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| Today
we successfully tracked down the location of another writer's home in
Baja, California.
This home was
that of Ben Hunter, the author of "The Baja Feelings", and
host of the "Ben Hunter Movie Matinee" (KTTV). He also
pioneered the idea of offering orphans for adoption on television.
He was also
the radio personality on "The Nightowl Club" on KFI 640 AM
radio from 1949 to 1960. |
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| This
is the cover of the book, which gave us four clues utilized to find the
home.
Clue 1:
The home was near
Ensenada Mexico.
Clue 2: The
home was close to the village of "Ejido Chapultepec".
Clue 3: It
was in an area called "Nuevo Espana".
Clue 4: There
was a picture of the home (in the book). |
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| This
was "Clue 4".
Picture
was taken from the book. |
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Another
picture from the book which shows Ben Hunter celebrating the completion
of his Mexican Casa. |
| We
literally stumbled on this clue!
We were riding
back to the campground for lunch.
What a
surprise when we noticed this sign less than 2 miles from where we were
camped!
(Clue 2) |
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When we
found the sign above, we headed directly for the beach. We went into a
campground looking for the home. No similar homes were found, but when we
asked questions, we were told that "Nuevo Espana" was the next development
to the South.
This
was just going "to easy"!
| This
is the home as we found it. It was in a development where all the
homes looked the same. We asked somebody on the beach if they knew
of the Hunter's. The answer was no. Then they stated that their
address was C-8. Ben Hunter's address was C-7. It turned out
that they lived in the adjoining home! |
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| This
is the picture from the book.
The same sign,
on the property across the street from the Hunter's, was still standing
(and tilting at the same angle!).
The only
changes we noticed was the lamp fixture and the stuccoing of some
bricks! |
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| We
parked the bike in front of the home to prove that we found the
"casa". |
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Again, the
coordinates are N 31'47.170, W 116'37.081 |
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The
neighbors which lived in the adjoining house sent us to the home identified
with the arrow, to confirm that we had located the Hunter's
"casa".
We had an
enjoyable time discussing the Hunter's with the occupants of the
identified home. |
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The
weathered sign above the doorway of the Hunter's home, which is now
owned by Ben's oldest son.
The sign
reads, "Casa Jubilation". |
During
our discussions with the home owners of the home identified with the red arrow,
we learned that Ben passed away about 20 years ago. Ben's wife, Margie,
lived in the house until her death about 1 1/2 years ago. They stated that
in the book Ben talks about skinny dipping on the beach. The neighbors
stated that it was difficult picturing 70 year old Margie swimming without
clothing. The clock of time is spinning, isn't it!
   
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