Taking a rest at Knott's Berry Farm
Taking a rest at Knott's Berry Farm

After a rainy night, and an early start, we enjoyed a Coco’s breakfast and then drove to Knotts Berry Farm for lunch (a ‘second breakfast’) at Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant where I revisited the sites history by Walter and Cordelia Knott.

Then The Horseshow Saloon show at Ghost Town, The Indian Camp, Camp Snoopy and much more. Tonight the people of Los Angeles were remembering the Rodney King assault as the defendants came on trial.

Another 3.00am morning but this time I had to wake the others to keep them from going back to sleep and changing our body clock time zones. Our routine as normal but then we waited outside Coco's to have breakfast at 6.30am. We had "gone-off" of Denny's and preferred the more hospitable atmosphere (and lower prices!) of Coco's. Back to the hotel before our day out and . there we belatedly met the British Airways representative who had been trying to see me since we arrived in California. He was not, however, able to help us in any way as we were quite settled and experienced in this setting.

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The journey to Knotts Berry Farm and once there parked quite close to the shops and theme park entrance. It had been pouring with rain overnight and there were still heavy showers and so the day was in doubt. We window shopped for a while and then settled for a second breakfast in Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant which we thoroughly enjoyed. It was lunch for us on our time clocks but we enjoyed it just the same. It had still been raining but then the sky cleared and we enjoyed a day in the park. Some rides were wet and not running and other attractions cancelled but there was plenty to keep us occupied and amused.

The Ghost Town had a show in the Horseshoe Saloon, the Indian Trails - a spring special display of Indian tepees, customs and crafts, Camp Snoopy for the kids and much more. We prefer Knotts to Disney. Walter Knott and his wife Cordelia created a place based on true history and country ways. They hired 20 acres here in the 1920's, took over Mr Boyson's patent "boysonberry" hybrid of strawberry, raspberry and current fruits and started selling the berries and other produce to the passing trade. Then Cordelia Knott started serving chicken dinners which were a tremendous success.

Walter Knott, inspired by his grandparents' story of coming to the West in a covered waggon, started to gather together Old West memorabilia, old waggons and then timber buildings from California's many deserted ghost towns of the gold rush days. He had them taken apart and reassembled them nail by nail and it all developed from there. In Knotts for example, the old wheeled kiosk vending popcorn is a converted Fort Model T truck (I looked underneath and saw the oily engine, differential etc) whereas in Disneyland (created much more recently by Walt Disney) you would find a replica.

Disney's creation was much more a fantasyland combining The "American dream" with his film themes. We stayed all day there and then drove back to retire at 7.30pm for the night. The TV news stories are full of the Rodney King assault trial hearings where the first of the principal defendants came onto the witness stand. The people of Los Angeles remember the violent racial riots that followed the acquittal of the policemen in the previous trials last year and everybody is on edge ahead of the end of this trial.