Drive Train

Drive Train… Like many creatures of both land and sea, Squid stays close to home during Car Week, stocking up on shrimp-flavored popcorn and inviting cephalopods over for friendly poker games (octopuses have the worst poker faces, blushing with every flush). Squid’s interest was piqued by an event called the Central Coast Poker Rally, only to find out that no poker will be played. Rather, a group of cars was set to go full tilt around Squid’s lair on Aug. 11.

The day kicked off at a bar where, if the promotional video on the rally’s website is to be believed, mimosas and Bloody Marys flow freely. No problem with that, except it’s the ante to… drive around. (Squid checked, that’s still illegal; an organizer argues it probably just shows spectators.) The itinerary then promised a drive to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for photo ops, before “traveling down Lourdes Grade on Carmel Valley Road.” Squid assumes they mean not a hill next to the French cathedral, but Laureles Grade, where participants would have a needed chance to sober up waiting at the construction traffic light before driving to a restaurant (with two more drink tickets to start – maybe the designated drivers give theirs away?) to end the 37-mile drive. “They are required to follow the law and not drive intoxicated,” explains an organizer of the event, now in its fifth year.

The heart of the Rally, says the website, is their commitment to giving back. Squid tried to donate to the group’s 2025 charity, but the donate button didn’t work. Besides, the charity is based in New York. Squid donates a portion of Squid’s poker winnings locally instead.

Slip n’ Slide… Squid loves to lounge around the lair, but is not the most patient cephalopod of the sea. When Squid needs to get somewhere, Squid knows creative ways to ooze and dart through the water. So when Squid heard there was going to be an announcement about the long-awaited cleanup of Regent’s Slide – which has been blocking Highway 1 through Big Sur since February 2024 – Squid was ready to leap into the jalopy for a road trip. (Passage all the way through has been blocked since early 2023.)

In mid-July, Toks Omishakin, the State Secretary of Transportation, visited the southern end – a little too far for Squid to swim to – “to provide the latest updates” on the closure.

Only his update was mostly to announce there would be another update, sometime kinda soon. “Caltrans will update the public and local business owners with an estimated date for the reopening of Regent’s Slide by the end of summer,” the agency promised following Omishakin’s tour.

Summer hasn’t ended yet, but Caltrans already followed up to clarify: an update is coming mid-September. But given their track record, Squid has doubts: What if the big September announcement… slips?