Highway 33: A Good Road for Seeking California

In "A Workaday Road That Cuts Through California's Back Story," Peter King re-inaugurates his "On California" column today at the Los Angeles Times:

California is laced with fabled roadways: Highway 1, the Golden State, El Camino Real, Route 66 and many others. Some follow the footpaths of padres, the trails of wagon trains. And some are monuments to the Freeway Age and California's bearhug embrace of Car Culture. ¶ State Highway 33 will not be confused with any of these asphalt icons. Nobody's likely to write a song about Highway 33, although in one stretch it does cut through Buck Owens country. Nor will a literary anthology be built around it, as was done not long ago with the Central Valley's Highway 99. ¶ Still, to travel this two-lane from top to bottom -- a 300-mile drive that begins just below the San Francisco Bay delta, passes through the San Joaquin Valley's west side, crosses steep coastal mountains and ends at Ventura, where Highway 33 disappears into the 101 -- is to tour what might be called the real California.

If you've got a few minutes be sure to read the whole thing.

King wrote the "On California" column in the 1990s, and I always enjoyed the articles, especially for their wistful stories of the San Joaquin Valley, a place at the heart of traditional California that is quintessentially American.