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[IMAGES] Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Packard & The Guy Who Pushed For Statehood
We all met up at a small local museum in the near-by historical town of Clayton.
I’m a touch OCD about stupid shit like this… but it drives me crazy to have cars from different manufacturers and completely different eras all mixed in together. It garbles the various aesthetics to have no lineage or evolution of design in the groupings.




It’s not big deal, really… but next time parking should be segregated, IMHO. This guy and I were of similar mind.


We eventually hit the road toward Brentwood along one of my all time favorite roads, Marsh Creek, and arrived at (near) the Marsh House which is currently being preserved while a large section of that area is being converted into a state park.


John Marsh was well-known, but not well loved…. He was the first settler in the area and wrote to influential colleagues and newspapers to entice people to head west to California territory and prefaced the ‘49er rush. He bought a Mexican land grant in 1837 and became very wealthy grazing cattle and farming. He is credited with triggering the great pre-gold rush migration to California.
Marsh sought to make California a state by attracting Americans, persuading the Bartleson-Bidwell
party to make the trek in 1841. But when they ate a prize oxen, he lost his temper and Bidwell later wrote in his memoirs, “John Marsh is the meanest man I ever met…”.

The stone house was built in 1856 and was a monument to his second wife, Abby, and daughter Alice. However, Abby died before the house was completed. Later, approximately 3 weeks after moving into the home, Marsh was on a journey to San Francisco and on the road was ambushed by three of his ranch hands over a dispute about their wages and was murdered.
The sandstone for the exterior walls was quarried on site and the bricks were fired near by. The 7,000 square foot home was designed by San Francisco architect Thomas Boyd and included seven gables in a reference to the Nathaniel Hawthorn novel.


Finally, it was time to press onward toward my Italian sandwich and red wine, damn it.




See? ^^THAT looks ridiculous - like zero forethought! A hodge-podge of automotive design and historical timing without chronology.
Mind you, they are *all* BEAUTIFUL machines - but this parking reminds me of a college roommate who used to put all the silverware together in one clump. Never separated, just all heaped together.
But, whatever… it was still fun and I had a great time. And I think the dog did, too!




It was a great opportunity to get out and about with other enthusiasts while we retraced certain elements of California history!
