“Wait, this goes through Big Sur?” Jay asked, shocked that he didn’t already know this piece of fantastic information.

“Yes, the 1 goes along the coast, which passes through Big Sur. It’ll come out in Monterey & Santa Cruz.”

“Okay, well now we have to go San Francisco.”

“It’s only logical.” I replied. I had a flashback to Star Trek. Spock always makes it known when something is logical and when something is not logical.

——————

The night before we left on our trip, we had no idea what our destination was going to be. We seemed to be pretty set on a road trip since we both really love driving and needed the time together. Jay is my best friend has has been for the last ten years. I’ve known him longer than that, but as everyone knows, it takes time to develop relationships.

Road trips seem to be our thing and the last time we went to San Francisco was a last minute decision as well. That trip had started out like this:

*Insert crazy flashback music here*

“So, I wanna go somewhere but I don’t know where.” I said one Saturday morning in the summer of 2010.

“Okay, how about San Diego?” Jay suggested.

“Nah, I’ve been there a lot. I was considering San Francisco because I’ve never been but that’s so far.”

“Wait – you’ve never been to San Francisco??” Jay was apalled by this.

“No…” I said, worried about his shocked tone.

“Well that settles it, we’re going!!”

24 hours later we had driven up the 5 then back down the 101 after having had pizza at Pizza Orgasmica and buying things at Amoeba Music. We love Amoeba!

*End crazy flashback music*

In the present day, we just flipped a coin; heads was North, and tails was South. Again, our logic stands. The coin came up heads, and we just hopped in the car and left. This time he drove, as I drove last time. It’s good to switch off. First he noticed he had to fill up the tank and asked me if it was okay if he went South to get gas first before we went North. Of course it was okay – geez, I wasn’t looking to run out of gas before the trip even got started. That just wouldn’t work.

After Jay got a giant coffee and some food from Mickey D’s – seriously Jay, McDonalds? I didn’t give my usual fast food lecture this time but the next time I just might. I did get hot chocolate though. As a vegetarian, I don’t like to make allowances for real milk, but in this case I did. I’ll yell at myself later.

We found ourselves driving up the 101, talking about various events in our lives. The drama that happens in a person’s life is usually solved when your best friend helps you think it over in an 8 hour period. From work, to friends, to family to relationships, there’s always something to talk about – even when you think you don’t really want to bring it up. Every so often we’d interrupt one another to point out something or something place we’d been to that had some significance in our life. Whether it was a place his ex used to live, or a place my grandparents used to go. If you couldn’t tell, we’re really big on visiting locations between LA and San Francisco.

Around Pismo Beach we got off the freeway to follow the 1 along the coast. The 1 in, my opinion, is really a great way to travel up the California coast – if not the only way. We ended up taking a wrong turn down to the Port of San Luis, which actually wasn’t too bad. It was super crowded, however. I wondered where all these people came from. We parked for a few minutes while Jay took a pit stop in the nearest restroom and I took some photos.

Next we were passing through Los Osos. I’ve been here a lot with my grandma because she still has a friend who lives there. My grandparents owned a house nearby when I was a child, so this place has serious significance for me.  We drove through Morro Bay – another place I go often. Jay wasn’t impressed, but I love small villages and places like that. They’re quiet and almost all the stores are owned by locals. You can get some pretty awesome stuff in these places. Cambria has a great little glass store that used to a Seeker’s, but has been converted soley to being a gallery of local glassmakers’ works.

One consistent question Jay had during the entire drive up the 1 was:

“What’s the speed limit??!!!”

This is because there aren’t that many signs for the speed. I think they were there once every 50 miles or so, I wasn’t really keeping track. I mostly just kept thinking of my next sarcastic response for whenever he’d ask that question.

“Well, I’m going with “monkeys” because it just makes sense.”

“Thanks, Shorti.”

“Anytime! That’s what I’m here for.”

 

( to be continued )