A sunny day in Sacramento is usually quick to have me hopping out of bed near first light to see what the day has to offer.
The plan was to drive south-east out of town on highway 16 and then over to highway 49, to delightful place called Daffodil Hill. I'm really anxious for winter to be gone, and for spring to sprout forth signs the earth is ready to rise anew. Sadly, after driving the 37 miles or so, a lady near the entrance told me, the daffodils aren't quite ready yet. "We hope they will be up and ready by March 12th" she said!
So, I performed a 180 turn in the road, and headed back the direction I had come. Once back on the highway, I decided to head over toward another town, I haven't blogged about, Ione.
Ione is a little town, which has sat on the skirts of the Gold Rush legends, while many other Mother Lode towns have enjoyed a more robust tapestry of history and legends.
However, there is one astonishing building in Ione, which is worth noting. Preston Castle is a California State Historic Landmark. The land for the Castle was purchased in 1890 from Ione Coal & Iron Company. The castle's sandstone was quarried a few miles from Ione. The bricks were created at Folsom and San Quentin prisons. The cornerstone was set with pomp and ceremony, in late 1890. The architectural style is described as Romanesque Revival.
The purpose for building the Preston Castle was to accommodate the Preston School of Industry (reform school), in an attempt to rehabilitate juvenile offenders. It closed in 1960 when the school built a new building. The Castle is now empty, with some action being made to restore it.
As a trivia footnote to the Castle's history - it was used as the setting for a 2005 movie flick titled, "Bloodthirst 2: Revenge of the Chupacabras" - written and directed by Sacramento's own news personality, Jonathan Mumm.
Ironically, a pretty good friend of mine, Bruce Shaw, played the leading role of Detective Steve Andrews.
For several years, I worked with Bruce at a software development company, where his "day job" was Senior Software Engineer; but his night job "sometimes" consisted of singing wonderful opera roles for the Sacramento Opera Company. I can still remember his wonderful singing practice runs during break times and lunch. However, Bruce didn't sing in the Blood Thirst movie!
The IMDb user reviews rate this movie 3.4 Stars out of a possible 10. IMDB users state this flick is "Bad, Bad. But surprisingly amusing." However, because I know Bruce, I was entertained. It would be of the same genre as the "Blair Witch Project" - but didn't get as much hype and marketing!
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