Colin:
I assume you will be making the pilgrimage up Highway 101 to the mothership. About 3/4 of the way up, just as you are coming to Petaluma, you will pass a park on the left called Olompali. When the Dead wanted to get out of Dodge, (the Haight), they rented an old Spanish house and land and had a heckuva party for several months. This has since become a state park. Here is part of the description from the official Olompali State Park Website:
During the 1960s, the University sold Olompali several times. The various owner rented the ranch to various people. Their most famous tenant, the rock band Grateful Dead, lived here in 1966. The ranch became a gathering place for San Francisco's rock musicians. Icons such as Janis Joplin and Grace Slick visited Olompali. Don McCoy, a local business man -turned- hippie, leased Olompali in 1967 and turned it into a utopian or hippie commune for a group known as The Chosen Family. Finally, the State of California, together with Marin County, purchased the property in 1977 to preserve it as a State Historic Park.
Olompali is now a free park, right next to the freeway. It is beautiful and lightly visited. There is a plaque describing the hippie tenants, as I recall. Well worth the stop while on the way to or back from Alembic. You might also want to visit such sites as the old Carousel Ballroom, the old Avalon Ballroom, and, of course, where Winterland used to be. Also the Great American Music Hall (which is still open) where they played in '75 during their hiatus. Of course there is the Fillmore. You might want to read (re-read?) some of the Dead history books, especially Dennis McNally's, Blair Jackson's, and, of course, Phil's, before coming out. Hope this helps.
Bill, tgo
(Message edited by lbpesq on January 10, 2008)
