Orchestrate a few more pages of Moses and Aaron: VI. Let My People, before the people's committee of Harriet and Mark head out south for Big Sur, via 680, 101, the state road near Castroville (Artichoke Capital of America, with it's Big Artichoke now bypassed), and the Coast Road (California 1), on a day with some clouds but clear of fog, past the lonely but reasonably balmy (for these locales certainly) Sand City dunes and Monterey, over the rise to the two traffic lights of Carmel, over the River and through the Point Lobos Woods, to Ansel Adams's old place at Carmel Highlands, and over Mal Paso Creek, to where the Big Sur Country officially begins at Garapata State Beach, and beyond, to Kasler Cove's multivalent colors.
A bridge beyond Rocky Creek,
and we're at Bixby, with its signature arch,
sweeping coastal views south, near
the azure waters of Hurricane Point
From here, the view north seems to extend back to Soberanes Point,
as the Santa Lucias march down to the sea.
The Little Sur River,
sand dunes,
Point Sur,
west-facing sere Santa Lucia slopes,
and even the not-so-downtown post office,
are scenic sentinals on the way to Nepenthe, high above Graves Canyon and the Pacific
where we eat at the bar (no waiting) and take in the view.
A brief walk from there to The Henry Miller Memorial Library,
then south beyond the Big Creek Bridge,
to Lucia,
for coffee and desert on the viewful restaurant porch,
while watching the firefighter helicopters tank up in the Pacific as they deal with the
re-flare-up (within view of the lodge, raging for days, panicking no-one) that has closed the Nacimiento-Furgusson Road, our traditional looping return.
Instead, we continue south all the way to the end of Big Sur, looking back north towards the anxious heights, to
where Hearst Castle still keeps extensive holdings of the wind-blown landscape,
then up a spectacular, new-discovery-of-a-road, the beautiful California 46, with vistas south to Moro Rock.
Home by 9pm (an honest 12 hours on the road or near it), to finish up orchestrating M&A: VI. Let My People, and begining VII. River Is Blood.
