The Maniac Collector's Inbox
No. 425, July 25, 2010

Sherlocking in
San Luis Obispo, California
By Don Hobbs

I get to spend a great amount of time in California for my job. I enjoy my trips to the west coast, in part because of all of the Sherlockians I know out there. Ironically, my favorite spot is San Luis Obispo located in the Central Coast region. It used to be easier to get there until American Airlines stopped flying into there. Now I have to fly into Santa Barbara and drive the 92 mile up California Highway 101, along the coast. My job required me to travel to SLO (as the locals call it) for a ten-day stretch, so I hopped aboard the big silver bird and flew west last Sunday.

There are so many vineyards in and around SLO that if one was of the mind-set, staying drunken 24/7 could be an option. Sunday afternoon found me not drunk but sitting at the Baileyana Vineyard with a co-worker sipping down glasses of their Pinot Noir. My week was full of visiting many clients from Santa Maria in the south to Templeton in the north but my weekend was free to visit all of my Sherlockian friends. The total number of visits equaled to zero. That is the only issue I have with SLO. It is located exactly too far to visit any of them.

The closest Sherlockian to SLO is Les Klinger but he is down in San Diego at the Comic Convention. Chuck Kovacic offer to host one of his spectacular Don-B-Q’s but it is at least three hours driving time depending on traffic. Same for his neighbors Jerry and Chrys Kegley, they live two doors down. John Farrell lives even further, down in Long Beach. If I tried to go the other direction, Jim Cox lives in San Francisco. This is 240 miles north and not Interstate traveling. Therefore, I found myself Sherlocking in San Luis Obispo alone. I visited a couple of used bookstores, finding nothing of interest. Boo-Boo Records is another favorite spot I like visiting but someone recently gave me 500-Gigs of music and even Boo-Boo did not offer the same appeal as it once did.

I did call Jim Cox this week, explaining my dilemma of being so close but so far away from real Sherlockian activity. He did pass along some interesting information. He has a friend traveling in Southeast Asia and in a recent email; she mentioned seeing a Sherlock Holmes book in Khmer. This is the official language in Cambodia. I tried several years ago to find a Khmer translation but they told me none existed. Therefore, I ended up spending my Friday night in SLO scouring the Internet for Cambodian/Khmer resources. I sent many emails but have not had any responses back to date. If this happens, it will be the ninetieth language to have at least one Canonical translation. I plan to hound this lead until I know for sure. When I return home next Thursday, I will renew my correspondence with my contact in Cambodia. So until then…..

Happy Collecting!!

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