My Favorite Place

In late 1980, Douglas and his mom wanted to see more of each other and I wanted to see Amy more than once a year, so I called up the weather assignment people and asked if there were any openings in or near Southern California. He told me there were two, Luke AFB near Phoenix, AZ and Ft. Ord near Monterey, CA. They were roughly the same distance from Amy, and they each had their bad points --- the heat of Arizona versus supporting the Army. I had lived on the edge of the desert before so I doubted the heat would bother me, but that Army thing was something I didn’t want to deal with. He said he would give me 24 hours to make up my mind.

The next day I called him back and said I had made up my mind, but he told me there was no longer a choice. All he had was Ft Ord, take it or leave it. So, with some reservations, I took it.

The Monterey area is gorgeous. Similar to San Francisco with hills and ocean, our apartment was 8-10 blocks up the hill overlooking the bay. There is a lot of fog, but the days that are not foggy more than make up for the days that are. Temperatures were almost always 65 during the day and 55 at night. There was some fluctuation on those temperatures but it was one of the most homogeneous climates I’ve ever seen.

Even the Army surprised me. It was a little different when I first got there; all that marching and running and stuff, but I didn’t have to do it so it was no big deal. The weather station was opened 6am to 6pm, Monday thru Friday and closed on holidays. We went to the field with the Army a few times a year; pitching tents, digging foxholes and latrines right along with them, but even that wasn't so bad. And the weather I’ve already mentioned made forecasting relatively easy.

Then away from Monterey, you could go anywhere from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, but even if you limited yourself to Santa Cruz to Big Sur, it was still great. There was also Highway 1 down the coast, driving the bluffs above the ocean, or up and down the Salinas Valley that was much warmer and one of the garden spots of the world.

All in all, it was a terrific assignment, and I consider it my favorite place.