Giant cat hanging around!

[JeffKeryk]

Yes, many fond memories exploring the area on my bicycle as both an adventurous pre-teen and maturing teenage boy. I'd ride for hours on bumpy and narrow country roads with just 50 cents in my pocket; no ID, no phone, no nothing. Didn't need it back then. When I was 11 or 12 years old riding to Montalvo via Quito Road was one of my favorite rides (Pollard Road didn't even exist). Talk about an adventure to the edge of the planet! I'd stop for a soda and candy bar at Austin Corners when it was still there. Back then it was a small one pump gas station and podunk automotive repair shop in a dilapidated wooden shack.

When I got older, say 13 or 14, I'd ride all the way to Moffett Field in Mountain View on one of my Gitanes (!!!) and watch the B-36 bombers fly in. Back then Los Gatos, Saratoga, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, and Mountain View were all much smaller communities that were separated by miles of orchards. My ride to Moffett took me hours and made my mother both worried and angry because of my all day disappearance. Those same country roads are major thoroughfares now.

I grew up in a home with an apricot orchard for our back yard. Orchards were everywhere and all the springtime blossoms meant that spring actually smelled like something. My friends and I used to hunt each other down and play war with stick rifles in those apricot trees, back when playing war wasn't a sin. Later in life we hunted birds with our BB and pellet rifles.

My grandparents thought my parents had lost their minds by moving to such a remote location. Seems unfathomable now. I'd literally pay $20,000 or $30,000, probably more, just to go back in time as a 73 year old so I could - for just 6 or 8 hours on a sunny and warm springtime day - do nothing more than once again explore all those old country roads on one of my modern road bikes.

Scott

Well said Scott. While things have changed, I still say they will take me outta here in a box.

 

[slo town]

Well said Scott. While things have changed, I still say they will take me outta here in a box.

I'll forever love Los Gatos but Templeton is my new love. When we first moved here downtown Templeton still had wooden sidewalks in areas. Hewitt's hardware has been in the same downtown building for 100 years!

This is downtown Templeton on a crystal clear early January evening. So achingly cute! That diamond shaped sign down the street is McPhee's, our favorite restaurant in the entire county.

And getting back to the subject of the OP, often times we have deer in our backyard or wandering our street, packs of yapping coyotes at our back fence at night, or roaming mountain lions on occasion. In fact, a mountain lion was spotted on a Ring camera 2 or 3 months ago meandering on our neighbors driveway just two homes away from us. Sue and I no longer take nighttime walks.

Scott

 

[jadmt]

just a little puddy cat....buddy and I were on an early morning hike and came across this guy and later his son got this on his door camera which was about 1/2 mile from where we came across the deer.