He explains the trip along the way, and the scenery when he passed by the mission in San Jose and went through Livermore and saw the California poppies. I've been in that area myself and now it's a modern freeway. Back then, it was probably a dirt road.

There were people getting killed in there left and right, and he would explain how they got killed. A cable broke on a hoist and the whole thing fell clear to the bottom, things like that. A lot of miners were also killed by falling rocks.

I find the mining incidents and the details about the things going on in the mine to be pretty interesting. He was very good at explaining nature. The diaries were never written for the purpose of publishing, but 100 years later they have some historical value.

I came back to San Francisco and spent more time in the neighborhoods like Chinatown and the Mission that I hadn't been in much before. I tried to get a feel for all parts of the city, so when I wrote the book, the neighborhoods would be like characters. There are scenes where all Charlie does is walk through neighborhoods, and it's like an Impressionist painting.

The torch has already been passed.

The trip that we're taking . . . we're not holy rollers or anything. I'm not on a mission. I just feel like we have unfinished business to help out the people down here who helped us, whether they was there helping or just here praying for us.