Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Road Trip: 3 days, 1395 miles, 1 Yaris

Yaris at Golden Gate Park

There's nothing like that spontaneous road trip. I had last Friday off, so Mercedes and I decided to take a last-second jaunt down to the San Francisco area. We left Portland, OR on Friday, went to wine country on Saturday, and headed back Sunday. This totaled 1395 miles on the dot.

The Yaris' worst mileage was 32, it's best 38. In California, we paid between $4.16/gallon and $4.36/gallon. Yikes. Good think it's frugal.

Aside from the awesome wine tasting (and great beer at Bear Republic), the driving highlight was HWY 29 from Calistoga to Lower Lake. Amazing switchbacks, breathtaking views, and gorgeous scenery. Don't get me wrong, most of the scenery on I-5 was great, too. The mountain passes in Oregon were very cool as was Mt. Shasta and the surrounding area. Northern California truly is beautiful.

And where other than California can you see a white Yaris with orange wheels alongside the biggest BMWs, Audis, Mercedes, Bentleys, jacked-up 4x4s, and even a murdured-out Toyota Prius in the car pool lane? Probably not a whole lot of places. Great trip.

2 comments:

Ducati Scotty said...

Nice! You two finally made it to wine country, I'm glad. BTW, if you take the coast road there is an unbelievable section of twists just north of Fort Bragg, CA.

http://www.enfieldmotorcycles.com/forum/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=3392

It's great on a bike, made Monika sick in the car :P

Scott

Andy Lilienthal said...

Yes, it was great. We'll catch up when I get back from Moab. I'll get you that book and your "gift" from the Mud Nationals!