The Road to Big Sur

When we woke up this morning, we began talking about the tour of the Hearst Mansion. It was only a few miles down the road and I was excited to see it up close. However, Carole was not feeling well and said she was not up to taking the tour. So we put everything in its place, went through our checklist, and hit the road . . . Hwy #1 Northbound along the beautiful California Coast.

This part of the coast is rugged, with a wild beauty of pounding surf. At times the road was near sea level and at times was clinging to the side of seaside cliffs generally around tight turns without guardrails.
















The road was well paved with a center line, but rarely was there any place to pull off to relax and soak up the beautiful scenery. We were, of course, headed North and when there was a turnout, it was always on the Southbound side . . . and Carole freaked out when I crossed the center line.
















There was an occasional sandy beach, but most of the Coast line in this area was very rocky with imposing cliffs and a lot of large rock formations offshore.
















Much of the "Road to Big Sur" was a lot of ups and downs, very sharp turns, and narrow roadway. I was so busy watching the road and dodging oncoming traffic that it was difficult to enjoy the scenery. Carole got quite nervous about traveling this road in "The Bus" with the Blazer in-tow and said, "The next time you want to go sightseeing, I'm staying home".

However, after we went through Big Sur, the road flattened out around Monterrey Bay. We turned off Hwy #1 into the town of Monterrey on the South side of the bay, which is a modern bustling seaside town with a very nice harbor. It was getting late in the afternoon and we hadn't had lunch, so we stopped for a seafood lunch at a dockside restaurant right on the yacht harbor.
















From there we went on up a tame part of Hwy #1 around Monterrey Bay to a nice city park on the North side of the bay where we stopped for the night. It felt good to fix a drink, take off my shoes, and kick-back after a high-tension day of driving. Tomorrow's drive will take us through San Francisco and into the Redwoods, which should be much more relaxing.