The Ford Barn - Driving California Highway 1

AnnaRae took off for a 4 day "quilt retreat" last week so Pepe and I decided to drive Highway 1 from Santa Monica to San Francisco. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNIhFU1Bi_4 And here's the story.

We left early Tuesday morning headed down I-15 and made it to Barstow, CA that first night - 538 miles that day. Next morning we continued on to Santa Monica where we got on Highway 1 and headed north. Much of the first many miles were not particularly scenic, mostly driving through civilization down at ocean level. But, eventually we rounded the bend after Santa Barbara and headed north and out of the cities to some scenic stuff. This is Shell Beach just north of Pismo Beach.

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One tough thing about driving that route this time of year is that it got dark so early - about 5:30 - so we had to stop for the night to avoid missing scenery driving in the dark. That happened at Moro Bay and Moro Rock for that night. Only 310 miles that day. Drove out onto Moro Rock. It was too dark for a good picture of it but got this nice one of Moro Bay from the rock.

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Had to leave early the next morning to catch the first tour of Hearst Castle. This was as close as we could get in the car. Had to take their tour bus the 5 miles up to the castle.

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One very interesting sight along the way was this Elephant Seal rookery just north of the Piedras Blancas lighthouse. The long white slugs on the beach are the elephant seals sunning themselves.

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Then we continued on up the coast and started getting some real fantastic views from the road carved into the cliff above the ocean.

Sometimes the road had to be "tacked on" to the side of the hill.

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Sometimes it had to be covered to keep the boulders off of it.

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Of course, most places I stopped for a picture, someone wanted to get Old Henry in their picture. This woman had been at several stops. She's actually in the video.

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Of course, no faithful classic car owner could not stop at Pepple Beach, the Mecca location of ultimate car shows.

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When I stopped for gas at the next need, way out where there wasn't much, $4.67/gal, I found that I had driven for the last several hours with my "zipper down", i.e. gas filler door open. And, of course, no gas cap. I'd left it on the last gas pump. No worries, I quickly fabricated a temporary vented gas cap until I could get back to civilization to buy another cap.

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Fortunately, the next place I stopped for gas after getting a new cap was at an ARCO station that had these real weird pumps without a top on them to put the gas cap. So, I put it in my pocket and will from here on out.

Getting toward the north end of our trip we reached Pigeon Point lighthouse, the tallest on the California coast at 115 feet tall.

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Just after this we went through the Devil's Slide tunnel and headed for San Francisco. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHYlx8nMdQ8

Our first destination was to drive Lombard Street up to the top of Russian Hill then down the famous switchbacks and on to the other end to Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower. This is at the top of the hill just about to head down the switchbacks. Telegraph Hill and Coit tower are our destination in the top left corner.

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After taking a picture of Old Henry at the base of Coit Tower I was just getting back in the car when this little man with a strong Italian accent rushed up to me and, in his broken English, asked if the very attractive woman with him could get in the car for a picture. He had designed the bag she is holding and appeared to be touring with her and a photographer to promote the bag. I said fine and stood with my hand on the door handle to open it for her to get in. Well, she just stood some distance away while the photographer aimed his camera at me and the car for some time. I thought he was taking a picture of me so I stood there and posed. Then the woman walked gracefully into the shot and approached me with pleasant greeting and I realized the photographer was filming the event. So, I played along, opened the door, she climbed in, always keeping the bag toward the camera. I shut the door and backed away as the photographer panned up from her and the car to the tower above. The little guy asked if he could send me the video so I gave him my business card and he gave me his, totally in Italian. A most interesting experience.

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Of course, we saw many a cable car. This one right at the top of Russian Hill where we start down the switchbacks. I drove along with some in the video.

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Looking north from that spot Alcatraz could be seen out in the bay.

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After a drive along Fisherman's Warf (shown in the video) we left San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge, also in the video, and took some final shots of the bridge and San Francisco from the other side of the bay.

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From there we continued on to Reno and stayed there for the night. The next day we drove across "The Loneliest Road in America", U.S. Highway 50 across Nevada, one of my favorite drives, previously reported here: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120098

When we pulled into the garage late that night after 5 days of travel the mileage totaled 1,932 miles. The only mechanical problems were that, after driving the first day along the coast with the engine always spitting and sputtering at low RPM's, I finally decided to try retarding the timing from full advance that I run up at 5,000 feet and above where I live. It fixed the problem. The only other problem was that the dashboard clock stopped on the third day . . . for a day, then started up again then next day. Go figure.

The thing I will miss most about that trip is the power I felt under the gas pedal at that elevation. It was amazing and so fun. It was like I'd added a few cylinders to the engine.

The thing that I hated the most about the trip was the California freeways. I don't like driving the old car on freeways anyway, much prefer the back roads, but I drive the freeways in Utah regularly. The difference between the California freeways and the Utah ones is not the speeds nor the heavy traffic, we have those in Utah. It is the designs of the California freeways to always be turning and going up and down. It is much easier on a nice straight freeway to just keep the car on a straight course rather than having to constantly fight momentum to keep in the lane on a fast curve, especially surrounded by cars speeding along right close trying to do the same.

I decided to lighten things up a bit at night be placing my magnetic reflectors thus:

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Hopefully, most people were amused and smiled back at Old Henry when they passed. One guy was not. He pulled up behind in a new Corvette, pulled up to the side, revved his engine so I could hear his customized dragster exhaust, and sped off angrily, pulling all kinds of aggressive, road rage stunts on down the road.

Previous Trips:

Great Basin National Park and City of Rocks October 2015: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=181134

Pike's Peak September 2015: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showth...ht=peak&page=2

Uinta Mountain Range, Utah, August 2015: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=173539

Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower, July 2015: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=173539

Pony Express Trail in April 2015: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166241

Mexico and around in February 2015: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=162633

Ghost towns of Modena, UT and Pioche, NV in November 2014: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155331

Million Dollar Highway, Durango to Montrose, Colorado in June 2014 https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=142975

Transcontinental Railway Grade in May 2014: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139471

City of Rocks, Idaho in April 2014:https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137684

Capitol Reef National Park in March 2014: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=133018

Grouse Creek and the AAA garage in February 2014: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130966

Grand Canyon in January 2014: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=128820

Moab, UT in December 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127222

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument November 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123694

Across Nevada on US 50, "The Loneliest Road in the Country", October 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120098

Mount Evans (the highest paved road in North America) August 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=115013

Canada in June 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109872

Monument Valley in March 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99523

Bryce Canyon in February 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97822

Milford, Utah in December 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=93137

Nevada and Idaho in November 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89080

Rocky Mountain National Park in September 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83966

Yellowstone National Park in May 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72864

Death Valley in February 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62705

Pike's Peak in July 2011: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19141

Route 66 in April 2010: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57511