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Part 4

We are still at Bruce's country home. His workshop was fascinating. He had such an array of tools, my creative instinct was bursting with eagerness to jump in and make something. One of my favorite classes in High School was wood shop. I made a small bedroom dresser which now resides with Pete's mom in South San francisco. I once had a floor lamp that I made, but I have no idea where it is now. I had a great shop teacher, and I loved working with wood, and creating my own designs, and was able to complete them successfully under his wise guidance.

I don't remember what Bruce was searching for in this photo, but I think he eventually found it

I have absolutely no idea how Bruce managed to move these heavy pieces of machinery from his shop in Paris to his new
shop at his country home in Burgundy. The one on the right, which I think is called a jointer, must weigh tons.
Or, perhaps it is called a planer. My shop work in High School is so far behind me now, it's a wonder I even remember
the experience of it at all. What I do remember were the signs posted on the shop walls with a little cartoon character doing
something stupid in the shop. His name was DOAKOR (Doesn't Obey Any Kind Of Rules). The signs were to remind the students
to be careful, because the big machines were deadly if used inappropriately. Funny how things like that stick in your memory for life.
My High School life (1952-1955) was a wonderful experience. I don't know if it is still like that today, but I don't think so,
from what I read about our educational system today. If true, that is indeed sad.

Bruce took us upstairs and showed us two bedrooms, of which we could have our choice. We chose this one, because of
the window above the bed. Every room in his home was cheery and very well decorated. Bruce never ceases to amaze me.

Just look at these huge beams supporting the roof. I don't know how old this house is,
but I suspect it is many centuries. On the outside, you can see that it was built to last.

This is Sam's room. How many kids rooms look this neat. I'd love to challenge Sam to a quick
game of Foosball, although I'm pretty certain that he would whip my butt in very short order.

For lunch Bruce fixed a delicious tomato salad and Pizza. It was really good, and I was starved. LOL

After lunch Bruce took us for a drive in the country. As we started out, Bruce would let Ness run along side of the
car. She seemed to really get into it. This country living was the perfect environment for having a dog. It reminded
me of my years as a kid, living in Crescent City, on a piece of land my Dad bought on the old Redwood Highway, and
our nearest neighbor, the Culliver family, lived a mile away. The kids names were Burt and Peggy. We would meet up
with them and go racing through the woods, which consisted of groves of young pine trees that were so close together
we made a game of seeing how far we could go in the forest without touching the ground, just by jumping from tree
to tree. We would come home with pine pitch all over us from the sport.

Everywhere we went in Burgundy there were herds of these white cows, a breed I had never seen before.

In the country there was no traffic. I don't remember a single vehicle passing us. Ness was definitely up for another run.

Bruce drove up a hill and we stopped at this ancient church with its cemetery. It is quite a landmark because
we could see it from many other places we visited on our drive through this amazing country side.

The old church was right at the entrance to this magnificent bridge that spanned a river gorge.

This was such an idilic setting. I was tempted to go down for a swim, but we had not come prepared for that.

The above photo reminds me of the first time I met Bruce, on my first trip to New Zealand. I was traveling by hitch hiking. My original intent was to bicycle all over the country. The woman at the New Zealand Consulate in California told me that the roads were metal. I naivety thought how wonderful. It turned out that metal to a New Zealander with respect to roads meant gravel. It was not only difficult to ride on, but it was tearing my tires to shreds. I rode from Auckland to the end of 100 mile Beach and back. When I got back to Auckland, I left my bike with the Reynolds family, whom I had met in California a few years earlier, and took off to resume my tour of that beautiful country with my thumb out. I believe this was in 1978 if memory serves me right. I was on my way to Grey Mouth via Arthur's Pass, and spent the night at the National Park there. That is were I met Bruce Kleyer and Barry Caitchen, and we have been friends ever since. I'll never forget the next morning. We arose early, and we decided to climb up a hill to see the reservoir from which the park got it's water. It was not very big, maybe 20 or 30 feet across. We decided to go for a morning dip. Testing the water with my toe, I knew there was no way to go in slowly, so I stood on a rock and jumped in head first. I came up and could hardly breath, the water was like ice. I quickly swam across and back and got out before all bodily functions ceased to function. Bruce and Barry did the same. It was quite refreshing, and very definitely a bonding moment. Later that morning we exchanged our addresses (the brick and mortar ones, because this was before the Internet was in the public domain, and e-mail was something we used at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center where I worked), and our lifelong friendship had begun.

This little trip through France's Burgundy country side will resume in Part 5