Route 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz sparks dread in the hearts of many Californians, though thousands of them use it daily, many traveling over the speed limit. It’s a two-lane-each-way paved state highway with stripes, lights, railings, a central barrier, and copious signs, many of which light up. On the other hand, it follows a sinuous path over the Santa Cruz mountains, and hosts accidents weekly.

Friends visiting from afar provided an excellent excuse for a staycation recently, so we went to a wine tasting at a hilly vineyard. To get there, we traveled on a truly harrowing road on the Cupertino side of the same mountain. This road was one-lane-each-way except for the spots where it was one-lane-shared, very twisty, often sans shoulders, and bounded on the outside lane by a sheer drop. Precipice would not be too strong a term.

The view was expansive, including the Bay and its eastside mountains from San Jose to San Francisco, essentially all of Silicon Valley. This slice is cropped to feature the Apple Ring, which some call the Spaceship, a campus housing over 12,000 employees.

Scattered above and below the vineyard were a handful of private homes, some including private vineyards. This is where you could live if your company “hit”, and you don’t mind traveling a long and winding road to the grocery.

Some grapes were still on the vine October 2, though they were harvested later that week. These are merlot, and we got to try one. We tasted a yummy merlot wine as well. I don’t think it was in the same class as the ones disdained in Sideways.

We tried for back roads on the way home and got a little turned around. My husband specializes in near-precipice driving, so I was navigating. Taking back roads essentially means ignoring the navigation program, and while I did so for a while, it eventually tricked me into rejoining the highway. Despite many decades spent without a handheld puppet master, I am now firmly in thrall.