Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Day 4 - Kalifornia

The evening before, I'd traveled through some high passes, and had near freezing weather.  So, before I exited the truck, I threw on a heavy sweater and prepared for the chill.  I was greeted with a blast of warm air.  Went back in the truck to check the temp gauge: 17 C !!!  Mmmmm, California :)  The night was windy, and rocked the trailer often.  Nice to be indoors.

Time for sandals

Welcome to the flat lands.  With the big passes behind me, I was looking forward to stretching out the gas stops.  I was only able to get about 300km before getting near the empty warning - not ideal.  Today's first stop had me at 430km before the light came on.  Wow, those hills really take their toll.

My destination for the coming week is Monterey, so I exit the I-5 just outside of Sacramento and start heading West towards SanFran.  The drive was nice.  Flat road, open scenery with a few small rugged hills.  From the Bay area, I'd head South, then West towards Santa Cruz.  The final Southbound leg into Monterey would travel down the coast and promised some great views.

What I wasn't prepared for, was the Caldecott Tunnel on I-24 coming into Oakland.  This is a three tunnel system with two lanes per tunnel.  The middle bore is used as a counter-flow.  Luckily/unluckily there were four lanes open Westbound when I arrived.  Having no idea of this before hand, it was a bit confusing as to which lane to pick, as they were separate tunnels.  I just picked the right one and hoped for the best.  The tunnel is narrow and EXTREMELY bumpy.  Swore the trailer got air a few times.  Came out the other side unscathed though, and the two sections of road merged together again.  No harm done.
This is supposed to be a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. Not enough zoom :(

Now coming into Oakland proper.  Traffic was VERY heavy.  All exits to SanFran were backed up for a few hundred meters on the highway.  Things like this didn't help either.

Car fire on the I-880

After consulting the maps at the end of the day, I realized I didn't have to travel through Oakland at all, but it really didn't matter.  It was nice to see the area, even if it was from the highway doing 55 mph.

Long stop for lunch today in South Oakland.  Took lunch in the trailer while continuing my search for a place to park the RV in Monterey.  A former co-worker (Lance) lives there and offered up a room for the week.  The search was not fruitful :(  Only possible location I found was the airport, but there admin office (who handles RV parking) was closed on the weekend.  This being Saturday, I'd have to find an alternative for at least two nights.  Laguna Seca was my fall-back plan.  Not a bad spot, with mountain biking trails right from the the camping.  So, off I go towards Santa Cruz.

Highway 17.   A 21 mile stretch of road from East San Jose to Santa Cruz.  Sounds like a quick easy drive.  Well, not so much.  It's a 4 lane divided highway, but the lanes are tight, the road is TWISTY and the road is STEEP.  At one point you climb 1000ft in about 2.5 miles.  I was able to pull 45-50mpg through most of it (speed limit was 50), but had to back it off on a couple of the corners.  The descent wasn't quite as bad, but still steep.  Passed one transport truck on the road, don't think they travel it very often.

Decided to by-pass Santa Cruz, but dropped into Aptos to at least check out the beach.  Maybe not the best idea.  The GPS showed the beach just a few blocks away.  What it didn't show was the steepness.  I was really looking forward to dropping the trailer off for a few days.  Got down to the beach, checked out the surf for a bit, then climbed back up to the highway.

Pic from a "View point".
I think they made it 30 years ago when the trees weren't so high.

Got back onto the highway and headed for Monterey (sorry Chris, the Post Office jumps were just never gonna happen).  The drive started in dense trees, which eventually gave way to scenic ocean views.  The sun was just setting.  Fantastic.

Never found a parking spot for the trailer, so I pulled into Laguna Seca just after dusk.  By the time I had the trailer set-up, a text came in from Lance.  "Only 8 miles away?  Come out for a drink."  Had a loooooong shower (wow, was that ever nice), quick meal, then headed for town.  Met up with Lance and Susan for a glass of wine at one of the local eateries, and talked about the drive, the plans for the week....and of course work.

Back to the trailer for the night.  Looking forward to staying put for a couple of days.

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