California Cruising

In an effort to save my company $400 in airfare, I coordinated trip to San Jose to fly into LAX, then hop a commuter to the Monterey airport, then make the 1.5 hour drive to San Jose.

 As I was exhaustedly sitting in LAX last night as part of my 3 hour layover, I felt that my efforts to save money was a big mistake. As I boarded the baby-plane to Monterey and crammed myself into my seat, I continued to kick myself. And finally, as I dragged my sorry tail off of the tiny plane and steeled myself for a long drive, saving those dollars looked like just abject stupidity.

 As I got to the lonesome Hertz counter, you can imagine my amazement that my company had booked me for an economy car. Finally, I had reached my limit. When the friendly agent suggested an upgrade to a Nissan Altima, I was quick to accept the incremental $10 per day it would cost me. “It’s a hybrid,” she explained, and my face must have immediately dropped, as I must have been envisioning trying to get acceleration out of a weak battery. Seeing my demeanor, she quickly grinned and said, “Don’t worry, you’re going to like it.”

I loaded up the GPS to take me up famed California Highway 1, and then through the switches and turns on CA-17.

That hour and a half went by like 5 minutes. I drove the living hell out of that car. I mean, I drove the living hell out of that car.  The Altima not only had massive acceleration, but also a very big top end. What an awesome trip.

Here’s my route. If you zoom in, you can see all the twists:

Sometimes, when it appears we've reached our limit, the best stuff happens...