Another great day on the island. I've been here 4 or 5 times since I've lived in California and in all that time I haven't done any of the "touristy" things that people do. It was actually a lot of fun going on the undersea boat ride and the inland tour. We even got a chance to see some of the island's elusive buffalo - no kidding.

Catalina Island
Catalina is 8 miles wide by 21 miles long and sits about 22 miles off the California coast. The weather is perfect year round - if cool - and the water is crystal clear. Most of the land is "unusable" steep mountainside. The largest city is only 1 mile in diameter and the year round population hovers around 3500. (Condos start at $950k if you're interested).

Buffalo
In 1924, a film crew brought 14 buffalo to the island to shoot a scene in a film version of Zane Gray's "The Vanishing American". (Zane Gray is probably the most prolific writer of cowboy/western novels.) The production coordinators couldn't figure out how to round up the buffalo after the shoot. Mr Wrigley who owned most of the island at the time purchased them at $30 a head and allowed them to roam free on the island. They have thrived over the years and number about 150 today.

The Two Hour Inland Island Tour
There are very few cars on the island - everyone drives golf carts. Most roads are extremely narrow and in poor condition... The "bus" for the inland island tour was an ancient semi with a custom bus trailer on the back. The thing was huge! As we piled aboard I had no idea how in the world we were going to fit on the roads in town, much less the narrow mountain roads leading up to the peak.

The bus driver, Charlie, was a short, leathery man with disturbingly caffeinated energy. He sported Ray Charles-like, near-opaque sunglasses, 1980's Michael Jackson hair, and a maniacal laugh that would burst out at awkward times. After wrapping up a fractured introduction, Charlie hopped up to the enclosed cab at the front of the bus.

All of the passengers looked at each other in wide-eyed uncomfortable silence. This awkward, jittery guy is about to pilot a giant bus up a rocky, narrow, winding mountain trail. As a joke, I asked my wife to take my "last known photo"... she laughed... kind of.... *click*

We barreled down the roads at a surreal speed. It was a lot like being on the "night bus" from Harry Potter. I swear we were inches away from ... well - everything. People, cars, trees... My wife and son get motion sickness pretty easily and turned green within minutes of getting underway. As he drove, he assaulted everyone with lame, overused, punny jokes, which he punctuated with his crazy laugh.

The jokes and commentary were frequently drowned out by the straining diesel engine, and the horrifying hairpin turns. The steep mountainsides dropped away from the road's edge almost vertically. Charlie would swing the cab wide around the turns with maybe an inch or two between the tire and a 100 ft drop. We're gonna die. Holy crap. We're gonna die.

After about 15 minutes of this, I got the impression that I was watching an artist as opposed to a madman. Charlie was putting that massive bus exactly where it needed to be. He didn't so much as scrape a tree or cliffside.

Is this a joke?
As we neared the mountain top Catalina airport, Charlie said something about the air pressure in the brakes running low. He radioed ahead for a mechanic, but he said that if the pressure drops below 30psi, we would lock up. Once again the helpless passengers just looked at each other. Is he serious?

Within minutes, the bus jerked and slowed to a stop. Charlie came on the radio again, "Oops - well ... there we go. We're done, folks. Pressure dropped and we ain't goin no where for about 20 minutes *crazy laugh* Might as well get off the bus and stretch your legs *more crazy laughing*".

Community
The most fascinating thing happened when we stepped into the sun and fresh air. People started talking to each other! Had this tour gone according to plan, we would have boarded the bus, gone to the airport, done a little gift shopping, and returned to the depot without talking to anyone. But with the breakdown, we met another couple celebrating their anniversary, a nice family from Texas and a sweet couple of retired professors.

Colin had a blast digging in the dirt and looking at the cacti. Amy found a dried buffalo patty and I wandered up the hillside with the other anniversary couple to look at the rust and mustard colored lichen growing on the rocks. We even talked to the insane bus driver for a bit and learned that he has been a resident of the island for 40 years.

When my wife asked me what my favorite part of the trip was... I told her without hesitation - the breakdown. It was nice seeing strangers act like part of a community.