The goal of the first night of driving was to reach San Francisco, the real starting point of our adventure. By the time we reached the hotel on Fisherman's Warf we'd traveled approximately 850 miles and driven about 12 hours. The route took us westward from Phoenix to the outskirts of Los Angeles where we turned northward.
The immediate item we learned was that children who traditionally fall asleep at the drop of a hat in the car will not fall asleep on this initial overnight drive due to excitement. Needless to say my initial plan for a quiet night's driving was dashed. Jensen, our two year old decided that waking up and screaming the moment that the navigator was about to get some sleep was a fantastic idea.
The stretch of I-10 coming into L.A. as well as stretches of the 5 leaving were under serious construction. We were very grateful to not be passing through them during the daytime. I can only imagine the impact to commuters that occurs each morning! I have to admit I cannot understand why anyone lives witin the greater Los Angeles area. We drove through between midnight and two am. The amount of light pollution at those hours was so great I could have easily driven without headlights. I suppose it never really gets dark in L.A. unless there's a power outage. The air quality is a bit much as well. We were all sniffling and coughing within a half hour.
Outside of L.A. we transitioned drivers for the first time in Santa Clarita. Alas, SWMBO took the wheel just as we started into a serious set of curves and mountainous grades as we climbed out of the L.A. basin. Needless to say SWMBO was not amused. I am certain I will hear about this for a long time to come. The 5 travels north though the center of California. We got to watch the sun rise and change the colors of the land finally seeing the stretches of farmland with mountains to the west. It was a beautiful area. The 5 seems straight as an arrow, it's tough to maintain concentration because of how little you need to do. We joked about being able to tie off the steering wheel, putting a brick on the accellerator, and taking a nap.
We stopped for breakfast at a roadside restaurant called The Apricot Tree. The greasy spoon breakfast we has was the best meal ever! Basically, once you've been awake and driving for ten hours I believe rocks would be the best meal ever. What we found really fun about the place is their extensive vintage lunchbox collection. We sat in the Western section and had a view of the Bonanza, Rifleman, Roy Rogers and others.
Refilled with breakfast and coffee and ready to take on the world we headed out to finish the last leg of the night's journey. On the outskirts of San Francisco is a small automotive museum which I had been told by a number of fellow car folks that I couldn't miss. The Blackhawk Museum has to be one of the seven automotive wonders of the world. I do not believe there is any description I can provide that will impress upon you how amazing this collection is.
We had the opportunity to spend a couple hours in each of the car galleries wandering among the cars. I simply have never seen anything like the gathering of vehicles. I took two quick cellphone pictures as they request no commercial photography.
If you come within a 100 miles of this place you have no excuse to not stop in!
After the museum we finished our drive in to San Francisco. I have no idea if it's normal Saturday traffic, but the Bay Bridge was a nightmare. Even with 5 lanes it was backed up so far that we spent twice as long waiting to get on it than it took to get across. Driving in downtown trying to get to the hotel is always a challenge. Thankfully the printed google map route was dead on, and short of nearly getting attacked by a killer Winnebago we had arrived!
