VENADO

Tracking down lost yesterdays…

Venado is a spot on the map that may no longer be a spot on the road.  Once located west of Healdsburg (Sonoma County) on Mill Creek Road, there still exists an active weather data gathering station out there.  For a time in college, I thought being a weather prognosticator would be a cool job, and I still like hunting down where these sites are often wondering why these sites are.  Coincidentally, the human-interest column in Sunday’s local paper noted the passing of a woman, a Venado area icon of sorts, who’d walked back and forth to Daniels School a decade or so earlier than I walked to Rosedale (in Chico).  That’d place her scholarly days sometime in the late 1940s.

“Let’s go, Edward!” I said to the lab-mix puppy who always wears his traveling hat, even in the house.

Daniels School is out there, maybe at Venado – or maybe just near Venado.  There’s no sign marking the place name and no sign of the weather station.  But Edward and I enjoyed a little adventure traveling backward in time from a hip and urbane Healdsburg, winding along a picturesque creek, past farms and vineyards, through sun-spackled woodlands and into darkening redwood groves. 

Ten or more miles into deepening yesterdays, the pavement deteriorated, and the buildings became notably more “historic.” We turned back only when the banjo music in my mind became a bit too intrusive.

o0o 

Press Democrat article on Venado:  Interesting read although you may need to copy the link into your browser... http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/5092497-181/sonoma-county-community-of-venado

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Church of the Open Road Press