I definitely love driving on the Pacific Coast Highway through Northern California. It’s a fun road and passes a lot of nice scenery. California is a massive state. Probably too big for their own good. That being said I definitely like Northern California. I wasn’t too impressed with Southern California when I visited it. Besides a whole lot of nothing there, you’ve got one giant mega-city in the L.A. area. Filled with smog, bad traffic, and chain store after chain store. Northern California has a lot of beautiful scenery, a lot of character, and far less traffic and pollution. I can’t comment on San Diego since I’ve never been there, but I could probably live in Northern California but definitely not in Southern California. But I don’t want to live in California at all.
So, like I said, Cali is massive. I didn’t make it to Yosemite today. I drove almost all day on US-101 before getting to I-508. The sun set quickly and I didn’t end up making it to a camp site. I tried, but didn’t find one in time. I did come across a Quality Inn in Tracy, CA which was pretty nice and reasonably priced. So, I got a hotel. Tomorrow I’ll finish driving the rest of the way to Yosmite and camp there. Then it’s hard driving back to San Francisco to get to the airport to pick Jeff up and meet up with him. I am a little sad I wont get to see as much of Yosemite as I wanted, but that’s the fact of running out of time. I will at least go and see as much as I can in the time I have.
Today as I was driving a black bear ran out into the highway. I didn’t come too close to hitting it but I stopped and he ran across the road into the trees on the other side. That was definitely a nice unexpected surprise. I’m just glad I didn’t hit it for both of us. Also, I drove through a large redwood tree today! I had heard of doing this since I was a kid, and I saw a sign leading to the place and I had to do it. Definitely worth the memory.
Well it was a good day of driving but I’m tired now. I’ll try to get some pics uploaded tonight or tomorrow morning.