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Published: August 19th 2008
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as the sun comes down over santa monica blvd
well more like beats down mercilessly but you get the idea Once again i put my fate at the mercy of USA's public transport system and i am not dissapointed... it takes me a mere 3.5 hours to travel a distance i could manage in a car in just 30 mins. But make it it does and I get to Long Beach airport to pick up a hire car, 20 mins late. Which means the efficient peoples in Enterprise have given the car i reserved to someone else... but that was their problem and i had a manic beardy grin to back it up. I get a brand new shiny Chrysler complete with new car smell and blemish free seats... oh dear...
My first attempt at driving in the states for over 4 years, so i start lite... the LA freeway system....well hell i have CDW and personal liability insuarance so do i look like i give a fuck? Pacific Coast Highway here i come. The freeway was a warzone it was every bro for himself out there. There was overtaking, undertaking and in the case of the Hummers just plain easy drive over the fucker infront of you. But a mix of good old fashioned british road rage and eyes
wide closed driving and i survive it all and end up on Santa Monica boulavard... just as sheryl crows comes on...freaky.
LA is the centre of unreal so it was good to see they had thought of a public convenience for pooches. A small astroturf patch for wee doggies, and bigger one for the bigger mutts and a huge one complete with fire hydrant for the better hung woof. So hanging a left past the canine urinals (sure i saw marc almond there...😉 ) and I am on PCH highway 1 alongside Venice Beach... plastic fantastic as far as the eye can see. Driving up the road through Santa Monica and Malibu was pretty damn amazing, especially eating a great thai green curry at a roadside shack watching the beachfront houses owned by the rich, famous or just weird on the other side of the road.
The first signs of open road come up after Malibu, nothing but road, beaches cliffs and sea... just brilliant, even the badly driven RVs fail to piss me off. The miles flyby, so does the time and so does the gas... this car is a medium sized saloon but barely makes 24mpg!!!
Come 8pm and i am rocking into Santa Barbera... a mild 7 hour drive..and guess what? Its a fricking saturday..which means unlike a carpenter dude from old times, theres not even a manger for me to pitch up in.. so on i drive. I get to San Simean and Big Sur and still no room at the inns..well there was one but he wanted $200 for it.. well can can go forth and procreate right off!!. 11pm comes up and i am still driving, but now its windy scary driving in the fog..so i pull over into a layby, get my sleeping bag out of the trunk and try and get comfortable in the car... not easy when suffering from a bad sunburn on the back...
7am and i awake to back ache and wonderfull views..foggy cliffs, crashing waves and some frankly scary looking paw prints round my car. But half an hour of T'ai Chi on the edge of the cliffs and I drive back down the coast to get some breakie and a visit to Hearst Castle..
Hearst Castle was the home of William Randolph Hearst... the Rupert Murdoch of his day, but with more style. The
complex of buildings on top of this hill in middle of nowhere is just mind blowing. He filled it with art and artifacts from all over the world... he used 600 yr old choir stalls from Spain for the wood panalling in the reception room, he had a 4000 yar old statues from Egypt in the gardens and so on. The extravagance was jaw dropping and the skill that designed and put it all together pure genius.
So after the 480 mile drive yesterday i have a easy 180 mile drive to complete in the afternoon to get to a overnight stay in a hostel north of Santa Cruz. The drive was everything that images of the PCH conjure, twisting roads, rock strewn roads and sheer drops to a screaming death. But the scariest thing on the roads however were the BIG SUVs driven by burger chomping fat twats that had no idea how to drive the things round a corner. Having a Escalade (very big SUV) or a rental RV appear on the wrong side of the road was not funny... and i let them know that in my very best anglo saxon 😊
A nive overnight
in th hostel, run by a aging surfer dude, and i complete the last 50 miles to San Fran, enjoying the last of the truly scenic bits of PCH before dropping of the car at the airport and catching a transit to the city. No rest for the wicked tho,.... a early night for a early start to Yosemite for a camping trip... goodo
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