Ramona Epic #40: It's Been Fun!

(GPS: N33 54.470 W118 18.585)

Here we are at the end of the series. Let me talk about todays location and then I will give you a few thoughts on how I thought this all turned out.

I wanted to lighten things up at the end so I went to a place that was another partial inspiration that began that series. I was out walking one day, and I noticed a truck that went by with a Ramona Mexican Food logo. I went home, did a quick google search, and saw that this place originates in the Gardena and Torrance area. Since I lived there when I was a very young kid I asked some family members about this: "Oh, that's been there forever!" Well, that was news to me. So, it was another place that started to make me think more about doing a whole series dedicated to how the Ramona name has influenced California.

I thought it would be a good place to visit and eat to end the series.

It's basically a take out place. I think there are places to sit outside of it. I ended up just eating my food in my truck.
Ramona Epic #40: It's Been Fun! (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #40: It's Been Fun! (Vimeo Version)

Let me give some closing thoughts on how I think this series turned out. Years ago I had considered doing a Ramona series, but I was never really enthusastic about the Ramona concept. I did have Delyser's Ramona Memories book in my hand at one point, but decided it was not for me. Then as I started to burn out of the things I was doing on this blog I knew I needed something to do that I did not know that much about. The further I examined Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona I realized it was a lot closer to what I normally do on here than I thought. In many ways the book is a traveling novel.

The thought of committing myself to a year long series was something I felt I needed to do. There were some down sides to it though. First, I knew it would drain me some in trying to keep it going over the year. There would be times where I would put up some things that I was not as eager to talk about than others that I had more enthusiasm to blog about. Second, for many people it is very difficult to follow something like this over a long period. I knew beforehand that putting it up as episodes would be problematic for some due to the patience one has to have to get through some of the parts. I did put this series up in a way that one can read the book and follow what I did on here at the same time since it did go in chronological order with the book. However, one could jump in at any time thoughout and just pick up the parts one cares about.

I really was doing this for the long term. Now the project is at the point where it is done so the whole series can been seen as a whole. The only thing I really regret for the series as a whole now that it is done is how I started the opening of the videos. That was important while I was making each video and putting them up during the year. Although, now that it is done, watching all 40 videos with that 10 second introduction to each video is something I wish was not there. I had thought of changing the intro about midway through the series to something else, but just decided to leave it. So, it was a necessary evil that I hope does not drive someone crazy if they watch all the series at one time.

At this point, I consider this project finished. However, I do have extra footage, and there are some places I could go to in the future that might show up on the blog or in video at some point. That will not be anytime soon, but if and when I do that it would be like adding an appendix to the end of a book. For all practical purposes, my "official canon" of blogs is done.

BTW, occasionally I get an e-mail mentioning the city of Ramona in San Diego Co. I guess if there was one place many people thought I was going to visit it was that place. While it is true that the city was named after the main character, it is relatively close to some of the places that Ramona lived in the novel, but I never encountered anything in my research that made me feel I had to go there. Maybe there is something connected to the novel? Will I ever visit there? I do not know. For those who care, there was a town of Alessandro that was located at where March Air Force Base is now. It never really grew into anything, and then the Air Force took that area over. However, if you do research the history of the base you will encounter the Alessandro name at some point.

So, I hope you have gotten something out of my epic journey through the world of Ramona. If you are just seeing this then hopefully you will go back and view the series at some point. If there is something that represents cultural history of California then the book does it.

That is all I have to say about my Ramona series, but I will have some thoughts on some of the individual places I visited for this series as I review the highlights of everything I did for the blog as a whole this year in the next blog.

FIN

Ramona Mexican Food Products

At some point I will eventually come back and add a link to every entry in this particular blog, but for the time being all the videos can be found on either one of these links:

Ramona Epic Playlist (Youtube)

Ramona Epic Album (Vimeo)