This weekend the Mrs and I headed South to visit some of our oldest friends.
Our destination was Templeton, CA located in San Luis Obispo (SLO) County, which is commonly referred to as the “Central Coast” region of California. A region near and dear to my heart.
I have a lot of great memories of this area, going all the way back to childhood, and new adventures in my teens there and we’ve visited consistently our entire married lives. A home away from home, if you will.
SLO County is a curious and interesting place. It’s equally well known for agriculture, surf culture, ranching and equestrian pursuits and wine making. An odd combination to be sure.
Our friends live just 5 miles off the 101 Highway, and yet from the freeway exit to their driveway, it’s like a completely different world. You drive through the usual commercial zone right off the 101 with supermarkets and the usual assortment of shops and such, hook a left on a two lane road and before you know it, you’re in the middle of nowhere.
Our friends have a great little place up towards the hills and keep a small barn with a few livestock animals – a goat, a sheep and some chickens – and a barn cat, of course. As well as those critters that nature brings through daily. In fact, we woke up to a family of California Quail making their way up the driveway in the morning and one of the most amazing displays of a contingent of Dragonflies I’ve ever witnessed.
It was SOOO quiet and peaceful up there. Utterly different from what we’re used to at home. Just delightful, honestly.
We rolled in early Saturday evening and had a really nice dinner with our friends, just catching up and listening to some old records (vinyl of course!) and then we set out for our event, the “California Mid State Fair”, held at the Paso Robles Event Center.
Now, the Mrs and I are not what you’d call “event” people. Yes, we go to a lot of concerts, more than a few comedy shows and soccer games and our local Farmers markets, but outside of those things, we aren’t into crowds, we don’t generally attend fairs or carnivals or things that happen with thousands of people crammed into a centralized location. And quite frankly when our friends invited us to come down for the Fair, we weren’t too excited about the idea. But they were excited for it and we decided to just jump in with both feet and see how they do things on the Central Coast.
Let me tell you, the difference between the SLO County experience and what you’d find in Santa Clara County (our home region) are night and day! Yes, it was crowded, and even at night it was still pretty darn warm, and everywhere you turned there was alcohol for sale. At home, this would be a recipe for disaster. Down there? We had a great time! Everyone was polite, friendly even. No screaming, spoiled children. No roving gangs of *youths* looking for trouble. No drunken louts getting into fights. It was like stepping back in time a few decades. We stepped back into “real America” and it was actually quite refreshing and wonderful!
We spent a lot of time going through the stalls of livestock brought in by the FFA (Future Farmers of America) and the 4-H kids. The cattle and hogs, goats and sheep were all seemingly well cared for and the caretakers all in good spirits. Additionally, they had a good number of other things on display, from Art to flower arrangements, leather work and textiles. Kinda all the basics you need to get by in this world, without tech and computers mucking it all up. Just people doing what they do when left to their own devices without the electronic leashes everyone is tethered to these days. It took me back to a simpler, and yes, I’ll say it, a BETTER time. A time in history, not that long ago, that I greatly miss.
We took a break from all the walking, grabbed some adult beverages and took in a fun band for a while – Dante Marsh & the Vibesetters – playing a cool mix of funky, soulful, island influenced jams. Lots of folks, from tiny kids to great-great- grandmas, were up on their feet dancing and just having a good ‘ol time.
All in all, it was just a wonderful event and it renewed some hope for the state of the world for me. I enjoyed the festivities much more than I thought I would and I’d absolutely go back next year.
The next morning we were moving kinda slow (no pun intended) and had a lovely, leisurely breakfast on the deck, listening to some Jimmy Cliff and Beatles records and just taking it all in. We had to be back on the road by 11am, so there wasn’t much time to dilly-dally unfortunately. Nonetheless, we left refreshed and grateful for the quick respite and the unexpected outing we had at the Fair. All things considered, it was a great weekend!
A big thanks to D & M for their hospitality and for the invite to an event we would have NEVER attended on our own volition, it was really wonderful and well worth the drive!
And thank you for stopping by!
The Boring Old Man 