A Road Trip to Mount Shasta Video and a bucket of cool photos

I thought I'd post this to give another take on the legendary mountain, and set aside the more mysterious and mythical aspects of it, irregardless of whether they're true or not.

It's a beautiful mountain and I could see it all the time when I lived in that area and drove that direction.

Gorgeous place to visit.

Below are some photographs of the Mountain and homes and woods beneath and around it. Love to retire up there in one of those comfy looking homes.

Enjoy

--John--

The Shasta Caper, Chapter Fify-Seven

                       Chapter Fifty-Seven

Robin motioned Smarn to drop lower beside him. The giant did so and peered the direction Robin was pointing. A gigantic air ship was loading cargo in the shade of gigantic trees and a large uprising of earth and boulders. Soldiers were carrying something into the back of the vessel. It took a moment, before Robin recognized what they were. 

"Those bastards are loading people like freight!"

Smarn tried to jump to his feet, but Robin held him down. "We must do this right. It won't do any of them good if we are captured too, my friend."

"Methusaleh would be very mad if he could see this."

"Smarn, you underestimate our leader. He sees more than he lets on."

"But why would he allow this?"

"God only knows." Robin answered, feeling a bit of stickiness inside about it as well, but also knowing that Methusaleh never withheld his hand unless it was for a good reason.

Robin spotted an area of deep shade to their right that worked around the edges of the forest to the back of the ship.

The soldiers finished loading and wandered off, joking and chatting. They took a spot to the left of the ship and settled down to eat.

"Smarn!"

Smarn grinned at him.

"I'll distract them while you get into the back." Smarn said.

He kept hunched over and began working his way to the shadows with Robin in tow. Robin got several feet, then froze. He had heard something behind him. He spun around, an arrow to his bow, then relaxed.

He laughed. "Mother, Mother, Mother. What shall we do with you?"

Behind he and Smarn was the whole tribe of miniature elephants, led by the Mother. She raised her nose, but didn't trumpet. 

Smarn looked back. "What?"

"I think you may be getting your answer, Smarn. And a little help as well!"

The Captain of the Soliders was leaning against the side of the ship in the midst of making a joke when he heard a series of trumpeting sounds. He and his men all jumped  to their feet and drew weapons as the tribe of elephants came running into view. They came up to the soldiers and made begging noises.

"I think they want food, Captain." One of the men said, then tossed a piece of his sandwich, which several elephants swarmed after.

In a matter of seconds the soldiers had their attention totally absorbed in feeding the baby elephants, which sidled up to them and cuddled. The soldiers ate it up and laughed heartily, playing with the little guys, while also feeding them.

Robin and Smarn watched from near the back. 

"See Smarn, even the evil men have some good in them."

"Then why do they do such evil things?"

"Men are not always reasonable when it comes to that." Robin replied, his eyes sparkling. "It takes a lot of experience for a man's soul to tell the difference sometimes. But enough of philosophy we have a job to do!"

They rushed into the back of the ship, vanishing from view.

The Mother who had been watching everything from the other side of the ship, trumpeted loudly and the tiny elephants began slipping away from the soldiers, one by one.

One soldier tried to hold onto one of the little guys, then thought better of it when the tiny elephant blew a chunk of slimy water from its nose into his face.

The soldiers all gathered around the poor fellow and laughed at him as he wiped at the mess desperate to get it off himself.

Robin and Smarn made their way into the interior of the ship. No one met them. No resistance crossed their path. Finally, they came to a large room with a window into it. Smarn looked in. "Here!"

Robin looked inside. All the people they had seen loaded onto the ship were inside, laid down like so much meat on their sides, unable to free themselves from the restraints and the poles that had been used to carry them inside.

Robin looked at Smarn. "How good are you at picking locks?"

Robin's answer came quickly after they entered. Smarn took the first lock of a captive who looked up at him in with wide eyes, then snapped it like a paper chain. 

Robin grinned. "Keep up the good work, Little Smarn!"

Legends of Mount Shasta -- video

Thought I'd throw this up for a little fun look at they mythology around the Mountain that started my novel adventure with Samuel Light.

There are so many mythologies that to know the truth I guess you'd have to go there yourself and explore...seriously explore.

Enjoy

--John--

The Shasta Caper, Chapter Fifty-Six

                       Chapter Fifty-Six

Jimbo, Samuel and Nanny waited patiently in their positions they had been handcuffed to as the cell door swung up and two very large men in white uniforms marched inside. They held odd pistol shaped weapons in their right hands. Their eyes were all shades of blue. Their hair blonde. They looked like they might have been born in Sweden or Germany. 

Their jaws were square-shaped, their faces also square. They had high eyebrows and very sharp looking eyes, as if they could see through walls. The air of intelligence was strong about them, even though their appearance to Samuel was that of thugs, uniformed, but thugs, nonetheless. He could sense that their intelligence was an artificial one, not strengthened by the wisdom of the heart. These men would not tolerate opposition to their ideas or their demands. He glanced nervously over at Jimbo, but Jimbo just stood there, his eyes settled on the nearest of the men, as if appraising him.

A third man walked inside. He stood a good foot taller than the others. He was also Germanic in appearance. He wear a pure black uniform with a Swastika of gold dangling from its left shirt pocket. His eyes were cold and relentless, like a winter storm sweeping over the Antartic. He carried himself like a god on earth, condescending to touch its soil with his delicate spirit.

"You are the accused!" He announced without preamble.

"Of what?" Samuel made the mistake of asking.

The two Soldiers rushed over and punched him in the stomach at the same time. He had been prepared for the punch, so it didn't take all his wind away, but it hurt like hell. He struggled a moment to keep upright, then managed.

The third man acted as if nothing unusual had just happened. He stepped closer to Samuel and eyed him up and down. "Your father was of German descent?"

"Yes."

He looked at the soldiers. "This one will be saved for the last."

He walked over and examined Jimbo closely. "Impure blood. He will go first."

Jimbo growled, but held his tongue.

The man went to Nanny next. "Lovely, but too weak of body."

Nanny's face darkened, but she also bit her tongue at a glance from both Jimbo and Samuel.

"Good!" The man decided, noting what had just happened. "She shall serve the soldiers after the Tubes Battle is ended."

Jimbo's jaw muscles bulged at those words, and with great effort, he held himself back. 

The man smiled smugly at his prisoners. "I am the Leader of the Damned."

Samuel believed that, but he didn't say anything. Something in his look must have caught the Leader's eye, for he turned swiftly to appraise him. 

"You are a sensitive?"

Samuel didn't speak.

The Leader came closer and touched Samuel's forehead in the center. "You use this eye. Yes?"

Samuel remained silent.

The Leader's eyes narrowed angrily. "You have permission to speak! Are you a sensitive?"

"I am not!"

The Leader struck Samuel across his cheek, causing one of his teeth to loosen and blood to spurt into the face of the Leader.

He took out a pure white hanky, with Swastika embroidery and dabbed at the blood on his face, then stepped back. He turned to the soldiers. "I will await them in the Tubes."

He headed for the exit, then stopped and looked back at Samuel, his eyes narrowing in thought a moment, then he exited. They could hear his footsteps march off as the soldiers strode to take the cuffs off Samuel first.

They turned their backs on Nanny and Jimbo, who they felt to be safely out of reach of them.

"Ah-hem!" Jimbo coughed from behind them.

The first soldier turned around just as Jimbo slammed a hammy fist into his face.

The second soldier turned to level his pistol at Jimbo, when Nanny slammed into his gut, and kneed him in the groin. 

Both soldiers dropped to the floor.

Jimbo kicked both soldiers hard in the head, causing them to lose consciousness. He was about to kick them again, when Nanny stopped him. "We're not like them."

Jimbo grumbled about it, but stepped back. She and Samuel quickly used the old cuffs to imprison the men against the walls, then ripped off pieces of their uniforms and shoved them into their mouths and bound them to their face so they couldn't warn anyone.

Samuel went to the exit and peered out. The corridor was empty in both directions, except for the strange lights that lit it.

"Ready." Jimbo said from behind him.

Samuel nodded, and as both Marilyn and Albert materialized to the left and began hurrying off in that direction, he set off that way. 

"I hope your invisible friends know what they're doing?" Jimbo growled warily as they followed Samuel.

"If they don't." Samuel told him. "You'll be the first to know."

The dungeon atmosphere of their surroundings was dark and depressing, even with the lights on the walls. Once they stopped when they heard moaning from a cell. They looked inside and almost threw up.

Hanging by his arms from a wall was a man with scars all over his body from the head down. He was half naked, his eyes sunken so deep in the skull you couldn't see them. He had no ears and his scalp was living brain tissue. Half his right leg was missing, with blood dripping down from where the knee had been. He had huge open wounds all over his body.

"Arrrhhhh!" Jimbo screamed angrily and gripped the door, striving to open it, his mucles bulging with the effort.

Jimbo almost ripped the door open, but Samuel stopped him with a shake of his head. 

"He's beyond our help now. Nothing we could do could save him now."

"But you could heal him, Sam!" Jimbo complained, tears of anger and grief in his eyes.

"Not this time."

He looked across at Al, who nodded.

Samuel lifted the pistol he had taken from one of the soldiers and aimed it at the poor man. "Rest well."

He fired the weapon and a sizzling beam of raw energy struck the man in his heart. The man recoiled from the blow, then looked up at them. His eyes opened wide a moment and he smiled, then his soul fled his body and his weight collapsed against the chains holding him.

Nanny began to cry. Jimbo shouldered her close and held tight.

"Somehow these monsters will pay for this."

Samuel felt the same way, but he knew that wishing the worst for someone else was also the path to the dark side of life, so he just said a silent prayer for the soul who had just died, and then continued to follow after Al and M.

The Shasta Caper, Chapter Fifty-Five

Chapter Fifty-Five

Robin leapt onto the top of a boulder, and cupped a hand over his eyes, trying to catch site of the flying vessel. Smarn stood next to him, his head almost level with Robins, even though Robin stood atop a boulder. 

"Ah!" 

"You see them?" Smarn asked.

"No. But I see our dinner."

Smarn's tummy grumbled then. He swatted it with a hairy fist. "Quiet! Smarn busy."

"Ah, my good Little Smarn, your sense of humor has not excaped you in your old age."

Smarn cuffed at Robin and Robin ducked, then leaped to the ground. "Come on, catch up if you can, I see dinner running away!"

Robin ran swiftly into the forest their hike had brought them close to, his long legs swiftly leaving Smarn behind as he took a moment to consider whether to follow or not. Robin could just be playing one of his games again. Tricky fellow!

Then he decided to follow when his tummy made another rumbling sound, a cross between a lion's roar and a hippo coughing.

"Smarn staving!" He roared, then ran after Robin.

Robin cut between one tall tree and the next, dodging larger boulders, leaping over smaller ones, and making good time as he spotted his prize not too far ahead. Dinner was not a live animal as Smarn had thought, but rather a live animal amidst many other, carrying a strange bag in its nose, just as two others did the same.

Robin recognized the backpacks as something the strangers had brought, because he had seen similar travelers carry them down from the upper world in the past to stash their food and other items in. Hence, his hope for dinner.

He managed to catch up with the tiny pachyderms and the Mother turned about at the sound of their trumpeting voices and fixed her eyes on him.

Robin half bowed to her. "I do beg your pardon, Madam, but I think I could fare better with those, than you and your little ones."

The Mother Elephant challenged him, raising her nose high, then standing on her back feet.

Robin grinned. "Surely,  you jest. I wish you no harm."

Then the Mother dropped back to her feet and backed up, making a kind of whimpering sound as a huge shadow fell across Robin and then the smaller elephants about her.

"Nor I!" Growled Smarn as he came beside Robin and put an arm on his friend's shoulder, almost causing Robin to drop to the ground from the weight of it.

"Hey! Do I look like a leaning post to you, Little Smarn?"

"Yes." Smarn answered with a snaggled tooth grin.

Robin shook his head, then dropped to his knees before the frigthtened pachyderms, who huddled about their Mother. He reached into a leather bag at his belt and withdrew some bread. He began breaking it up and tossing it to the elephants.

"Robin, that's our dinner!" Smarn warned.

"Was!" Robin flashed his teeth, then continued dispensing the bread.

In moments the small ones let loose of the backpacks they had been carrying and swarmed the bread. The Mother eyed Robin warily, gave him a warning blast of her nose, then came forward for a larger chunk he held out towards her. "I promise. I am a friend."

The Mother edged closer, sniffed the bread, then sniffed Robin's face and whipped the bread quickly towards her mouth, where she began eating it.

Her eyes rolled with pleasure as she did so, causing Robin and Smarn both to laugh. The baby elephants were frightened for a moment, but then relaxed when they saw the Mother reach out with her nose for more.

Robin eyed Smarn, who sighed, then opened his own pouch to retrieve what remaining bread he had. "This is going to cost you, Robin."

"Doesn't  it always, my little friend?" He responded with a twinkle of his beautiful eyes.

Smarn tossed him the bread and Robin began breaking it up further, giving smaller pieces to the smaller elephants who swarmed around him and Smarn, and a larger piece to the Mother.

Robin sat on his butt and motioned Smarn to sit beside him. He did so.

"I'm glad someone is enjoying dinner."

"Don't worry." Robin chided his friend. "The best is yet to be."

He whipped an arrow from its quiver on his back, then stabbed into the nearest backpack strap, catching it with a barbed tip, then slowly, but surely drawing it back to him and Smarn as the tiny elepants and the Mother watched, still eating as they did so, their tiny eyes sparkling with pleasure. They hadn't tasted such fare in ages.

Robin finally managed to catch the backpack with his hand and lift it up. He opened it. It was Jimbo's, so naturally the first thing he saw was...

"Food!" Robin said, showing Smarn.

"Looks funny!" Smarn poked at the contents, knocking aside something crunchy sounding.

He lifted it out and tried to take a bite. It made a crunching sound, then he spit it out. "Horrible!"

"Smarn!" Robin teased his friend. "This way."

Robin took the top of the item, which was a bag of Lay's potato chips, and ripped it open from the top. He took a whiff, then made a sour face. Overly salty I think, but eatable I suspect."

"These upworlders eat strange things." Smarn pointed out, as he took out a lone chip and revolved it in his hand, eyeing it strange textures.

Then he popped it into his mouth and swallowed. Another mistake.

He began to gag.

Robin quickly pounded him on the back, then took another chip and bit down on it. "I saw one of the upworlders do this last time one came down. This is the way to eat them."

Robin made a face at the taste of all the salt, but loved the texture of the chip. He began eating more.

Smarn watched for a moment, not sure if this was some kind of joke or not, then he grabbed the bag and shoved half its contents into his mouth.

He gave the bag back, then began crunching. His eyes rolled with pleasure.

"Always the slob, my Little Smarn."

Smarn belched.

The elephants about them all raised their long noses and trumpeted in reply, as if he were speaking to them in their own language.

Robin burst into laughter.

Jewel of a Thousand Stars: Giddy Up, Gnobs

Back in the early 2000s I was working on a full length motion picture project for children. I had gathered together a fantastic team of artists, musicians and producers to make it happen. We had a great screenplay, lots of everything we needed to make it a go, but no money.

So I began raising money. It was easy at first, but then guess what...Wall Street tanked the money market, killing all venture funds and motion picture funds for independents like me. So the film never got made, which broke my heart at the time, but I'm not one to go around licking my wounds forever.
So, now i've delved back into that wonderful storyline to come up with more tales from the movie that might have been: Jewel of a Thousand Stars.

I've written one novelette in the series, "Jewel of a Thousand Stars: Giddy," which is available on Amazon  and Smashwords for 99cents.

Over time I hope to write many, many more stories about one of most fun places to visit, and w hich I think most adults and children would love to visit as well.

Enjoy this taste of one of the loves of my life!


--John--

Jewel of a Thousand Stars: Giddy Up, Gnobs

 

For the ten thousandth time that day Giddy poured over the instructions in the book. "Add one ounce of cat fur, two ounces of dragon scales, three ounces of fire sticks, one whisker from an angry giant and two fingernails from an imp."

"Ouch!" Gnobs cried out as Giddy tried plucking one of his fingernails off his hand and then succeeded.

"Be still, Gnobs, I need one more."

"Giddy!" Pleaded Gnobs, rolling his big frog-shaped eyes on his huge green head. "You're killing me!"

Giddy  looked up from the magical book that James had loaned him and frowned. "You can grow a thousand more. So be still, you little imp!"

Gnobs missing fingernail regrew. He gave Giddy a nasty look.

"I'm not an imp. I'm a shape-shifter."

"This magical potion won't know the difference." Giddy protested blithely, plucking another fingernail off Gnobs' other hand.

"Ouch! You big metal Meany!" Cried out Gnobs, swiftly regrowing the second plucked fingernail.

"I am not a Meany, I'm just making sure that this formula works." He looked up from the concoction he was putting into the small pewter bowl, then at Gnobs. "If this works, you'll be a real boy. Like Pinocchio."

"Who?"

"Never mind." Giddy snapped back at him, his temper shortening by the minute. Why couldn't his little friend ever just stay still and listen.

Which brought him back to Gnobs once more who was now hanging from the ceiling and bouncing his right hand like a rubber ball. "Bouncy, bouncy!" Gnobs laughed as he played with his hand.

"You're such an imp! You little rascal." Giddy threw at Gnobs.

Gnobs grinned. "I'm not..."

"I know. I know. I know, but you are a pain in the...well you would be if I had one." Giddy said looking at his metal bottom.

You see Giddy's skin was unlike other human's skin, just as Gnobs body was unlike most other creatures. Giddy had been cursed some years back by a disgruntled Witch, who was annoyed with him for being so cocky and she thought to teach him a lesson. He frowned, or was it a wizard? He couldn't rightly remember clearly anymore. All he knew for sure was that blessed little Gnobs, or big Gnobs if he wanted to shape shift into a giant's form, was the one who had saved him. He hadn't told him lately, but he would give his left arm to save his friend's life if he had to.

He looked at his left arm and frowned. "Well maybe just a finger." He changed his mind.

Gnobs looked over at him. "Finger what?"

"Oh nothing!" Giddy replied, stirring them the potion briskly with a dry brush. "Just thinking back to the good old days."

"There are no good old days." Gnobs laughed. "You know that. There's only today and then tomorrow, and then the day after that. Each one's different."

"Yes, and with your intellect...a challenge of giant magnitude!" Snapped Giddy, opening a bottle of fresh spring water to mix the potion together and blend it properly.

Gnobs dropped from the ceiling, bounced a couple of times, then took on his bird form to land on Giddy's knight armored shoulder and peer at the concoction being brewed. "Sure it'll work?"

"Of course I am." Snapped Giddy. "I never fail."

Gnobs shot his eyes out so that they stared into Giddy's. "Giddy!"

"Oh okay. I admit I blew up the Marshall's home that one time."

"Giddy!"

"And Twixt almost lost his tail."

"Giddy!" Sighed Gnobs.

"Very well, you little imp." Giddy snarled. "Have it your way. I do make mistakes. But no one  has ever died from them."

Gnobs raised his eyebrows, which fluttered about the room like a pair of graceful butterflies.

"Oh right. Not yet." Giddy sighed wearily, tiring of the word games. "But this time I know the potion will work."

Giddy finished stirring the spring water into the pewter bowl and stirring it, then eyed Gnobs.
"Now. If you'll just take on your normal form, we can finish this."

"But I don't want to be an ordinary boy." Gnobs protested.

"There are no ordinary boys. Least not from the ages of ten to eighteen." Giddy sighed wearily.
"Now get down there and change!"

Gnobs dropped to the floor and sprouted back into his short frog-like form. He put his hands on his hips as if daring Giddy to change him, then grinned.

Giddy smiled, then poured the potion all over Gnobs.

They both stood there staring at each other.

Nothing happened.

Gnobs began to sweat.

Giddy began to sweat.

Nothing happened.

Finally Giddy sat down at the worktable he had been mixing his potion on and stuck his head in his arms and began to weep. "Face it Gnobs! I'm nothing but a big metallic jerk. That's all I ever will be!"
Nothing.

"Nothing I do ever turns out right. Not even the time I defeated that dragon that was burning down the village. I had to go and accidentally kill it and make it fall into the village well, spoiling their water supply forever."
"But you saved their lives, Giddy." Gnobs said gently.

Giddy looked up at Gnobs, who was still...well Gnobs, except that he was sprouting tiny dragons all over the top of his head and they were battling with each other.

"I don't know why I put up with you." Giddy sighed, the touch of a smile on his lips.

"Maybe it's because I'm so cute." Gnobs said, sprouting a dress and bright red lipstick on his already bright red lips.

Giddy broke into laughter.

Gnobs danced. "I'm so cute. I'm so cute. I'm so cute."