| King City, California |
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| A land of sun-parched rough edges |
| From: pigatschmo |
| At some point my goal was to move away from the eastern megalopolis to a small, sun-parched western town. I guess that's how I ended up in King City at the bottom end of the Salinas Valley, salad bowl of the world (or at least the U.S.), and the back-ass of Los Padres National Forest. While the city itself is lacking in services and progressive values, surrounding Monterey County is a wonderful place from the point of view of wide-open spaces, excellent weather, clean air, mountains ranges, parks, vineyards, and coastline (Big Sur, Point Lobos and Monterey Bay). John Steinbeck, who immortalized the area warts and all, had family here in King City. Steinbeck ended up in greater New York, where I am from, and it sometimes feels like I am living his life in reverse. But unlike the Okies in "Grapes of Wrath," King City is nowadays overwhelmingly Mexican, and Spanish is quite possibly the most spoken language. The streets are inexplicably wide, and the wind kicks in like clockwork every afternoon. This is a much better place to get a suntan than Carmel and the rest of the soggy, foggy coast. I actually prefer the sun-parched cacti of the interior. I just wish there were more vegetarian restaurants. The old ranches are slowly being converted to vineyards. Think Sonoma with very rough edges. |
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