-Crazy mountain road: Along about San Simeon, I realized our planned itinerary was in trouble. This trip was conceived as a highway 1 road trip, which mostly ended up being a highway 101 road trip due to travel time. However, I wanted to make sure we really did travel highway 1 between San Simeon and Monterey so that we could experience the views through Big Sur. Unfortunately, a rock slide threw a wrench in our plans, closing highway 1 for one mile just a couple minutes south of Big Sur.
What to do? The park ranger at the Hearst Castle told me about the marked detour, which would take us from highway 1 to highway 101, then lead us along 101 to Monterey. That's a problem, I said, because I have my heart set on driving through Big Sur. He looked at me hard for a minute then sighed a big sigh and proceeded to tell me about a "crazy mountain road" we could take that would take us back from highway 101 to highway 1, spitting us out a few miles north of the rock slide, right in the thick of Big Sur.
I suppose my first clue should have been the fact that a national park ranger called it a "crazy mountain road." It certainly lived up to its name. I'm pretty sure it would have been just as fast to take 101 all the way up to Monterey, then turn and head south on 1 into Big Sur. Or failing that, to just walk along the road instead of driving it since we spent many, many miles go no faster than a brisk jog.
This is the stuff memories are made of, people. One of my favorite parts was the traffic coming in the opposite direction. We had been lucky to come upon the closure from the south, where it was a relatively easy matter to detour back to 101. Travelers from the north had fewer options, so the traffic flow coming in the opposite direction (going east) was much heavier than that coming west with us. After awhile, I started to notice that about every other car was a mustang. Particularly, we saw many, many red mustangs and several blue mustangs. Third most popular on what I can only assume was the road trip rental car circuit? Ford Explorers. Strange.
Before things got really wild, on the part one might call a "playful mountain road"
Glad to have made it through with no bumps or bruises
-Driving through Big Sur
-Five minutes of hiking in Julia Pfeiffer Burns state park
-More driving through Big Sur, while listening to a barely coming in NPR station airing a BBC feed with coverage of the Bin Laden raid
-17-mile-drive between Carmel and Monterey, which spent a lot more time winding through expensive wooded suburban neighborhoods than I had anticipated. But hey, at least I can say I've driven past the golf courses at Pebble Beach.
-Check into Monterey Plaza Hotel
-Dinner at Pepe's Little Napoli in Carmel. Please, please, have the osso buco ravioli.
Tuesday
-John: work, Emma: morning walk along the bay
-Quick trip to CVS for some blessed cetirizine
-Monterey Bay Aquarium
-Lunch at First Awakenings. Yes, the pancakes are enormous.
Next up: Napa
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