Half Moon Bay Memories & El Granada Observer

That’s Half Moon Bay in the distance–with the San Mateo-Half Moon Bay Road leading to the town. Note: there doesn’t seem to be anything on either side of the road–which means it must have been taken prior to the 1940s.

This is my favorite pix of old way to Half Moon Bay…

The San Mateo-Half Moon Bay Road’s (Highway 92) famous “House of Doors” was built by Fred Nordholz, a German saloon owner. According to legend, the doors were used in buildings at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition held in San Francisco. When the spectacular international show closed, Nordholz purchased the doors and shipped them down to Half Moon Bay where he built a house with them. Later in the 1950s Half Moon Bay’s colorful, outspoken Mayor Ann Howe (yes, think “An how!”) bought the house, hoping to turn it into a museum.

Both lanes on Hwy 92 are open now–but it took Burt 1 hour and ten minutes of waiting on the road–due to a big rig fire which closed down the highway.

Burt says the fire occurred on the west side of 92 in east-bound lanes. “The truck was completely burned, the cab was burned. How could that have happened?”

He saw one firetruck and numerous CHP (California Highway Patrol) vehicles at the scene of the fire. The remains of the truck have been pulled to the side of the road (we haven’t heard what happened to the driver…we hope he’s okay).

“The traffic was just horrible,” says Burt who sat in his car behind two garbage trucks. “The trucks made it impossible for me to see what was going on.”

Now that both sides of Highway 92 are open again, Burt says he sees hundreds of cars backed-up waiting to head west to Half Moon Bay.

A “fully engulfed” big rig fire closed down Highway 92 in both directions
beginning at 10:11am, according to the Highway Patrol, according to Coastsider.com

…Coastsider.com reports that Caltrans officials at a press conference yesterday announced that Devil’s Slide will reopen on August 4th.

Praise the Lord!

Our gratitude is overwhelming…Thank you to the engineers and working guys at the Slide who beat the schedual, thank you to all the officials for whatever role they played.

Hey CalTrans, one more thing….the poor slugs that sit on Hwy 92– two-three hours per day– may not even get this good news…How about spreading the word on all the printed signs and new electronic boards that give the number of minutes to and from Hwy 280 & Hwy 1….

…And one last thought: If on August 4 there is a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Slide’s reopening– in addition to the smiling bureaucrats and politicians– PLEASE make sure a couple of commuters are represented at the ceremony, too.

(Photo: Commuters raring to go when the Slide reopens).

P.S. Re-opening of the Slide is a headline story in the San Mateo Times

Commuters heading home to Half Moon Bay on Monday afternoon, the 10th of July, were stopped in their tracks near Half Moon Bay Nursery. Burt and I were two of those commuters, some 300 yards away from what–at a distance– looked like debris on the road. I wasn’t able to see what was in the road nor were any of the other drivers in front of me.

All of us were baffled. If it was an accident, where were the cars?

As we waited emergency vehicles arrived, including two ambulances. We waited, straining to see.

All we could see was something lying on the road. Something dark. Radio news didn’t know yet. I called 511* for traffic info but the man on the recording said there was a “delay between Skyline and Skyline” on Highway 92, but cars were moving at 35-40 mph. No way! And, where’s Skyline & Skyline?

I decided to find out the old-fashioned way: I called Half Moon Bay Nursery, and asked Brad, who answered, if he knew what had happened.

“Two motorcycles were struck by a vehicle,” he told me.

“Thank you, Brad.”

(Meanwhile two ambulances left the scene, heading east.)

I called KCBS and the story was aired seconds later. “Avoid 92,” the traffic reporter said “92 is a parking lot…”

We were near the front of the line and passed the endless line of cars, standing still, stretching from the scene of the horrible accident west to Highway 1–It’ll take at least a couple of hours to clear this up, I thought.

I didn’t want to imagine how far the line stretched, all those cars at a standstill, in the opposite direciton–and, there are very very few places to turn around on Highway 92.

I see the I Tunes Music Store is showing off a series of “Driving Music”–one is for the Autobahn in Germany, another for New England, another for the ride to the Napa-Sonoma Wine Country–all soothing, classical music.

The copy said (something like) nothing can ruffle feathers more than a wonderful day spoiled by unexpected traffic delays….turning an otherwise “normal” man or woman into a shrieking mimi within 30 seconds….

I Tunes Music Store Person: Please let me recommend “Driving Music For Highway 92″. Let it be modern music that goes off the dee end, music to accompany a nervous breakdown–spastic, antonal and cacophonous…

Note: The Place To Be More Than A 100 Years Ago…

Note: In the late 1970s I was honored to be named the Grand Marshall of the 4th of July Parade in Half Moon Bay. Here’s the article:

And here’s me:

The Coastside has a history of shuttle “buses”. This one shuttled passengers from San Gregorio, Pescadero and Swanton to Santa Cruz and back. Note the conductor sitting on his perch.

I wonder if our new shuttle be as colorful.

Photo: Randolph Brandt

Half Bay Memories & the El Granada Observer has commissioned an unofficial survey of the number of big commercial trucks and big rigs traveling to and fro on Highway 92.

And the numbers from this unofficial “eye count� are in.

“Approximately every sixth vehicle,â€? according to the ‘eye count’ survey, “is either a large commercial vehicle or big rig sandwiched in between commuter and passenger cars and smaller working trucks traveling to and from the Coastside during daylight hours on the weekdays.â€?

Well, there you have it. Every sixth vehicle is a large truck or big rig.

Are they all going to Devil’s Slide, to help fix the broken road?

Are they going to the dump?

Where are they going?

Should they be on the road during daylight hours while Devil’s Slide is closed, making life miserable for commuters and almost impossible for those who would come to shop and visit the Coastside?

From Montara Bob:

June, I finally have the solution for the Devil’s Slide fiasco.

We’re lucky to have Bechtel, the world’s mega-engineering firm based in San Francisco.

Bechtel has built total cities from scratch, railroads in Trinidad, power plants all over the world…..

Hey, Bechtel! How about giving us about a week-and-a-half, pro bono?

And clean up that little mess on Highway 1.