The Fault Zone

Criss-crossed the Fault Zone again this weekend, navigating onto I 280 from the humble Ocean View 'hood near SF State then up past Daly City, gliding over The Fault Line, Mussel Rock offshore, sliding down the PCH, up through the Devil's Slide Tunnel down to Half Moon Bay and on to Santa Cruz.  Drove out on the wharf just to take a look and wound up cracking and eating a huge fresh caught/cooked crab from Stagnaro's.  The weather was so fine we drove slowly through downtown Santa Cruz, got back on the PCH and continued on down the coast to Elkhorn Slough, and when we got to Pacific Grove, turned on to SR 68 East to Salinas, John Steinbeck country.  I rode through there back in the spring and had a 30 mph wind across me and dry, plowed, fertilized fields, couldn't see a thing, real grapes of wrath stuff.


Thought of a story joke along the way, goes like this:  I asked Jackie what she wanted to do this weekend and she told me so we put some stuff in the car and drove off and after a few hours we wound up on 101 driving through plowed fields south of Salinas, "America's Salad Bowl."  Feeling very satisfied with myself I asked Jackie how she liked it and she said what are we doing here?  I replied, I thought you told me you wanted to go 'See Salinas and beyond' and she said 'NO! I said 'See Celine Dion!'  Ha Ha, a little 'hard of hearing' joke, not that there's anything wrong with that, and a little fiction, I made it all up but seriously folks we did drive through Salinas, honest.

Figuring we wouldn't get to LA or even Santa Barbara that night I called The Madonna Inn , it's right on US 101 just past San Luis Obispo, we've passed it so many times but never stopped.  It's an amazing place, every room is different ours was called Desert Sands, pictured, and was the last remaining and lowest priced room.

The dining areas, gift shops, even the restrooms and all the common spaces are effusively decorated, embellished, adorned, and everything was still overlaid with all the Christmas stylings.  The hilltop SPA offers the best (infinity) swimming pool I've seen, heated to 85 it just slopes into the water like a beach, with all the usual spa resort amenities and a poolside bar.
Everything was clean, bright, shiny, sparkly, warm and comfortable, so were the very friendly staff, the place was full, the restaurants good, and it was fully reserved again on Saturday. The whole effect is stunning, in the sense that I was stunned by the overloaded spaces, objects and images all around me so I could barely respond to any conversation.  I felt it was worth a stop.

Retracing our path back up US 101 North we took
SR 41 East at the Atascadero exit.  It's about 85 miles from US 101 to I 5, and there's no gas and not much else after you pass through Atascadero as the curvy up and down two lane blacktop takes you through some dry, barren, desolate 'middle of nowhere' hill country.


If you wanted to go from San Luis Obispo to Fresno this is the road you would take, but it definitely feels like one of those poetic 'roads not taken.'

Eventually we rolled down out of the hills to a flat spot where SR 41 straightens out and merges onto SR 46, the Paso Robles Road, for a short distance right where the Temblor Range is creased by a very noticeable stretch of the San Andreas Fault.                                      

The roads diverge at a 'Y' intersection better known as the "James Dean Memorial Junction" the spot where on September 30, 1955, James Dean died.  If you're going out that way, look for the Jack Ranch Cafe west of this intersection on the north side on 41/46, this is the 2nd time I was surprised at how quick the place appeared as I topped a hill, and I wasn't able to make the left turn safely, I'll guess I have to give it one more try.

Crossing back over the Fault we continued northeast on SR 41 toward I 5 and the Antelope Tree truck stop, plaza or whatever, a melange of fast food joynts, gas stations and those stores that sell all that junk posed as indispensable travel necessities and real stuff like beer and cheetos, and a Best Western and a restaurant.  The Best Western puts out the breakfast buffet from 5 to 9, really, 5 ! , so we chowed down on the stuff the next morning and headed straight for the Little Panoche Road exit and Mercey Hot Springs 13 miles east of I 5 back in the middle of nowhere, nowhere must be infinite, any point within it is in the exact center, it's ALL middle.

Hot spring water, individual tubs, pool, sauna, yoga, massage, private and spacious bathrooms and showers, picnic tables, camp sites, cabins, quiet, lonely, no frills, all solar powered, off the grid, the total opposite of The Madonna Inn on the luxury scale but just what you need sometimes.  If you wanna save the best for last, what makes something the best ?  It must have been something back in the '20s, they have a little office in an original totally retro Mission Revival style 'chapel' looking building that reminds me of someplace I used to work, you can explore the area and it's supposed to be the winter home of long eared owls .

There's an old Civil War era mercury mine out at the end of the county road   I've stopped there a couple times on long rides, first time I took Jackie, she liked it, say no more.  If you think you might wanna go out there, read all their information because you have to bring everything like food and water cuz they got nothing, and there's nowhere to get anything, except that Apricot Tree place, it really is in the middle of nowhere.

Back up I 5 toward Los Banos we took SR 152







 over the Pacheco Pass,




stopped  at the Casa de Fruta, slipped back onto US 101 and the web of bay area freeways and fault lines, up The Bayshore to home.










I didn't take any of these pictures, none of 'em, I stole 'em fair and square from the undernet.
The End.