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Day 5 - San Francisco/Route 1/Paso Robles
Wednesday
Today was the start of our drive down to San Diego. We collected the car, checked out of the hotel and set off. We hired a Garmin with the car as it saved the whole map thing so we started off towards route 1 working out the quirks on the system along the way. The plan was to drive down route 1, past Santa Cruz, Monterey, Big Sur, San Simeon and Hearst Castle where we were going in a couple of days, then turn off just after Cambria towards Paso Robles. All in all, without stopping for pictures etc it was going to take over five and a half hours but hey, we were on holiday and that's what this was all about. We had the iPod on shuffle, bottles of water, sunglasses and basically a happy air around us.
We stopped quite often to take in the view and take pictures as it was really lovely. I kept thinking about the Red Hot Chili Peppers track, Road Trippin. It reminds me a lot of the road from where we live in Strand, up to Kleinmond, but the surroundings on route 1 are more green. That said, I think the SA road is more breathtaking, especially as you have mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. It's certainly a trip I take all of our visitors on and one that we do quite a lot at all times of year, especially in the right season if you carry on to Hermanus and go whale watching.
All was going well, we were about 5 miles from San Simeon when we spotted smoke further up the road. We soon found the source of the smoke - there was a fire along the road and it was closed! We had a choice, stay there and wait and hope the fire would be dealt with quite quickly (though we were told it was likely to be several hours) or we could go back the way we came - all the way back down the road we had been on for most of the day! This was a massive detour, to head all the way back towards Monterey, take the road to Salinas, then take the 101 down to Paso Robles. It was going to take us a couple of hours to get back to Monterey and then almost the same again to get down to Paso Robles - it's a long time to be in the car! Plus, we were starving by this time as we'd planned to eat when we got off route 1 which would have been another 45 minutes at the most.
So there was nothing to do but head back to Monterey as we had no idea how long we would be stuck on route 1 otherwise. Stopped in Monterery for a very late lunch or slightly early dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, nice place, nice atmosphere, great food - the crab cakes were fantastic! Then we headed down the 101 to Paso Robles and crashed at the hotel. Very basic but hey, we're only sleeping here as we have quite a long day tomorrow, so leaving fairly early and getting back quite late. R did all the driving today and will probably do most of it tomorrow, not because I don't like to drive (I love it) but, well, he's a guy and can be a bit of a car hog LOL!
Distance: 256 miles but actually 426 miles with the detours - no wonder R was tired!
okayToday was the start of our drive down to San Diego. We collected the car, checked out of the hotel and set off. We hired a Garmin with the car as it saved the whole map thing so we started off towards route 1 working out the quirks on the system along the way. The plan was to drive down route 1, past Santa Cruz, Monterey, Big Sur, San Simeon and Hearst Castle where we were going in a couple of days, then turn off just after Cambria towards Paso Robles. All in all, without stopping for pictures etc it was going to take over five and a half hours but hey, we were on holiday and that's what this was all about. We had the iPod on shuffle, bottles of water, sunglasses and basically a happy air around us.
We stopped quite often to take in the view and take pictures as it was really lovely. I kept thinking about the Red Hot Chili Peppers track, Road Trippin. It reminds me a lot of the road from where we live in Strand, up to Kleinmond, but the surroundings on route 1 are more green. That said, I think the SA road is more breathtaking, especially as you have mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. It's certainly a trip I take all of our visitors on and one that we do quite a lot at all times of year, especially in the right season if you carry on to Hermanus and go whale watching.
All was going well, we were about 5 miles from San Simeon when we spotted smoke further up the road. We soon found the source of the smoke - there was a fire along the road and it was closed! We had a choice, stay there and wait and hope the fire would be dealt with quite quickly (though we were told it was likely to be several hours) or we could go back the way we came - all the way back down the road we had been on for most of the day! This was a massive detour, to head all the way back towards Monterey, take the road to Salinas, then take the 101 down to Paso Robles. It was going to take us a couple of hours to get back to Monterey and then almost the same again to get down to Paso Robles - it's a long time to be in the car! Plus, we were starving by this time as we'd planned to eat when we got off route 1 which would have been another 45 minutes at the most.
So there was nothing to do but head back to Monterey as we had no idea how long we would be stuck on route 1 otherwise. Stopped in Monterery for a very late lunch or slightly early dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, nice place, nice atmosphere, great food - the crab cakes were fantastic! Then we headed down the 101 to Paso Robles and crashed at the hotel. Very basic but hey, we're only sleeping here as we have quite a long day tomorrow, so leaving fairly early and getting back quite late. R did all the driving today and will probably do most of it tomorrow, not because I don't like to drive (I love it) but, well, he's a guy and can be a bit of a car hog LOL!
Distance: 256 miles but actually 426 miles with the detours - no wonder R was tired!