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Our Big Trip Across the Western US - September 2015

Travel Map

Thursday morning came early for us. Our plan was to be on the road headed for Sausalito by 6:00 AM to avoid the heavy rush hour traffic in the Los Angeles area. We got on the road by 6:50 and with fifteen minutes from our start we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic moving about 15 to 20 MPH. We had our share of insane and rude drivers as we edged our way north and managed to avoid any accidents or near misses.

We passed Pasadena at about 8:00 AM and the congestion cleared a bit and we finally were able to relax without the feeling that we’d collide with other vehicles at any minute. We were amazed how far the metropolitan area stretched to the north and finally started to see the terrain change to a broad wide valley on either side of I-5. This was the San Joaquin Valley and as we drove we started seeing vineyards, orchards and what had been cultivated fields, now just large expanses of bare dirt. We were not sure what type of fruit was raised in the groves but saw several double semi-trailers full of red apples. We did pull off at one point to take a picture of the Dos Amigos Pumping Station.

Our primary goal was to get to Sausalito as early in the day as possible so did not take any side trips. This route took us over the Richmond Bridge, we wanted a picture of us driving over it but the windshield was so covered with bugs that we found this picture on Wikipedia (used with their permission) showing this fantastic bridge. It was well worth the $5.00 toll to avoid extra miles. We arrived at Brian’s place by 2:30 and happy to be done with the driving. The 6 1/2 hour estimate by google turned into 9-hours.

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