Yesterday, I hit the road in an attempt to calm some of the restlessness that seems to be overtaking me. I didn’t have a set destination in mind, but I had heard some good things about Los Olivos. I headed up the 101, and figured that if I got tired of driving, I’d just stop in Santa Barbara. I don’t have a ton of money for excursions, and gas is expensive, but some days I just have to get moving.

Rather than taking the faster route,  I wandered up the Chumash Highway. The winding roads were a good match for my meandering brain. Both my speed and my thoughts were forced to slow down a bit in order to navigate the curves and the construction (it was one lane at one point, so be warned). There are cut out points (vistas) where you can stop safely to take in the view. I’ll admit, it’s pretty hard to stay internally focused when you see a view like the one pictured here.

I met some people along the way. I’m not sure if we greet each other at these vistas because we’re all friendly when we are traveling, or if we think that personalizing early interaction lessens the chances of someone pushing you over the edge of the vista cliff. Either way, I talked to more strangers yesterday than I have since my last set gig.

Did I make it to Los Olivos? Yes. But I didn’t really stay. It’s very cute, and looks to be filled with wine tasting opportunities– I mean nearly every building off the main road was a tasting room. This is not a bad thing, but the drive was long, and I was alone, so I decided to return with the girls from the cloisters to make it more entertaining.

Instead of staying there, I headed back down to Solvang to see if I could employ the language skills I had picked up watching Borgen. I’m not sure it was a success, but the horses understood me. I took some time to sit on a sun-drenched bench and eat an apple puff pastry that restored both my equilibrium and my sense of purpose (yep, it was that good).

My math in the situation was not stellar. I didn’t end up staying for very long. So, I essentially drove two and a half hours each way to only spend about an hour and a half there. Still, I don’t regret jumping in the jeep and heading out. It gave me some time to get away from the pressures of the blank page and the bank account. I’d like to say that I solved both the mysteries of the universe and my own brain, but really the trip just served as a bit of a mental reboot. 

Will this reboot bring on genius? Oh, absolutely… probably…maybe? I guess we’ll see.