Feb. 15: Capitol 6 Drive-In, San Jose CA

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It’s Day 46 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey, and my first in the San Francisco Bay area. It took over two hours to drive from little Madera to the Capitol 6 Drive-In in San Jose CA

The Capitol was one of the last in the primary wave of drive-in theater construction. When it opened in May 1971, there were already six other drive-ins in San Jose. A decade later, it was one of three survivors along with the El Rancho and the San Jose. Now it’s the only one left.

Have you ever heard of Brazilian cheese rolls? I hadn’t until I got a cup of pao do queijo at the concession stand. Not sweet, but very cheesy! They also had hot Cheetos mixed with popcorn, but I’ve got to draw the line somewhere.

With six screens to choose from, at least I got a break from The Lego Batman Movie, which was on only two of them. Several movies I would have preferred were on later, but the only early film I hadn’t seen was Fifty Shades Darker. How was it? As reviewer Amy Nicholson put it, the Fifty Shades movies “aren’t so bad they’re good. They’re so brilliantly bad they’re genius.”

Miles Today / Total:  124 / 5405 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: Fifty Shades Darker / 34

Nearby Restaurant: Sometimes, you just take whatever’s across the street. In this case, that’s Tony Di Maggio’s Pizza, home of the world’s best stromboli. Not only was the food great (as in wonderful taste and as in huge), I could look out the window across Monterey Road to see the Capitol’s screens.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Every hotel close by was either undesirable or excessively priced. That’s what I told myself as I ponied up a few more twenties to stay at the historic Hayes Mansion three miles away from the Capitol. It may be the first hotel I’ve visited this trip that has its own Wikipedia page, not to mention a pamphlet with a self-guided walking tour. I could get used to this!

Only in San Jose: According to the San Jose Mercury News, one day in May 2009 the San Jose Fire Department’s hazmat team was summoned to an AT&T call center to rescue workers who had been overcome while trying to clean out the office mini-fridge. Over 300 employees were evacuated, including seven treated at area hospitals. A total of 50 firefighters and 18 emergency vehicles responded to the two-alarm incident.

Next Stop: Solano Theater, Concord CA.

Feb. 14: Madera Drive In Theatre, Madera CA

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It’s Day 45 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It took almost three hours to drive from San Luis Obispo to the Madera Drive In Theatre in Madera CA.

There aren’t too many drive-ins that have had three names. The Madera opened as the El Rio Drive-In in 1948. According to the drive-in’s page at CinemaTreasures, it was purchased by the Gran brothers in 1972. From there, all I know is what I read in my reference books. Some time between 1964 and 1984, possibly at the time of the sale, the name changed to the Park Vu Drive-In. It became the Madera after 1995 but when? This 2003 photo shows a Madera Drive-In sign at the ticket booth, but this 2005 photo still shows a faded Park Vu sign.

When was the second screen added? That 2003 photo shows the smaller second screen in the background, just as it looks today. The Park Vu was listed as a single-screen theater in 1984, so either the second was added within the following two decades or that listing was inaccurate.

What’s worse than seeing the same movie four nights in a row? If it’s good, like The Lego Batman Movie, it’s worse when there are no movies at all. The Madera will reopen in “Spring 2017,” but instead of meeting new friends at the concession stand, I had to spend this Valentine’s night alone.

Miles Today / Total:  155 / 5281 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 33

Nearby Restaurant: It had been too long since I’d had some decent hummus. (Yes, I like hummus.) I was really happy to find a hidden gem of a restaurant in Madera, the Kebab Grill. Sure, my chicken kebab was warm and spicy and yummy, but what I remember most was my side dish of hummus and pita slices for dipping. There’s nothing quite like it.

Where I Virtually Stayed: It was just three miles up the road, in daylight since the Madera Drive-In was still closed for the season, so the Hampton Inn was a nice, safe choice. Clean room, fridge and microwave, and a nice breakfast in the morning.

Only in Madera: The North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians would like to build a “Las Vegas-style” casino on a 305-acre site just north of Madera. That plan hit a roadblock last December when an appeals court invalidated Gov. Jerry Brown’s authorization to use the land for gaming. Some Madera residents objected to the approval process for this parcel of land that’s 36 miles from the tribe’s home, According to the Fresno Bee, “The North Fork tribe and the federal government wanted to use the Madera-area land for gaming because the tribe has no land other than an area designated for housing.”

Next Stop: Capitol 6 Drive-In, San Jose CA.

Feb. 13: Sunset Drive-In Theater, San Luis Obispo CA

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It’s Day 44 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. The cities in this part of California almost merge together, yet Highway 101 is still a pretty speedy way to get between them. It took less than 45 minutes to zoom from Santa Maria to San Luis Obispo, home of the Sunset Drive-In Theater.

This place is a classic. It opened in 1951, and it still shows a lot of old-school touches. The concession stand it a small wood-paneled source of soda, popcorn, and the usual suspects. The marquee has well-maintained neon tubes that probably look as good as its first days. And that single huge screen has the drive-in’s name on it, as was so typical during the golden age.

Way back in 1998, I scheduled a Memorial Day weekend trip to visit several drive-in theaters in western Colorado. Someone asked if I’d get tired of seeing the same movie night after night, but I assured him that they always pick different movies from each other. I was wrong of course; that weekend every theater had the re-release of Titanic. I was reminded of that anecdote as I saw the The Lego Batman Movie again on the Sunset marquee. Three nights in a row isn’t so bad.

Miles Today / Total:  35 / 5126 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: The Lego Batman Movie / 33

Nearby Restaurant: Just a mile away from the Sunset is Madonna Inn’s Copper Cafe. They tell me it’s an icon, a tradition in San Luis Obispo. It’s a quirky coffee shop, the kind of place that has “Let’s eat and be forever happy” carved into a wooden arch. The Copper Cafe is open early and late, and its best feature is its selection of pies and cakes. I had a slice of pink champagne cake because where else am I going to get that chance?

Where I Virtually Stayed: You can’t get closer than across the highway, and that’s where the Embassy Suites sits. I could even see the back of the Sunset screen from my room window (since I asked for a high room facing east). I always love the evening reception of snacks and drinks, followed in the morning by a cooked-to-order breakfast.

Only in San Luis Obispo: There is a tourist attraction in downtown SLO that’s a little hard to describe or explain. It’s a narrow, 70-foot-long alley that’s known for its accumulation of used chewing gum on its walls, hence the name Bubblegum Alley. According to Wikipedia, some historians believe it started after WWII as a San Luis Obispo High School graduating class event. Others believe it started in the late 1950s, as rivalry between SLOHS and California Polytechnic State University students. By the 1970s, Bubblegum Alley was well established. Since then the gum graffiti has survived several temporary cleanings by the Downtown Business Improvement Association.

Next Stop: Madera Drive In Theatre, Madera CA.