Lea and I recently started a formal bucket list. One for things we want to see and do around the world, and one specific to California.  At the top of our CA bucket list is a trip to Big Sur.  For months, we’ve been planning our trip, and it’s been the only topic of conversation in our house this past week.  I had all of our unnecessarily high-tech hiking gear packed up and ready to answer the call of the wild.

Since accommodations are sparse in Big Sur and Lea is vehemently opposed to camping, JP recommended we stay at Glen Oaks Big Sur.  Six unique and modern, yet cozy, cabins. When Lea called Thursday morning to confirm a late check-in, to our delight, we had been upgraded to a bigger unit…with a fireplace!  Everything was just falling perfectly into place.

On Friday night we hit the road at 7pm, with a target arrival into Big Sur by 1am Saturday morning.  The GPS routed us to approach Big Sur form the North via Highway 1.  As we were coming into Carmel, we saw a traffic sign, “Highway 1 Closed 21 Miles Ahead”.  Apparently, mudslides from all the recent rain cut off our access just eight miles before our destination.  As Lea was searching for an alternate route we were suddenly pulled over by the po-lice.  “For what?” you may ask.  They never said, and apparently you can’t get a ticket for that, but they did give us a helpful bit of information.  Highway 1 is closed from the north and south; “Big Sur is currently an island.”

Lea called the hotel manager to confirm, and he reassured us that he was still holding our reservation.   We asked, “Is there a way to get there from where we are now?”  His response, “No, the road is closed north and south of us, but we’re still holding your reservation.”  Us, “Great!  We’ll be right there!”

By this point it was 12:30am, and with no where else to go, 2.5 hours later we were in San Francisco knock, knock, knocking on Jerry’s door!  But Jerry wasn’t home.  He was house sitting for a friend in Sonoma.  So on we went.  By 4am we we finally reached some place to lay our sleepy heads.  Looks like it’s Sonoma for the weekend.  Right on!