We asked around to find out what to see and do in town and folks really couldn't come up with anything?! So with a little sleuthing we found out George Lucas (of Star Wars fame) graduated from high school here. His first hit movie was "American Graffiti" based on his experiences "cruising the loop" in downtown. We stopped by the George Lucas Plaza and took pictures of the American Graffiti statue.
And then just down the road in Turlock is a unique office building for the United Equipment firm.
Off on the backroads we passed lots of orchards (nuts, mostly), and many dairies and chicken-raising barns both owned by Foster Farms.We also drove across a bridge which was approximately 50 feet over the Tuolumne River below. A sign before we crossed cautioned: "Watch For Water Over Bridge"!
Other interesting things we learned about Modesto:
+ Modesto means humble, modest in Spanish. Hearsay, is that originally the town was going to be named to honor a financier who helped set up the town. When he objected, he was described as "muy modesto" (very modest in Spanish).
+ In 1912 a contest was run to come up with a motto for the city, the #1 entry "Nobody's Got Modesto's Goat" was passed over in favor for the more PC (and nice but boring) entry #2 "Water, Wealth, Contentment, Health".
+ Their "A" baseball team is the Modesto Nuts.
+ Ernest & Julio Gallo, besides being local winemakers, own the largest wine bottle manufacturing company in the world.
+ Forbes lists it as the #8 most miserable city to live in (behind LA & NYC).
+ And Modesto is the #1 place in the United States to get your car stolen (Seattle-Tacoma area is #6)
