It’s amazing how much you can learn about a town from its cemetery! Earliest residents, cultural evolution, even something of the temperament of those cultures as expressed by the headstones of the departed, beloved of those long gone themselves, mostly.
I spent a short time in the town of Guadalupe, CA last year. Driving north on Highway 1 the cemetery is the first, surreal and slightly haunting, indication of this town, home to 7,225 human souls these days. It’s the kind of town you can pass through without much thought, missing most of it if you blink too often. I was on an extended road trip through California wine regions and Guadalupe is in Santa Barbara County, home to the 3 lovely sister AVA's of Santa Ynez, Santa Rita, & Santa Maria. Guadalupe, being on the north end of the county and some distance from the city Santa Barbara, offers the advantage of reasonable accommodations (via AirBnB) reasonably close to the wineries and vineyards in between.
This unassuming little town offered a bit more than convenience to this curious & compulsive traveler, thanks to the above and beyond hospitality of my AirBnB host, Anne, a fellow gypsy spirit with great knowledge & appreciation for the locale she chose to put down roots in. It also inspired a paradigm shift that will broaden future destinations, those predetermined and those presented by the road, to slow down, stop even, and take a closer look.
© Donna Moyer Photography