The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Here’s a tip: If you’re driving from Santa Barbara, California to Monterey, California >>> Do It On Highway 101!!! Not Highway 1 >>> unless you didn’t get enough thrills from Disneyland’s Magic Mountain!!!

Yes, indeed. You have been warned!

Thank goodness my husband was driving when we took off yesterday morning for what we thought was going to be a beautiful coastal drive. Once on Highway 1, there is no changing your mind. We couldn’t find any other highways/roads to get us back to Highway 101. Yes, you can always turn around and back-track to the beginning of this beautiful coastal road. But, we kept thinking that it was a balancing game: Go back on the KNOWN or take your chances with the unknown and hope that it gets tamer.

We chose the hoping for the tamer, but what we got was more of the same, only for a longer amount of time. Yikes! We literally saw a wedding party who were all stopped to pose of pictures at one of the “Scenic Vista” place twice! Yes, we saw them twice! Once when they were all posing for their scenic pictures at the scenic vista, and another time when they were all going into a restaurant for the wedding dinner. Yes, they had apparently had time to take their pictures, get back in their cars, and speed on over to the restaurant – after speeding by us. Oh, to be young! (Not!!!)

As for Highway 1 being a beautiful coastal drive, neither my husband nor I know if it is! My husband was concentrating on driving this road that hugs the mountains while precariously teetering on jutting cliffs overhanging the ocean’s rocky crags. As for me, I was concentrating on “being good” and not saying things like: “Oh my gosh, the road’s getting narrower!” OR “You’ve got to be kidding! The road’s going up even farther up the cliff!” We quickly found out that the posted speed limits were simply cautionary speeds that no one took seriously – except us! People just kept waiting for us to pull over on the little one-car-length-turn-out  spaces – which we did on a regular basis. One car didn’t even wait for us to pull over >>> he threw caution to the wind and sped around us, apparently knowing that the solid yellow line meant not a doggone thing.

So, next time we drive up to Colorado Springs through the flat plains of Texas, I’m going to have to keep reminding myself not to complain about driving through straight, terra-gripping black top!

***Here’s an update: It’s not actually Santa Barbara to Monterey. The “testy” part of Highway 1 starts right after Piedras Blancas Light Station. We went back there today (on Highway 101) to see the Elephant Seal Rookery – which should not be missed! We saw it yesterday before heading to Monterey and decided we had to see it again. It is absolutely incredible… a truly amazing sight.

1.  I’ve heard of wild turkeys, but boy was I surprised to see three different sightings of them on the road side in west Texas.

2.  I had heard about the “Prada Marfa” art work that is a building that looks like a Prada storefront, but was quite surprised to see several cars parked so that they could visit the art work. (At the cost of $80,000, this “artsy” storefront in the middle of nowhere seems rather odd to me – we drove by it quite accidentally.)

3.  Now that Barnes & Noble has come into so many cities across the United States and gotten rid of the mom & pop bookstores, I was pleasantly surprised to find a town in Texas with a population around 6000 with two book stores and what looks like a very nice little library with a sign that says “Second Best Small Library in America.” Great to know Alpine, Texas has so many readers!

4.  As we were heading into El Paso, on I-10 (a major interstate) we saw a couple who had pulled over onto an entrance ramp, who were digging up a Yucca plant to apparently take with them. That was odd indeed!

5.  Right as we were heading into El Paso, Texas we saw a dust twister, and leaving that same city we saw another dust twister an one side of the highway, with another dust twister on the other side of the highway. That’s a whole lot of dust twisting!

6.  Outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico we saw a sign that said “Dust storms my exist. Zero visibility possible.” Not a sign that fosters a lot of faith in one’s driving abilities.

7.  Same area as # 6, I wonder about the people who live out in this desert, how their lungs must be…

8.  Same area as # 6, shame on me for thinking that San Antonio possibly going into stage 3 water restrictions is a drag.

9.  A lot of the  buildings/homes in the Mission Hills area of San Diego made me think of David Suchet’s Hercule Poirot’s home. The deco style architecture in a lot of the places was just too cool: bubble glass, curved walls, angles inside of other angles, etc.

10. As we were driving to a wonderful area (Point Loma), we saw a real life mailman walking from one house to the next, delivering the mail. With the advent of all these collection boxes that are now so common, neither of us had seen a walking mailman in years unless you count the one we saw recently in an episode of the old Hazel television show.

This concludes my “Oddities from the Road” entry, although, who knows, there may be a part 2 in the future.

P.S. >>> Thanks to all of you who have given us some California traveling tips. We are adding those we can into our trip.

We have lived in Texas for over twenty years, but for some reason, we have never visited Big Bend National Park. We still haven’t! (Actually, my husband visited it when he was single.) However, our first stop on this very laid-back vacation was Fort Davis, an old army post which apparently is a must-see for all Big Bend visitors. And rightfully so.

Ft. Davis is a partially restored old army post on the San Antonio – El Paso Road. It served as a post from (roughly) the 1850s to the 1890s. It is incredibly picturesque – nestled in a mountain range. It is exactly the type of terrain you’d expect to see John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Jimmy Stewart saddling up their horses in order to go protect the passing westward bound wagon trains.

Quite a few of the original buildings and most of the foundations are still there. The National Park Service has restored and furnished several buildings – one of each “type” >>> enlisted men’s barracks, officers’ quarters, officers’ servants’ quarters (Can you imagine that?!), and the commanding officer’s quarters (Wow-zee!). But by far, the most interesting building for us was the restored and refurnished hospital. I commented to my husband that seeing the doctor’s black bag open on the table as you walked into his office would have made me re-think just how sick I really felt. That’s the effect the gleaming, shiny saw would have had on me!

I think Ft. Davis is well worth the detour off of I-10 between El Paso and San Antonio. It looks like Alpine is the nearest town with lodging. We only spent two hours at the fort because my husband felt a little tired, but you could easily spend three to four hours walking round the site itself. And, there are actual trails for those who are more adventurous.

P.S. Be sure to get the “Bugle Calls” sheet from the ranger on duty. It’s fun to be able to identify what the bugle calls signify as they are played throughout your visit.