by Rhina Guidos, Outpost staff
I was 14 when I was forced to read John Steinbeck. The book was "The Grapes of Wrath." I read the first dozen pages and just couldnt digest it. I never finished it.
Six or seven years later, I became interested in tide pools
and I ran into Steinbeck again. He had had a close
relationship with a marine biologist named Ed Ricketts.
Steinbeck's book "The Log from the Sea of Cortez" chronicled
one of their specimen gathering expeditions in the Baja
California region. That book pulled me into the Steinbeck
world.
Route 101 is a pleasant and scenic drive to
Salinas. Map by Rhina Guidos.
I read "Cannery Row" because the main character was based on Ed Ricketts. Then, "Of Mice and Men" followed, and his books left an imprint on my imagination. I became intimate with Salinas and Cannery Row. I had been on Steinbeck and Ricketts expeditions through the pages of his books.
But somehow, I always longed to visit those places, to physically see and touch all the things he talked about.
In March, I drove to Santa Rosa for a job interview. Santa Rosa is nowhere close to Salinas or Monterey. But in the spirit of what Steinbeck as a traveler would have done, I stopped to pick up my friend Juliette Marsden in Tracy, Calif., and we took off on The Steinbeck Route.
Join us on our journey:
Posted May 10, 1999
Copyright 1999 Nevada Outpost
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