Soledad, California

I was astounded to see that Soledad was even on here; to be honest, I didn't think that anybody even knew about the town aside from people visiting the West Side of the Pinnacles from the Bay Area. While not as bad as neighboring Salinas, it is fairly characteristic of the inland towns of central California: quiet, sunny, warm, dry, lacking in culture, and built up from scratch.

There are definitely Mexican influences here, though perhaps not as strongly as some of the other nearby towns. One thing that my friend and I observed as we drove through is that there is nothing to do here - this could be a tough place to be a kid. But with new developments, proximity to the 101 and one of the best National Monuments that I know, this may not be the worst place, either.