There really is nothing to do in the towns of Santa Paula and Ojai – and that’s exactly why we went. We could have driven 3 hours to Joshua Tree, sure, or gone down to Tijuana simply so we could write ‘…is in Mexico!’ on our Facebook profile and then hightail it back to San Diego – there’s enough to do outside of Los Angeles, but it all seemed so – goal orientated.

If you go to a National Park, you feel the need to hike and that’s just silly and in no way relaxing. If we went to a museum, I’d have to act like I know what my girlfriend was talking about all the while wondering if the café would give me a beer.

See – too many road trips out of town come with immense amounts of pressure. So when I asked ‘what’s there to do there?’ when she suggested it, she came back with ‘not a lot – there are some shops in Santa Paula and a cool little Mexican restaurant’, I was sold. Shops meant she had something to do and tequila meant I did as well.

In all honestly the drive there was gorgeous – we picked up a friend along the way and everyone commented on how concentrated things seemed when you were actually in the city, but 20-minutes down the 101 and it was all stretched out before you. Gorgeous stretches of road and some great views of the ocean. Not to mention strip-malls, which might seem tacky to you, but they always give me a strange sense of comfort – kind of like seeing a McDonalds in the middle of Egypt.

After about an hour or so, we came into Santa Paula and it’s exactly what you would think a small town would be. Four roads, with a bank and an old-time movie theater on the corners, locals that take their time doing everything, including answering questions and just an overall feel of not-L.A. – which was perfect. Our friend George seemed a bit disappointed with it all and would later tell us that they had since fixed the roads that went through town and the café that used to serve a mean bowl of chili had since gone under.

But a quirky side remained – insurance agencies shared spots with tattoo parlors. The antiques man seemed more interested in sharing stories than selling the items he was sharing the stories about. Old railway lines passed from nothing, through nothing, to nothing – but all with a gorgeous backdrop of mountains and nuthin’.

So, should you find yourself heading for Ojai, leave an hour or so early to pay homage to a town that used to be quaint – and could still be so if more people stop by.

Photos are all original. More here. You might learn somethin’.

pixelstats trackingpixel