Catching Up

 

One of the problems with traveling is the uncertainty. This actually isn't a bug, it's a feature. It wouldn't be any fun if you always knew what was coming up next. But still, it's a little stressful not knowing where or when I'm going to have access to some reliable high speed wireless internet. Right now I'm sitting in my room in the Red Roof Watsonville using its wonderful wireless.

I arrived in Monterey Friday afternoon. I rented my car and set off south, towards Big Sur. My vague plan was to find some place in that area that actually wasn't full the way all their web sites said they were. Unfortunately they were telling the truth. I passed all the Big Sur campgrounds and kept going south without any plan or even a reason to think that I was going to find anything. I've driven this road before and I know that camping places are fairly sparse along this road. I was pondering the wisdom of driving all the way south to San Louis Obispo, while at the same time knowing that I had to just give up and go back. I had just driven past the Henry Miller Memorial Library when I came up around a curve and a very large bird soared over the road. I knew what it was immediately but I couldn't let myself believe that a Condor had just soared 20 feet above my car. Stuff like that isn't supposed to happen. It was a tense minute or two because the road is quite curvy and the cost of error is a several hundred foot trip into the ocean, but damn- those birds are really, really rare. Unbelievably, as I was driving, several more Condors soared over the road. This time I was prepared and pulled off into one of the many roadside viewing pull-offs. I grabbed my camera and ran out and started taking pictures. At one time there was a total of six bird circling my car.

After about 20 minutes of birdwatching, the condors had moved on and I figured I might as well too. I turned around and started back north. As I passed the Miller Library again all I could think of was the words from the Dan Bern song Marilyn. The drive back to Monterey was much more pleasant than the drive down.

I had decided to go to Salinas, since my prior research had turned up some cheap hotels there. The drive from Monterey to Salinas takes you through classic California landscape. Rolling hills covered with golden brown grass, with the occasional slope covered with oaks, chaparral, or maybe eucalyptus. Eventually you cross some kind of divide and all of a sudden you are in the Salinas Valley. You know you are there because the land turns almost completely level, and for as far as you can see the field are planted with vegetables. Mostly it was cabbages or kale. You could tell by the smell.

The city of Salinas is like many farming towns. Lots of tractor dealers and other farm support businesses. But eventually the main road takes you into what they call Old Town Salinas. It's a mostly charming downtown. I found out after driving around for a while that the reason they call it Old Town and not downtown is that the modern part of Salinas, with the shopping centers and suburban housing etc. is not really related to Old Town. It's almost like two separate towns right next to each other that happen to have the same name. Salinas would give an anti-immigrant activist a heart attack. The place is thoroughly Mexican. But it's funny, you see the whole immigrant spectrum, from those on the shady side of town next to the factories, to those in the newer more moder houses, to those in the standard American suburb over by the mall. Anyway, I eventually found a Motel 6 that had a room, which was lucky because there some sort of music festival this weekend. Of course, at the rate I wanted to pay, no hi speed wireless. I did pick up on some networks in the neighborhood, at other hotels, and I tried driving over to them to mooch off their network, but no luck. Instead, I picked a mexican restaurant at random, got a burrito, and went back to the room and went to bed.

So that was Friday. I'll do a new post for Saturday.