2,000 miles and a 997S

So, I got the opportunity to take a 997S out for a 4 day weekend to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. The idea was to spend day one driving as far north as we could and then spend the next 3 days driving down on some wonderful California 2 lane roads! The trip was an absolute blast as you can imagine, great weather, a great car, and of course my lovely wife.

I would also like to thank all those saps who make a lot of money that were able to pay some extra taxes in order for my wife and I to get that magical Stimulus check!


We made it as far as Humbolt County where we pulled into a little quaint hotel in Rio Dell, CA and camped in for the night.....




Then it was up at the crack of dawn to spend some time with the Redwoods! This is Ave of the Giants located in Humbolt County





After that, we decided to head towards the coast.....



Unfortunately we got a little lost and had to back track inland....but it was a good opportunity for a quick car wash...




then back through the forest a little bit more till we hit the coast again.....there really are some spectacular roads in Northern Cali!!




doesn't look like a bad road to wring a new Porsche out on does it????

and to PCH we arrive...this will be our main road until we get past San Francisco...



well....time really flies while you are on the road...so it was time to stop for another night...we stayed at the Tides Inn in Shelter Cove. Not a bad view...



and again, on the road very early.....where we found this road kill....poor boxster (we couldn't find ANY signs of the actual accident)




chance to catch breakfast with the morning fishermen!






and then back on the road again for some more spirited driving.....when the fog rolled in......was only around for about 30 minutes till we saw some more daylight..





Back on the main highway to cross over the Golden Gate (this is one of those rare opportunities when you'll get a picture of me)



not a bad cockpit!







and after the GG Bridge it was time to hit up Skyline drive just south of SF and hit up the 4 Points Roads (You SF guys will know what i'm talking about ;) )

a little glimpse of HWY 9





and then back down the hwy we picked up my all time favorite CA road HWY 25 just south of Hollister........this will put a grin on your face!!

38 Miles of Fun it should say....



and the fun begins...I feel like a kid inline for the roller coaster!



and before you know it, we are back at the coast for a little stop in San Luis Obisbo..



and turning in for the night in Pismo Beach, with yet another terrible hotel view!!








While on a quick leg stretch, we noticed we had picked up a little message:




I think this girls boyfriend cheated on her...it was a pretty interesting note.. (I'll post up the details one day)



and then up the next morning to head home.....but what CA road trip could be complete without a good burger (for those that remember, IN-N-OUT plays a special note to my wife and I....even had them cater our wedding!!)







and unfortunately......my love affair with my dream car brand is over and I have to step back into reality






Overall it was a VERY VERY fun trip, i've traveled a lot of this country on 2 lane roads (gone cross country 5x's) and have covered a lot of Southern and Central CA but never really had the opportunity to get further north then SF. I've put about 6,000 miles of 2 lane driving on my GTO and about 4,000 on a C5 corvette...but neither were as fun as this 997S....although they both were a lot more comfortable...and didn't leave you body aching at the end of the day!! There really is no substitute!!!

4 day weekend and a trip up the Sierra Nevada's

With 4th of July in front of us and the fact that our city gets FLOODED with people we decided to get out and head out for another road trip. With 4 days to spare we weren't really sure on what we wanted to do, so we headed north up 395 to see Yosemite and it's surroundings.

(FYI, you can click on the pictures for a bigger more clearer photo)

This was our first stop, a break out in the Mojave Desert



And then we came into Yosemite from the east side off of 395. What a unreal place. Neither of us have ever been there so it was really one of those experiences where we looked at each other and tried to figure out why it took us so long. Gorgeous place. Luckily the traffic wasn't that bad either considering it was a 4 day holiday weekend for most.



Some more shots from Yosemite



the lake




little critter we ran into



After this we headed up north and stayed the night in Carson City. The next morning we woke up and decided to do Lake Tahoe, which was just PACKED, and unfortunately didn't have any good chances to pull over for some pictures as all the turnoffs were packed. Spectacular place though.

After that we headed up HWY 89 past Truckee where it connects with HWY 49 which would be our route over the mountains and down the other side.

Here is a turnoff off 89.



HWY 49 is a FANTASTIC road, and for any motorcyclist out there or other car road nuts this is a MUST do.

Here is a little hint of some of the road





After you do the loop, HWY 49 goes a long many of the old Gold/Silver Mine towns like Angels Camp, Jackson, Sonora, etc.



an old Saloon



After that we headed back towards the mountains and did a little hike among the redwoods.



We then attempted to come up the South side of Yosemite but it was way to crowded so we just stopped for a quick shot. Here's my wife Adrienne in front of a stream.



After this we stayed the next night oustide of Fresno in a town called Dinuba in order to get to the Sequoa National Monument/Forest the next morning.

On the way up to the the big tree's we found a great road called Boyd Road right outside of Dinuba. Another fantastic road that was empty. This road had no center divider, etc. A true back road.

This picture basically sums up the whole "Wide Open Traveler" aspect in my mind.



This road then leads you to HWY 245, which is another spectacular driving road.



I then managed to hit 10,000 miles on my GTO after 5 1/2 months of ownership. Pretty scary



And then, a chance to drive through the Giants. It's funny, everyone kept telling us how we should drive through Yosemite, or up by the coast to see the big Redwoods. Well we had done both, but nothing was as mystic as this park. It was just UNREAL.



Here's a good perspective of how big these tree's are. (My wife claims she's 5'5", but I say she's 5'2"; so this gives you a little perspective of the size of these trees)






After 32 1/2 hours in the car and roughly 1500 miles we were finally happy to be back home in Huntington Beach. Hope you all enjoyed!

A Honeymoon, A GTO, and The Back Roads of California

Finally got to do my first road trip in the Goat. My wife and I are huge fans of the open road (driven cross country 5x's, last time only on 2 lane roads), and our favorite trips have no destinations, we pick up a map and try to find some back roads that'd be interesting to drive. So for our honeymoon, what better thing for us to do then pack up the GTO and head out to drive some familiar and new roads in California.

We left L.A. and our first night was spent in Solvang, after that we headed up north.

First stop was on Harris Grade rd right above Lompoc, CA. Great little road about 30 miles long full of tight turns.





After that we decided to head back inland in order to catch our favorite road, we took HWY 166 over to the 33, great road, it was pretty crowded but luckily the car has great passing power.










We were trying to head over to 58, which until this weekend was probably the greatest road I had ever driven in this country (Pure driving, not scenic). My wife found a short cut so we took it, turned out to be a dirt road, after spending about 10 miles on this dirt road, it turned into a paved road, which quickly turned back into a dirt road. I definately gave in to the urge to turn the T/C off and go at it (can't wait to finally clean the car and see what the rock chips look like).





and to our destination, HWY 58, this is a FANTASTIC road, and anyone who is in California and heading north or south, please allow yourself to drive it. It has a good 60 miles of great mountain twisties along w/ REAL long straight (was able to cruise at 140 for a good amount of time, never seen a cop on this road in the dozen or so times i've driven it). Only other people we saw were bikers, but for the most part we had the road to ourselves.







gotta put in a picture of my wife :)



after that we headed over to HWY 1 which goes along the CA coast




and spent the night in Carmel @ the Park Hyatt, this is the view out of our hotel room's balcony





After that, we continued to head North on HWY 1 up to Half Moon Bay where we cut inland to tackle the back roads up above Santa Cruz (Hwy 84 and 9). What a fantastic drive was this, empty roads, lots of tight turns, and gorgeous scenery.

This is HWY 9 and a sign that was familiar to us throughout the whole trip.



gotta love it, spend the morning along the coast and then have lunch amongst the Redwoods



after this we headed back down south down the 1 and then cut over on I believe 156 towards Gilroy (My favorite town since i'm an absolute garlic nut) and then to HWY 25, which may now have taken the honors of my favorite road over HWY 58. Empty, gorgeous, no cops, no people, only speed limit is the one you set for yourself.





I'd love to get back on this road when everything is green, but regardless it was still gorgeous



after this we found a little road on the map called Peach Tree rd, this virtually turned into a single lane road that went through the middle of nothing except for a few farms. It was roughly 40 miles long and we didn't see a single car the whole time. I was expecting for it to turn into a dirt road like the ones we were on earlier.



Deep canyon we came across



only life form we came across :D



after that we stayed the night in Paso Robles and the next morning headed inland on the 46 I believe to the 33 and back towards home. The 33 was another great road, empty, high speeds, etc. At one point we got stuck for about 45 minutes because they were repaving the road.



but atleast where we got stuck had a good view of the valley



Once we got passed that, it was an empty road in front of us, I had never driven this road and man was it a lot of fun, some very tight turns.

Here's a shot of part of the road from up on a bluff.



that took us down to Ojai where we headed over to the 5



and thus sending us home. All in all it was a fantastic trip, we covered roughly 1500 miles and spent a total of 28 hours in the car over 4 days.


And the aftermath, this will be a good challenge for my detailing skills



btw, also have to show off the Grooms cake my wife got made for me :D




this was a great compliment to having the In-N-Out truck cater the wedding :D



I'd like to take this moment to say how lucky I am to find a woman that shares my passion for this insanity. This is just one of about 2 dozen trips like this we've done around this country (most of which you will slowly be hearing about), and I'd just like to extend my thoughts that with out her by my side I wouldn't be out enjoying this beautifull country we live in.

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