Sunday, August 3, 2014

day 1: california to wisconsin

A few months ago, when Drew and I were planning our route from California to Wisconsin, we said to each other "Hey, do you know what would make a 2100 mile cross country road trip even better? Driving up the California coast, some of which will be on a two lane highway that's full of twists and turns so that we'll only be able to drive about 30 mph, and adding about 500 miles to the trip!" I'm kidding. It was more like "Sooooo, I know we already have a long distance to drive, but everyone talks about how driving up the coast is a thing to do and it's really pretty and this is probably our only chance to do it, so what do you say?" 

We said yes.

And I'm glad we did.

We started off on the 405 and took it to LA, where we then got on the 101 and drove through Ventura and Santa Barbara, and then we got on the 1 (also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, or the PCH) in San Luis Obispo (gawd, I sounded sooo Californian right there). Then Drew took the wheel because I hate twists and turns and curves in the road, even more so than bumper to bumper traffic and crazy drivers who almost merge into us twice, and I got to enjoy the view.    
We have to hand it to the state park system and the CA Department of Transportation or whoever because there were several places to stop along the PCH to take pictures and enjoy the view.




Some of the birds had no fear. That's Drew's hand there. Maybe he put it there for scale? 
We also drove through Big Sur, which is well known because it's really beautiful, but I've heard of it because of its grueling marathon that takes place every April. The halfway point is the Bixby Bridge, and there is a pianist who plays Chariots of Fire in the middle of it. 
It is unlikely that I will ever run across the Bixby Bridge, but my friend Sam did a couple years ago. 
We made it up to Monterey at the end of day one.  

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