11/6: Highway 49 is the highway that goes north to south along the Californian feet of the Sierra Nevadas. Mostly, it is a narrow road that crawls up and down the slopes and to drive there, you really need to concentrate in order to not just drive off the mountainside.
The landscape along the highway looks very special too, with the yellow grass and the oaks sticking up everywhere. And the cows, enjoying the grass and shade of the trees.
As you know, I like traffic signs. This one, warning about lumber trucks, I found utterly charming.
In Amador County, we left the 49 for a short detour and found a charming little vinyard by the road.
The garden was full of odd art, and in the cool darkness of the tasting room, we were offered tastes of all their eight or so wines, free of charge. I felt kind of stupid, though, sipping the different red wines and trying to say appreciative and correct things to the winemaker. I know nothing about wine, and could barely taste the difference between the different kinds. But I think my dad would have loved it. They charged far more than what we could afford for one of their wine bottles, so I guess it was good wine too. I just wouldn’t know.
But they are beautiful places, vineyards.
The highway was named 49 after the 49ers, that is, the fortune seekers that rushed here in 1849 during the beginning of the gold rush. And sure enough, it goes through most of the tiny old towns that were lavishly built with gold money. Now, they mostly seem to exist for the few the tourists that drive through. Like Amador City, with the American flags.
Or Sutter Creek, with the beautiful balconies.
They were all really pretty, these small gold rush towns, but they all looked kind of the same. So, after a couple main streets with these wild west false fronts, we didn’t even bother to stop. We just drove straight through.
Katja Malmborg 