Articles by Russel Ray

1846 Battle of San Pasqual redux

In the San Pasqual Valley southeast of Escondido, in the darkness of early morning on December 6, 1846, the American Army under Stephen Watts Kearny fought the bloodiest encounter to win California from Mexico. The San Pasqual battle was only one of the military encounters in California in the war, but proved to be the bloodiest and most controversial as to outcome. San Pasqual Battlefield…


Out & About—She sneered at me…. TWICE!

She informed me that the Academy was private property and that I couldn’t take pictures. I apologized and told her I would leave. Then I asked her what the Academy was. She said, “It’s an Academy.” — Russel Ray When I was up in North San Diego County a couple of weeks ago visiting the San Pasqual Battlefield State Park for my San Diego Historical…


Drive Tales: ‘It’s upside down, so what?’

Drive tales One of my many jobs right now is delivering packages for Amazon Prime Now. It’s a little different from Amazon Prime where packages are delivered at Amazon’s choosing by USPS, UPS, and FedEx. With Prime Now, YOU choose when you want your goods delivered. You can choose any two-hour window between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., seven days a week at no extra…


2017 is the new 1984 and other stories

2017 is the new 1984…I seriously hope the United States fails Shortly after the U.S. presidential inauguration I watched the movie “1984.” I last had watched it in, uh, 1984. Imagine that. I normally only watch movies once because, well, there are just too many movies out there that I want to see, so I don’t consider it a good use of time to watch a…


Out and About with Russel Ray — “The Big Eye”

The Russel Ray, Property Consultant home inspection this past Thursday was out on Palomar Mountain. It caught me off guard when I scheduled it because I had no clue that there were homes up on Palomar Mountain. Once I finished the inspection, I headed over to the “Big Eye,” more properly known as Mount Palomar Observatory: The Big Eye is only 62 miles from where…