Salinas, California Stretch of Highway 101 Named for John Steinbeck Earlier This Week

John Steinbeck liked to travel and learned to drive while growing up in Salinas, California, where a stretch of nearby Highway 101 was officially named for the author of Travels with Charley at an October 26 ceremony in Steinbeck’s hometown. Legislation naming the John Steinbeck Highway portion of Highway 101—from the Espinosa Road/Russell Road undercrossing to John Street in downtown Salinas—passed the California State Assembly last year as part of a bill designating other sections of Highway 101, including Gateway to the Pinnacles Highway. Appropriately, the John Steinbeck Highway sign was unveiled at the National Steinbeck Center, located on the historic Salinas, California main street accessed from Highway 101 at the “National Steinbeck Center” exit familiar to visitors since the building opened two decades ago. Said Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw, director of the busy Salinas, California center, “John Steinbeck loved cars” and owned a Packard, a Jaguar, a Buick, even a rare European car. “In nearly all of his books, cars roll along highways—including two of his best road books: Travels with Charley and The Grapes of Wrath.”