Darren's journey through the Americas

Route 1 in a white Ford Mustang convertible has been a blast. I covered 2,000 miles from San Diego to Eureka and back to LA, and completed the whole of Route 1 with the roof down. This is a very scenic and historic route but also very slow and twisting. I commenced thsi journey on 10th Sept and finished on 23rd Sept. I started in San Diego and stopped in, Los Angeles, Cambria, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Fort Bragg and Eureka before heading back south stopping at Sacramento, Cambria and LA overnight. I also spent time in Carmel ( an english style village and Clint Eastwood as the Mayor), Slovang and Santa Barbara (Great pier, beach and mounatin setting on the coast. I also managed to get chased by the California Highway Patrol for doing 74 in a 55 even though I was doing 80mph. The cop also pulled his gun on me when I got our of the car and walked towards him, he looked very worried, so the ticket I got was worth it for that experience alone. Overall it was a varied journey, LA was dull, dirty and tacky, Cambria was quiet but the best hotel I stayed in, El Colibri, Hearst Castle was very cool and unexpected so don't miss it, Monterey had an aquarium wow! and the original Bubba Gump restaurant, Santa Cruz is a vacation resort and was closed athough teh Sea Lions on teh pier were awesome, San Francisco was just superb with a great feel about it, compact, clean and lots to do, Santa Rosa is just outside San Francisco is a busy town which had the best Applebees I have ever been in, Fort Bragg was a Redwood depot but is pretty deserted, Eureka is a large town and close to the Redwood State Park that I got lost in on a hike. Sacramento, being the Capitol of California and the home of Arnie, was interesting with its Old Town and new Downtown areas, lots of bars although the river cruise was boring. Carmel was very quaint with its english style buildings on main street and a very nice beach, but Slovang took me by surprise. This was originally a Danish settlement where all the buildings are of a Danish style and very cool. Taking that photo of being above the clouds as the sunset and seeing the Golden Gate bridge in a constant misty cloud just peaking through occassionaly was worth every minute of the long journey. San Francisco rocks!!!