You Shoulda Tol' Me!

Part of today, Wednesday, is about people with roots in the east. It's also about some things totally western. While I was drying our car in the hotel lot after a quick car wash, a man approached having noticed our Jersey tags. Turns out he was born and raised in Riverside, Burlington County. He and his wife of 50 years were on the road from Oregon to Salt Lake City (our common destination) to celebrate their anniversary with family. He could not believe that we had started our business in the city of his youth.

 

On the road again I set the cruise control at 75, pointed our nose east and headed for SLC. We convinced ourselves that the high desert of Nevada was slightly different from the desert of Arizona or New Mexico. We stopped at the NV/UT state line town of Wendover for lunch. We no sooner crossed the border than we entered the Bonneville Salt Flats. How did we not know we would do this? How could this be a surprise? We clearly spent way to much time planning our westward trek following Rt. 66, and not nearly enough time looking at our trip home. The salt flats were amazing in a sensory deprivation kind of way. There was nothing to see. Nothing. No trees, no grass, no rocks. Anything that protruded above the surface looked as though it floated on a waveless sea. The apparition of water kept receding, replaced by more flat hard salty sand. We learned later that this was the same topography that doomed the Donner Party. They expected to cross the flats in three days, but took three weeks, heading into the mountains too late to avoid being trapped by snow.

When we finally saw the Great Salt Lake, I had to convince my self the water was real. Mirages are not blue. Salt Lake is blue. In SLC we met with an old college friend, the only kind I have. Our friend and his wife took us to Park City, UT, a nearby ski resort in the winter, for dinner and gave us the "fifty cent tour" of Salt Lake City. The city is beautiful, and they are clearly proud of the place they call home. More than 75% of the inhabitants of Utah, live in or around SLC. Today, Wednesday, was one of our most full, and longest days on the road.

We changed time zones today...now in Mountain Time. We saw 1 Corvette and drove 364.3 miles.

Homeward Bound

Tuesday morning we headed east. At first it was a little disconcerting because we have been following signs west for so many of our driving days. We want to make it to Reno, NV early enough today to visit the National Automobile Museum so we're taking Route 80. Once we passed Sacramento the drive became even more beautiful. There were mountains everywhere with tall pine trees covering them. Snow was still visible on the tops. As we climbed higher and higher the outside temperature dropped from about 88 to 69 and we were close enough to the snow that we could have gotten out of the car and made a snowball. Very strange! Elevation 7227. Getting a little hungry and saw a sign for the Red River Inn so we got off at the next exit. It was beautiful there! A few homes along the S. Yuba River complete with small waterfall, large rocks, snow...it looked like the perfect spot to get out of the car and enjoy the scenery. But, it was closed, having been recently sold. It was very disappointing, but at least we got some beautiful photos.
 

Reno, NV is "the biggest little town in the world". It is pretty much what you would expect.....casinos everywhere and shabby little neighborhoods surrounding them. The National Automobile Museum was amazing. It's a collection of cars owned by William Harrah. Yep, the same Harrah as the casinos. Each car in the collection was totally restored to it's original beauty. There were some vehicles previously owned by celebrities and some had been used in films. Very impressive!
 

Now on to Winnemucca where we'll spend the night. It's a little green spot in the middle of the "high dessert". The mountains seem to surround you as you drive out of Reno heading northeast. The views were beautiful. What is there to do in Winnemucca you ask? Well, there is a casino just about everywhere you look.
We only saw 1 other Corvette today and drove 357.2 miles.

On The Road Again

Monday morning, our first day back on the road, had another inauspicious beginning. We had a car cover drop shipped to Matt & Saana so we could leave our car covered in the garage around the corner. The el-cheapo lock that came with the cover was useless, so we bought another. Good thing. When we went for the car Monday morning, it looked as though someone had attempted to take the cover by buggering with the lock. Our keys would not work. An hour of hack sawing later, we had the lock off, the cover stowed and were ready to leave. Unfortunately, we had overstayed the time between paying and leaving so the kind, intelligent gentlemen who ran the garage insisted on another 2 bucks. Talk about adding insult to injury! 

 

On this trip we have learned to take setbacks with a grain of salt, as they say, so we laughed it off and got on our way. Leaving San Francisco for Napa the GPS managed to direct us to some of the highest hills in town. My guess is the inventor of the automatic transmission was from SF.

We've driven over the Golden Gate and into wine country before, but the trip is always beautiful. Rolling hills covered with rows of vines, small picturesque towns, wineries fashioned after European castles and Tuscan villas.

We tasted wine from Jacuzzi (yes, the hot tub family), Cline (same family), Adobe Road, Sebastiani and Buena Vista. This last winery was founded in 1857 by a Hungarian Count who brought cuttings from Europe to try growing grapes in the US. The tasting room is in the building built with the limestone excavated while their "cellar" was hand dug 100' into the hillside. We don't have much room in the car so deciding which bottles to bring home was not easy. There are a few in the trunk and a few in the care of UPS. We saw 3 Corvettes today and traveled 68.3 miles.

Wow! Did You See That?

Thursday we drove up CA 1 also known as The Pacific Coast Highway or PCH. This is the road where the word "viewgasm" was coined. This is the road our car was built for. (It's not the cars fault that we got passed again by a mini-van!) 


We've driven part of this road before, the easy part, south from Monterey to Big Sur and back up. This time we drove the coast all the way from Morro Bay to San Francisco. In places the road is steep and always curvy as it twists and dips over the ocean. Sheer rock on one side, breathtaking water views on the other. We really can't tell you how thrilling a ride this is. Anyone who has driven the PCH will tell you the same. I will say this...It's the most fun I've had in an automobile since high school! 

We passed up the tour of Hearst Castle, settling for a long range photo instead so we'd have more time for lunch at Nepenthe in Big Sur. The food is very good, but no bargain. We figure at least half of what they charge is for the view. On our last visit ('97) we ate above the fog, catching the ocean in patches. This time the fog poured over the mountains above us, but burned off before hitting the road level. 
You can't easily stop or turn around on this road, so we regrettably missed photographing the skate boarders we encountered. They took us completely by surprise. We're glad we also missed running them over. I was surprised, not shocked to see bicyclers, it is California after all, but skate boards? By the time we processed that people were actually skating down the mountain, we were past them. If these guys live long enough to reproduce, they may prove Darwin wrong. 


Now we're with Matt & Saana in San Francisco for a long weekend. The car is covered and resting in a garage. If we need to go out we plan to walk. Monday morning, when they go back to work, we have a day in wine country then head east toward home.
We drove 268.4 miles today and saw 10 Corvettes.

Welcome to La La Land

Wednesday was a day of contrasts. We started by driving an hour across the Mojave desert and through the Morongo Valley. Flat, sparse, dry, lonely. Mid morning we picked up I-10 toward LA and were suddenly immersed in the kind of traffic we see during rush hour on the Jersey Turnpike. Four lanes each direction, bumper to bumper at 80 miles an hour. We saw more cars today than we did on the rest of our trip. Seriously, some times even on I-40 we  could drive for several miles and not see another vehicle. 

The landscape turned into bumper to bumper commercial strips and big box stores. We stopped in San Bernardino to pick up a short piece of Rt. 66 and visit the "unofficial" Rt. 66 McDonald's Museum. It's the location of the first ever McDonald's (pre Ray Kroc). They must have one each of every kid's premium they ever gave away.

Off the interstates again we drove US 101, and watched the traffic thin as we headed north. Now the landscape is rolling hills and mountains, one of which we drove over, but now instead of the dry rocky crags of AZ or NM, the hills are covered in lush green. Grassland, forests, and eventually miles of grape vines.

We made farm market day in the admittedly tourist trap town of Solvang, CA. Think Alpine village but the signs for wooden shoes and Belgian chocolate are all in English. We purchased hand made, free range pasta; local organic cheeses and breads and artisan sun dried black olives to bring with us to Matthew & Saana's home in San Francisco. We discovered that the Hitching Post restaurant featured in the movie "Sideways" was only two miles from Solvang so we picked up some wine too.

We drove 358.7 miles today and saw 9 Corvettes! Our day ended on our hotel (they call it a "Spa retreat") room deck in the hot tub with a bottle of Champagne. Ahhhh....

California Here We Come

Tuesday we finally make it to the Golden State. We have lots to see before we get there. There is a long stretch of Route 66...the longest in the state of Arizona from just west of Flagstaff all the way to the border of California....about 85 miles. Along the way we saw many old Burma Shave signs. 

We cruised through small towns like Seligman, (where we stopped at the Snow Cap for a hamburger without ham and a cheeseburger with cheese) Peach Springs and Oatman where the donkeys roam the streets freely and even go in and out of the stores. If we had imagined that driving to Oatman would be the hair raising; white knuckle trip up and down and over the mountains that it was, we may have gone a different way. When they say the speed limit on the hairpin curves is 15 mph they mean it! 

 

Then we drove over the Mojave Desert where the temperature was 93 degrees and the roads were straight as arrows. The speed limit there was 65 or 70 mph and it was a real rollercoaster ride. Finally we reached our destination for the night. 29 Palms Inn where we're sleeping tonight in an adobe hut. This place is adorable. There is also a great restaurant here and a pool with music every night. We met a nice young couple from New York who are living in LA. They have their own business and we shared some of our insights and had some laughs. Maybe in 20 years they'll be sitting on our side of the room giving advice to another young couple. We drove 386.2 miles today and saw 0 Corvettes.

Up, Up & Away

Up and out bright and early for our helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. Best money we ever spent was the extra $$ to be in the front seats. There are no words to adequately explain the experience of soaring over the Grand Canyon. (Insert your favorite adjective here.) It was a beautiful day for a flight....no clouds....no turbulence....just perfect. 

We met a retired couple who have sold their business, home, everything and bought an RV that they travel in around the country full time. They stay in different locations until they get tired of that place and then move on. Sounds interesting....but where do they keep their stuff?

Today was also a day to relax and rejuvenate. We're here for 2 nights and need this time. At first we considered a short hike along one of the rim trails but after our walk back to the hotel (uphill) from lunch decided that was enough hiking for us flat-landers. We did a little driving around the park with the top down (thanks to the luggage being in the hotel) and watched another Grand Canyon sunset. This time from the hotel porch overlooking the Canyon. Today we only drove 23 miles (the car is breathing a sigh of relief) and saw 2 Corvettes.