John Steinbeck was born in Salinas in 1902, and the town has never quite decided whether to be proud or embarrassed about it. His novels, from Of Mice and Men to East of Eden, drew on the valley and its farm workers, and some locals were angry at how he portrayed them. Today the National Steinbeck Center in the old downtown tells his story with exhibits, a replica of a boxcar and a reconstruction of the writer's fishing boat. His childhood home, a Victorian house, has been turned into a restaurant, and his grave lies in the town cemetery.
The Salinas Valley is the Salad Bowl of the World, a flat, fertile corridor about ninety miles long between the Gabilan Range on the east and the Santa Lucia Mountains on the west. Cool fog from Monterey Bay rolls up the valley, creating ideal conditions for lettuce, broccoli, strawberries and artichokes, and the fields are worked all year by crews moving down the rows. The air smells of damp soil and cut greens. In July the California Rodeo brings a Western flavour to town, with bull riding and a parade, and it has been held for over a century.
Highway 101 follows the old Camino Real, the royal road that linked the Spanish missions of California, and the riding in this part of the route is steady rather than thrilling. The road runs fast and straight down the valley, with fields on either side, and in the afternoon a steady wind blows up from the bay. Riders heading north from Los Angeles will have passed missions at San Miguel and Soledad, and the bell-marked trail gives the route a deeper history.
Salinas is a proper city of over a hundred and fifty thousand people, so there are fuel stations, restaurants and motels everywhere, and the downtown has a decent selection of cafes and Mexican food. The farm workers who drive the economy are largely Latino, and taquerias serve some of the best tacos in the state. Fog can be thick in the morning, and the road can be damp and cold until noon, so wear a warm layer.
The coast is close. Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur lie a short ride to the west, and the Laguna Seca raceway is not far away, so a detour to the water is easy if you have time.