• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

This blog will pay for itself.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Come on, man.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

This fight is for everything.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Everybody saw this coming.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – Mendocino, Comptche Chapter

On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – Mendocino, Comptche Chapter

by WaterGirl|  November 27, 20205:00 am| 7 Comments

This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging

FacebookTweetEmail

On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Steve from Mendocino

Comptche is about 30 minutes from Mendocino, up in the hills beyond the overcast.  It’s 10 degrees cooler during the winter and 10 degrees warmer during the summer.  There are fewer than 200 people, most spread out in the hills on 40-acre parcels. During the late 60’s and early 70’s there were a number of communes situated near Comptche, and a good bit of marijuana grown (Comptche Crippler, anyone?).  Traditionally, logging and farming sustained the community.  The old families are mostly Republican, but with the influx of hippies, politics shifted hard left.  For shopping, employment, and socializing, the area orients toward coastal Mendocino instead of east toward Booneville or Ukiah.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - Mendocino, Comptche Chapter 7

The entrance to Comptche from the coast on a rainy spring morning.  The old school sign with the bullet hole was replace a number of years ago with a wonderful dayglow plastic sign that fits in well with the totally fake redwoods, 100-year-old orchards, and high fashion rural dandies that is Comptche.  (Sarcasm, for those who might think I’m serious.  Comptche is super laid back and the opposite of plastic).

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - Mendocino, Comptche Chapter 6

The Comptche school is K-3, all mashed up into two rooms with older kids helping to teach the younger ones.  My daughters, who were home schooled prior to 9th grade, each spent a year at this school so they could spend time and socialize with the neighboring kids in this tiny community.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - Mendocino, Comptche Chapter 5

Cherry trees in front of a house on a misty winter day.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - Mendocino, Comptche Chapter 4

Comptche store in the heart of the metropolis.  The premium gas pump cannot handle the price of premium and has been abandoned.  Gotta love the Arab Gold label, though.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - Mendocino, Comptche Chapter 3

I am told the Comptche Baptist church was built with marijuana money, which sounds plausible, but I’ve never tried to confirm it.  The minister when I moved into the area was Rita Coolidge’s father, Dick, who had a large sign at the entrance to his property announcing “The earthly home of Dick and Charlotte Coolidge”.  One Sunday after services a number of the faithful were gathered at his house when a official of some sort came by and was convinced it was some sort of UFO cult because of that sign.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - Mendocino, Comptche Chapter 2

Home of the famous Comptche Volunteer Fire Department.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - Mendocino, Comptche Chapter 1

The tents at the annual CVFD Father’s Day picnic.  Cancelation of that event because of the pandemic has left a big hole in their budget.

On The Road - Steve from Mendocino - Mendocino, Comptche Chapter

Comptche Community Hall, formerly the Grange hall, hosts monthly bingo, senior lunches, dances, music events, weddings, baby showers, memorial services, an annual art exhibit, a “summer cool down”, and other events, when not superseded by pandemic.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday/Friday, Nov. 26-27
Next Post: Friday Morning Open Thread: A Chance to Breathe Again »

Reader Interactions

7Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 27, 2020 at 5:28 am

    The premium gas pump cannot handle the price of premium and has been abandoned.

    I remember when during one of the gas price shocks and pumps weren’t able to correctly display the price of gas, they set the pumps to half the price and put up signs on each pump saying double what the pump showed.

  2. 2.

    Albatrossity

    November 27, 2020 at 8:27 am

    Nice. It is difficult to capture the moody mists of that part of California, but these images did that for me. Beautiful part of the state, beautifully rendered. Thanks!

  3. 3.

    J R in WV

    November 27, 2020 at 9:52 am

    Nice work in a very rural community. Can’t pick a favorite photo this time~!

  4. 4.

    susanna

    November 27, 2020 at 10:06 am

    So atmospheric I could easily imagine myself driving those curves and taking in the countryside.  That’s an apt level of activity this day after, sans large gathering.

    Do you have more?

  5. 5.

    Steve from Mendocino

    November 27, 2020 at 10:50 am

    @susanna: I’ve got at least another post of Comptche, and lots more of coastal Mendocino.  I’ll make those posts from time to time but interspersed with posts of my older work.  Water Girl has 10 posts of Paris tucked away in her vaults.

  6. 6.

    JanieM

    November 27, 2020 at 11:14 am

    Seconding what others have said — lovely and atmospheric. Is the CVFD building the most modern building in “town”? ;-)

    I drive now and then through certain areas in Maine, not far from where I live, where it’s possible to get deeper and deeper into a certain mindset inspired mostly by how old the homes and farms are. And then I come out onto a bigger road and it’s like oh, wait, it’s the twentieth century? (I wouldn’t go so far as to say the twenty-first….) These pictures make me feel like that. I’d love to pass through there someday.

  7. 7.

    namekarB

    December 2, 2020 at 12:08 am

    Just got around to viewing. Very Nice. I’ve hiked damn near every trail between Salt Point and Westport and driven most of the back roads (Westport to Layton, Usal Road up to Shelter Cove and every ridge road between Myers Grade and Gualala) but I have never in 30 years made that turn up off US1 to Comptche. Your pics have got me thinking I’ve missed out on a real jewel. Putting that on my To-Do list. Thanks

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

2023 Pet Calendars

Pet Calendar Preview: A
Pet Calendar Preview: B

*Calendars can not be ordered until Cafe Press gets their calendar paper in.

Recent Comments

  • YY_Sima Qian on War for Ukraine Day 343: Bakhmut (Feb 3, 2023 @ 2:01am)
  • patrick II on War for Ukraine Day 343: Bakhmut (Feb 3, 2023 @ 1:42am)
  • NaijaGal on In A World Full of Garbage People (Feb 3, 2023 @ 1:25am)
  • Carlo Graziani on War for Ukraine Day 343: Bakhmut (Feb 3, 2023 @ 1:24am)
  • YY_Sima Qian on War for Ukraine Day 343: Bakhmut (Feb 3, 2023 @ 1:18am)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Favorite Dogs & Cats
Classified Documents: A Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup

Front-pager Twitter

John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
ActualCitizensUnited

Shop Amazon via this link to support Balloon Juice   

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!