Mountain View
in the heart of Silicon Valley
just around the corner from Perry Lane!

Capn' Skypilot directing traffic

The Bus picked up the Babbses, MG and Are We Really? at Freddy's house in San Francisco. It traveled south along Ocean Beach to Skyline Boulevard toward Perry Lane to pick up Roy Sebern and visit with Chloe, Vic Lovell and other luminous souls and Palo Alto Pranksters. The San Francisco peninsula is spectacularly beautiful with Crystal Springs resevoir nesting below the coastal range with the towns of Woodside on one side and La Honda on the other. Page Mill Road comes into view along with the Stanford linear acceleratorrrrrrrrrrrrr... The Bus passes the offices of Venture Capitalists responsible for much of the technology funding and rise and fall of the dawt calm boom and bust. McGraw Hill publishing has offices on the right but we already have a publisher and who reads this stuff anyway. We're here to visit and remember and go further.

Holy Shit!
We are following the yellow brick road.

The Stanford golf course comes into view as George hangs a left into the oak tree lined streets where Ed directs the Bus to his friend Susan's house whom he has not seen in a long long time. Susan needs a real good dose of Pranksterism which we gladly offer with all our hearts.

We then travel around the corner under canopies of large oaks and redwood trees. Palo Alto north of the campus is a very idyllic place! The Bus comes to a stop in front of Chloe's house where the pitter patter of dancing feet pliering left and right greet the Bus. Chloe is a woman who exudes worldly confidence with the cosmic-est giggle in her eyes. She warmly greets the Pranksters welcoming all into her house along with her friends and fellow dancers, the Dymaxion Dancing Krewe that included Zonker's sister Anna. Chloe is a world class dancer having performed with the Royal Ballet. The walls of her home are a lifetime memory of photos and artful illustrations. There is a large dance studio at the back of the house. She is among the earliest of residents on Perry Lane only one block from her house. A group of us walked over to Perry Lane where the vibe was very... bohemian. Standing under the enormous oak trees it was obvious this spot on earth jump started a movement. Literary expression, silicon chips, psychedelic experimentation, high-tech electronics, extreme partying... just a few of the concepts born from this Stanford, California neighborhood.

The Dymaxion Dancers

The time to head to Mountain View came too fast as the party needed to quickly move to Books Inc. We all boarded and headed through Stanford Campus where the bonfire rally for the Stanford/Cal Big Game was ending. The Bus turned south onto El Camino Real where its relentless stream of motels and hotels with high speed internet access and fast food joints were greeted with hoots and laughs.

Zane examines the edited script in the Prankster Green Room

Ed once again introduced us all to the packed room inviting Roy Sebern to read Wavy Gray's Haiku to start the evening's readings. Credited with bringing art to the Bus, Roy still lives in the neighborhood. Vic Lovell read his Elegy For Ken from Spit In The Ocean with the opening line "The men I loved in my youth have begun to die". Vic is responsible for Kesey and others getting involved in the VA sponsored experiments which spilled into the Perry Lane crowd. Kesey dedicated One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to Vic... "To Vic Lovell who told me dragons did not exist, then led me to their lairs." David Stanford, Juke, Eileen Babbs, Mountain Girl, Pat Monahan, Are We Really? Freddy, Ken Babbs and Ed McClanahan also read excerpts and related stories from SPIT in between the Intrepid Traveler and His Band of Merry Pranksters presenting the Six Kesey Sketches or Skitches as they were affectionately known by now. The Pranksters made sure all of the attendees had a card, their card, because we're all cards and we were playing cards because that's your card!

from left... David, Chloe, Ed, Roy, Vic, Juke, Zane

Home again, home again... late in the night.