Act Natural
Fall 2020 was not the great reopening I had hoped for. Covid was raging again and there was no hope for reprieve on the horizon. We definitely needed a change of scenery and thought a road trip to Carmel to celebrate my birthday would be a good way to get a breath of fresh air. On our way home, we planned to visit our daughter and return to the property we had seen a few weeks prior, but this time with its listing agent.
The drive to Carmel is spectacular. Highway 1 north from SLO is beauty around every curve. It's a long drive, but immensely worth it. I camped in Big Sur as a kid and remember feeling small, sheltered in my tent under the soaring canopy of tree tops. The area's natural density opens up into an area known as the Carmel Highlands, 15 minutes or so south from charming Carmel proper, which many appropriately call a hamlet. The Highlands are rugged like Big Sur, but dotted with hillside homes and large estates etched into rocky cliffs above the waves. It's also home to Tickle Me Pink Inn, our final destination. With an absurd name and a bit tired interiors, the Inn has incredible views and...bathtubs in the bedrooms. Okaaaayyyy...
We arrived in the late afternoon, toasted a gorgeous sunset, ordered a pizza, and called it a night. The following day we hiked Point Lobos. I've been to many beautiful places, Point Lobos is next level. We spent a long time walking the dirt paths skirting the coastline, stopping often above coves so picturesque, they must have inspired countless paintings, poems, and proposals.
Then off to Carmel for lunch. Thus far in Covid we hadn't eaten INSIDE a restaurant, but took the plunge at a cute place promising plexiglass partitions and masked servers. The food was great and my joy at doing something "normal" can not be overstated. Over a bottle of wine (at lunch!), we planned our departure the next day and decided to see some properties that were out of our initial distance preference, but located on our route back south to SLO.
With fondness we said goodbye to the Tickle Pink Inn, and drove the faster and more direct Hwy 101. The first property we look at was at the north end of Paso Robles, near San Miguel. Five acres, planted with leased out vines, no trees, weirdly atop a mounded rise, surrounded by flat vineyards. Not ideal. The next was up an almost impassable road, and was so steep and dense with scrub it felt unbuildable. Pass. And for fun since we were in the area, we decided to checkout the listing I had saved months before with the dreamy video - the cowboy, the longhorn, the views...
The property was located in sprawling, but lowly populated Templeton, in an agricultural area about 10 miles off the highway. We exited at Hwy 41 in Atascadero, a place trying to figure out its second act. The downtown is charming but not precious. There is a mix of new and old restaurants, a pawn shop, thrift stores, and an incongruently impressive city hall. Early planners had clearly expected the once burgeoning town to rise up and meet such grandeur.
Navigating suburban strip malls and traffic lights, the 41 quickly gives way to horse and cattle ranches, sheep farms, farm farms, and vineyards. The air clears and the pace slows - for the record, the air is actually the same, and the pace for the people working these farms and ranches, is definitely not slow. Some 10 minutes later, we turned off the 41 onto a dirt road with a grouping of mailboxes at its start. On one side was a ranch house with what must have once been a beautiful field of lavender plants, their tight woody mounds now defunct and brown. Further down, a winery that looked like the owners had woken up that day and decided to sell wine out of a random outbuilding. No vines in sight, just a sign offering tastings. As we passed, the GPS directed us to veer left at the fork, and soon announced we had reached our destination.
Truer words were never said.