Ramona Epic #35: Return to Camulos (Part 1)

Earlier in the series I presented my original trip to Rancho Camulos. After that original trip I came back during their annual Ramona Days event that takes place at the beginning of November. They celebrate the rancho as the "Home of Ramona". Everything from people portraying characters fictional and real, vignettes of the play, viewings of the 1910 film, tours of the rancho, Ramona experts give talks, dancing, food, venders, etc. Since I think I did an okay job of covering the rancho last time I just want to give you an idea of what it is like being there during this celebration.

The day I went the weather conditions were not as good as I would have liked. The sun was out, but there was some wind and clouds in the air. It was just a time of the year that I did not like the lighting I was getting from the sun. The following picture is actually later in the day right before I left.I came in and parked. At that moment there was a tracktor set up to take people from the parking lot in to where you can get tickets to go in. It was a nice ride in and I got to see other parts of the rancho that I had not seen before.

The interesting thing is I heard a man talking about the filming locations of the 1910 film with other people I was riding in with. I was actually kind of shocked to hear someone talking about that. I was thinking, "There are people here that are really into that?"The guy that is cut off to the left is the one who talking about that. I did not know it at the time, but that is Hugh Munro Neely. He is a filmmaker and is on staff at The Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education. He gave a great introduction to the screening(s) of the 1910 film. When I finally heard him speak I then realized, "Okay, that makes sense". See, even though I talk about film locations all the time, I realize that this is something that most people in the everyday world have very little interest in.
This is the restored carriage from the Del Valle family. There was a "Mr. and Mrs. Del Valle" around talking about the past. I talked to "Mr. Del Valle" briefly.
Of course, the water fountain and the chapel. You will notice the venders were all out there selling a variety of things.
Another look at the fountain and chapel.
As I mentioned, parts of the play are shown. This is a scene with Felipe and the Senora. The guy playing Felipe is Dennis Anderson who actually played this role in the 1970's. He is the artistic director for the play these days. In the real world, he is married to the woman you see, Kathi Anderson, who does play the Senora in the play. I'll continue this in the next blog.

Ramona Epic #35: Ramona Days at Rancho Camulos (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #35: Ramona Days at Rancho Camulos (Vimeo Version)