All American Road Trip

Day 5 - we said goodbye to Greg, Erin, Charlotte, little Banchie and Jasmine and got into our James Bond mobile making our way on the next leg of our journey - San Francisco!

I tell you what, driving across America, on the right hand side (steering wheel on the left) using a GPS, and nothing ahead of you but hundreds of miles of.... road.... is a real marriage test! A test I am happy to say we passed... just!

Both Tim and I were just amazed at the beauty of this nation, driving through the yellow plains and the mountains!

I bet you are all wondering... well where is the test in that.... let me tell you! We filled up the car with a full tank of gas before we left LA; Tim was under the impression that this would be enough gas to get us from LA to Carmel (our intended stop over for the night). When veering off the main highway onto Carmel Valley Drive, little did we realise that this road was not a highway but in fact a very narrow, very whindy road through the mountains... so when Tim saw the sign "Gas in 28 miles (approx 40ish km's) he thought - "great, straight road, under a quarter of a tank - we should be sweet".... now here comes the test... about 4 miles up the road I hear this gentle but obvious "bling bling bling" and not the Tiffany's kind of bling.. like the "red light you need gas kind of bling" at that moment, the radio is cutting in and out, mobile phone signal is gone... it's kind of like the start of a Texas Chainsaw massacre horror film beginning, and I am packing it. Luckily Tim is a cool, calm and collective sort of guy so he was quite content that we would make it. I on the other hand was furious and nervous all at the same time! You can imagine the comments exchanged! I can tell you, the remaining 22 miles were very tense.

Happily enough, we made it to the very first gas station in Carmel Valley and filled up!

That night, we decided to move closer to the coast instead of staying in the mountains and pulled up at a lovely little Inn in the ouskirts of Monterey Bay California! We were really happy to have a break from the 6 and a half hour trip and 350 + miles travelled! The Comfort in had free wifi and a spa, what a way to relax before doing the second lot of driving to San Francisco!