people to the deserts and the mountains and some of the other. So do we. We love to show all those areas. Well, Bill Stagg, thank you so much. And that's this episode. Remember to like us on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel and tell us why you're the best in California and we'll come cover you. See you next time.