Here's a picture of me right before I left. I'm wearing a Fiat shirt that one of the guys I work with found at a thrift store, and some riding gloves that were given to me right before the trip. I wanted to make sure I was dressed appropriately.
Well I started down I-5 all the way through Oregon, stopping just about every hundred miles to give my feet a rest and to check the oil. To my pleasant surprise, I got almost 30 miles to the gallon during trip, which alleviated some of my worries about not having enough money to get gas down and back. Usually I can get anywhere from 14-18 miles to the gallon driving around Edmonds/Seattle, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
Here's me on the road. I dressed to impress. It was still a little cold on the morning that I left, hence the stylish cap.
So on the first day I was able to get all the way through Oregon and around 50-100 miles south of Crescent City. Being young and on a very tight budget, I stopped at one of the scenic locations I found (maybe one of you Californians will recognize it), and just camped out behind a little ridge on the beach without a tent, just my sleeping bag on the open sand. Made myself up a fire, cooked up some Clam Chowder that I had brought, and overall did not regret not bringing enough money to stay in a hotel. Got to sleep under the stars that night, which were beautiful. I don't usually get to see that many over here in the Seattle area.
A photo of the Spider parked at the beach I camped at:
The next day I headed down to Highway 101 toward Highway 1. I think that's where I took this photo:
The first thing that caught me off guard was the extremely windy stretch of road that I had to take for something like 20 miles before opening up to Highway 1. That was pretty excruciating, though I will admit, it can be a lot of fun pushing through the turns well above the speed limit and pretending to be a rally racer.
When I did finally get to Highway 1 I was exhilarated. I've never been on such a fantastic stretch of road. It was by far the best driving experience I've ever had, and I wish I hadn't been rushing to get to a concert while I was traversing it. It was a beautiful day, there was a beautiful coast to my right, beautiful green hills and houses and farm animals to my left, and to top it off I got some beautiful stretches of sunburn down my arms afterwards.
This, however, was my downfall:
Little grannies in their hybrids and other miscellaneous slowpokes were a real annoyance when they showed up. I wanted to chirp through every turn, soar down every straightaway, and ultimately get to my concert on time. In the end though, Highway 1 took a lot longer than I thought that it would.
I followed 1 down to San Francisco, and miraculously I was able to make it through that city and onto Highway 101 without any real idea of where I was supposed to be going. At one point I was pretty sure my left leg was going to break from the way I had to work the clutch going from stop sign to stop sign to stop sign, and then from red light to red light to red light every 50 yards. The setup there is kind of baffling, and I don't think I ever want to go driving in San Francisco ever again.
By the time I got out of San Francisco I was pushing my time limitations. Being under prepared, I wasn't exactly sure how far I had to go before I was going to be at the Santa Barbara Bowl, so I just kept driving and hoping that eventually one of the signs would tell me how many miles till Santa Barbara. The doors were to open at 5:30, and the show was supposed to start at 7:00 that night. By about 6:00 I was through San Jose and I still hadn't seen a sign for Santa Barbara, so I did what I should have done before the trip had even started, and stopped at a gas station to buy a map.
What the map told me was that I still had around 200 miles to go, and the show was supposed to start soon. It was then that I really made the realization that I wasn't going to be seeing the entire concert. Still, I kept driving. While I had been keeping things at a steady 65 mph the whole trip, in my desperation I decided to work the car a little hard and run things up to about 75.
When 7:00 rolled around though, and I was still a very long way away, I just decided to turn around. After picking up my ticket finding parking, and making my way in, I wasn't going to be able to see any of the show. And this was a very hard decision for me. The band I had gone to see is relatively obscure-- it's called Atoms for Peace. It' was formed by the lead singer of Radiohead (a band I'm obsessed with), and includes Flea (the bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), and a drummer that has worked with R.E.M., Beck, and some others. Not only had I been incredibly excited just to have the chance to see the band, but I had gotten some really amazing pre-sale tickets that had sold out in literally 30 seconds.
Anyway, for a split second after I turned around I thought about driving off of a cliff, but I come to the conclusion, in the end, that the trip had gone much better than it could have. It was so poorly planned that I was lucky to even have enough money to get home. Not only this, but had the car broken down in the middle of an isolated Highway, I would have missed the concert and perhaps had to ditch my car or pay for an expensive tow truck (which I didn't have the means to do).
So I parked it in San Jose on Saturday night, slept in the car, and started heading home at 7:30 the next morning. I got on I-5, stopped only for gas and once at a rest stop to eat some cold sphagettiOs, and made it back home in Edmonds by 10:30 that night. That was truly a harrowing experience, and I don't recommend that to anyone. If I hadn't had the top down with the wind whipping me in the face the entire ride back, I'm certain that I would have passed out on the road and killed myself.
Anyway. I'm glad to be back home, and I'm incredibly proud of my car for making it the entire way without any problems. I got a lot of thumbs up on the road, and lots of compliments at rest stops and gas stations.
If I could have done things differently, I would have given myself another day to get down. I regret not being able to fully enjoy Highway 1 since I was just rushing through. I also regret not being able to meet some of you guys along the way. I really would have liked to get some Chowder with you, SLO. I really would have liked to stop at Mark's to get some of those badges (I'll end up ordering them sometime now), and it just would have been cool to see some other Spiders in person.
