I like painting roads. It’s not that surprising considering my passion for road trips. I have painted Route 1 many times. Today I visited Wilder Ranch State Park on the coast near Santa Cruz. It’s just off of Route 1. It was a picture perfect spring day. The historic ranch is located on the Coast Road. The Coast Road (painted here) is the old road that dips down and veers off of Route 1. This was the main road before the days of the state highway.
I have a fascination with this type of old road. They often are no more than bends and curves that parallel the main road. The old roads are vestiges of the original road left behind after the state came through and straightened the highway to accommodate faster traffic. I grew up on Cape Cod, where the oldest main road (now Route 6A) is mainly intact, as windy as it was about 380 years ago. But many of the newer state roads on Cape Cod also have these branches like the Coast Road near Santa Cruz. These side roads function as time capsules of main roads from another era. So slow down, and take that turn, see where it goes….
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