Day 4 - Kalamazoo - Argos - Belleville, MI.

After a short sleep I was on the road by about 10am after having some cereal. I quickly rang another collecting friend from Michigan, Chris Taylor who is taking me on a field trip tomorrow, to touch base and make sure everything is o.k. for the visit. I was down to the end of my balance on my Sim card so I also had to load some more $$ onto it.

I purchased an international SIM card similar to previous years and it gives me two phone numbers, one for the UK and one for the USA. It is good in so far as it is quite handy to be able to give people a cell number to ring that is their own country.

Today I am driving back into Indiana and to the township of Argos to visit Mike Beam one of my collecting friends in the BCCA. Mike and I are also members of one of the Chapters of the BCCA called the Rusty Bunch. We correspond regularly via a the Chapter message board which offers a great place to talk about beer cans and any other weird and wonderful topic. The message board and its contributors are a great help to me with my collecting and also especially when I am planning various parts of my USA travel.

It was just on a two hour drive down to Argos along many different state highways which are mainly two way roads which up drive along at the speed limit of 55 mph. On these roads you pass through the townships not bypass them like on the freeways. It gives you a good insight to the local lifestyles. There are some very pretty buildings and also some interesting sights along the way.

Being Saturday it seemed that it is yard sale day with it seemed every fourth or fifth home having a garage sale of sorts in their front yard. I am sure in these times it is a good way for people to make some extra dollars to help pay the bills. There were plenty of people stopping to look at the items for sale as well.

I arrived at Mike’s home just on 2pm and was given a tour of his collection of beer cans and brewery memorabilia. Mikes son Spencer who just turned 16 also collects beer cans. He travels to beer shows with Mike when he is not too busy playing one of the many sports he is involved in and has a good collection as well.

What is good with Mike’s collection is he also has a great collection of items of things he grew up with and some great family mementos that have been in his family for quite a long time. It was great to be able to meet up with him and was a special treat to be able to see his collection of interesting memorabilia.

I was able to stay for 2 hours and we had a great time talking about collecting, I also enjoyed hearing from Mike about the history of the town of Argos, he has a photo from around 1900 (sorry Mike I forgot what year you said it was from) of his ancestors standing in front of their business in the main street of the town.

I left Mike with a couple of mementos from Australia and a can of India Pale Ale beer from the Great Crescent Brewery that I visited two days ago. Thanks Mike for the presents you gave to me as well.

I now had to back track the way I drove for about 1 hour whilst heading back into Michigan and onto my hotel for the night in Belleville, MI. I chose this area as it is close to Detroit and also not far from the home of Chris Taylor, another collector from the Beer Can club who is taking me off on an adventure tomorrow.

The drive from Argos to Belleville was approx 4 hours but I stopped a couple of times for some rest and also stopped in the town of Coldwater for a meal at one of the local diners. I had a 16oz steak and salad for dinner, the waitress kept coming back to the table to speak to me because she liked the Aussie accent. It would be good to get a dollar for everyone that says that to you whilst you are travelling around in the USA.

Whilst driving I passed the Michigan International Speedway, which is hosting the Nascar races next weekend. It is in the town of Brooklyn MI on highway 12. It’s also a coincidence because the weekend after that I will be at the Nascar race in Bristol Tennessee.

At various times this afternoon I passed through some rain patches but they were brief and did not affect the driving. I arrived at the hotel at 10pm ready to get a good night’s sleep before tomorrow’s field trip with Chris looking for old beer cans.

I had a good day meeting up with Mike and seeing a lot more of the townships of the USA than yesterday when I spent most of my driving time on the Interstate freeways. I drove another 300 miles today.

Day 3 - Covington to Kalamazoo

Day Three was a long day. I was up, packed and on the road by 9.00am. I was originally going to drive up to the Fort Worth area and stay the night, but decided to carry on a drive through to Kalamazoo, MI. The reason for this was to cross off the two casinos in the area which I was originally going to do on Monday. This will make free some extra time on Monday to explore.

I once again headed over the Ohio River into Indiana and followed my GPS heading towards a casino in Anderson. I followed the I-74 towards Indianapolis and turned right before getting there. Heading north I passed through the town of Greenfield, which is your typical country city with a central area of older buildings that then sprawls outwards with larger industrial areas around it. Coming from the direction I did you still actually drive through the center of the town. There I stopped at a Walmart to get a USA plug adaptor for the power socket as I have left mine at home. I also got a car adaptor for my phone charger. Whilst I was there I stopped at Subway and had a turkey breast 6 inch sub for breakfast (note it was the healthiest item on the menu).

Travelling on to Anderson I arrived at the Hoosier Park Racing & Casino. A lot US States have only recently in the past 5 years granted casino licences and some of the Race Tracks were in a good position to get a casino licence and build a casino next to the race track on land they already owned. 3 of the casinos I visited last year in Pennsylvania were also at race tracks.

I entered the casino and went and got a players card for my collection and then went to the gaming tables to get some $5 chips. To my horror the tables are called E-tables and all the betting in done on individual computer screens built into the table felt. You do not get dealt real cards and you do not get casino chips to play with. I can tell you I was not happy.

I had read of another casino in Indiana had these tables and had left it off my list to visit because of that same reason. So to find out this one was the same actually added about 2 hours of my time for the day as I would have gone a different route to travel north if I had known that there were no chips to be obtained.

Leaving there I headed north up I-69 motorway and crossed the Michigan border up to the I-94 which heads east – west across lower section of Michigan.

I turned left at the interchange and went firstly to the Firekeepers Casino. It is a Native American run casino. The Firekeeper is an historical figure in Indian folk law. I went to the information area and received my player’s card and then picked up three different $5 chips whilst losing the rest of the money I had put on the table to play with.

Travelling about 20 minutes west I arrived at my hotel for the night in the town of Kalamazoo. It was just on dark as I arrived and I rang one of my US collecting friends Mike Beam to confirm it was still o.k. to visit him tomorrow. I have not met Mike but have corresponded many times on the Internet and when he heard I was going to be in the area he lives he graciously invited me to visit his home and his collection. This sorted, I then rang home to check in and spoke with my sister who had just arrived down from Cairns to visit and see our Mother for 10 days.

Following that I drove to Gun Lake Casino which is approx. 40 minutes from the hotel and again got the players card and sat at a table to get my $5 chips. The place was packed being a Friday night and I was only able to get onto a $25 minimum bet Blackjack table. This means all the chips were $25 denomination and the only way I could get $5 chips was to get a Blackjack which pays 3 to 2. I managed to get one of them early and get my chips and then played for quite a while and managed to walk away from the table doubling my money plus the two $5 chips.

I went to the cafe and had a very late dinner by this stage and headed back to my accommodation. It was almost 3am by the time I arrived back.

I had travelled just over 400 miles (640 km) driving for the day. It can be best summed up by the following photos I took.

 

Day 2 - Covington - Indiana - Covington

After a good sleep I was ready at 11.30am to go via shuttle back to the airport terminal to get my hire car. The shuttle driver told me he would take me straight to the Dollar Rent A Car Office which is a short way from the airport. Getting there only took 5 minutes.

Once at the counter I explained that I had mixed up my bookings to start the day after I arrived and had made a second booking for today only as trying to add it to the original booking would have cost nearly $300. The original rate I got months ago was very low and when I tried to add a day it wanted to charge the whole lot at a higher rate.

My one day booking was also free as I had a one day free rental voucher from all the car hire I had used in the past year.

The ladies at the counter managed to combine the two bookings so I do not need to return tomorrow and swap cars. That will simplify things somewhat.

I did not take the option of a GPS system as it is $11 per day additional fee. For the 18 days I have the car that would be $198 and buying one is only from $80 upwards depending on which one you get.

I left the rental car facility and headed straight to the nearest Walmart store, which I had written down directions from Google maps. Unfortunately the directions were from the airport not the rental facility and I was one road out in my navigation. It was soon sorted and I only took about an extra 5 minutes to get there.

Once there I had a set shopping list, firstly the GPS, which I decided on a Garman unit similar to what I use at home. Then some camping gear for my trip to Bristol Tennessee for the Nascar weekend. I am camping at the track with 40,000 other people for 4 nights. So a tent, tarp, foam ground roll, sleeping bag, torch and a cooler were added to the trolley. I also forgot my car charger double adapter plug so I got a new one of them and then picked up a long sleeve shirt and finally into the grocery area to get some food. I bought some cereal, bowl and spoon, a 24 pack of water and some Pringles, for those of you that don't know I collect empty Pringles containers, I have over 500 different ones and these two are new ones for the collection.

Through the check-out I stopped at Subway for some lunch then packed the car and started up the GPS.

Today I have set a loop into Indiana to visit three casinos to get $5 chips for my collection. Kentucky does not have any casinos but right across the Ohio River in Indiana there is the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, it is only 15 minutes from the bridge crossing the river near Covington.

The casino is quite large the building is 6 storeys high with a large hotel included. I signed up for the players card (also to add to my collection of Casino Players Cards) and received a sports bag for signing up.

Most of the table games were fairly full of people so I slid into a Let It Ride game, a variation of Poker where you are dealt three cards and use the two dealers cards to make a five card hand. I bought some chips and was able to get two different $5 chips for the collection. The standard $5 chip the casino issues and a $5 Grand Opening chip dated July 2009.

I played for about 15 minutes loosing my original stake minus the chips I kept and left for the next casino down the river. Along the way I drove through the town of Aurora and stopped at the Great Crescent Brewery, a craft brewery which cans its own beer. I was able to pick up three different brews in cans. They use one can with there brewery design on it and put a sticker label across the bottom of the front of the can with the beer style on the label. The do not have any coasters but I picked up some stickers and business cards.

From there I drove along side the river on a fairly scenic route too the Grand Victoria Casino & Resort on the outskirts of the town of Rising Sun. The casino has a golf course attached to it. I was able to get a players card (no free gift though) and played some Blackjack, Let it Ride and Caribbean Stud, picking up the only chip available their own standard $5 chip.

It was 5.30pm by now so on the way out I went to the Casino's Buffet and had dinner. It was a good spread of roasts, seafood, Italian food and salads plus plenty of deserts to chose from and free soda to go with it. 

Leaving there I continued south via a windy road following the river passing through many small communities and a lot of farms with fields of sugarcane growing. Along the river on the Kentucky side were a couple of large coal generated power stations and on the river were boats with many connected floats containing coal for the power stations to use.

I also travelled through a lot more small communities along the rivers edge including the aptly named Patriot, which is completely decorated with USA flags and the county of Switzerland which claims to be the Birthplace of America's Comercial Wine Growing.

Finally I got to the third casino the Belterra, it also has a well set out golf course and a a large day spa attached to the buildings. I signed up for the players card (no gift) and again most of the tables were full of people. I got onto a Let It Ride table and picked up two chips, the Belterra $5 general issue chip and a commemorative Tenth Anniversary chip for the casino.

By the time I left it was now dark and before driving off I rang to offer a Happy 50th !!! Birthday to Jan from Wagga but only spoke to Dave as she was out, so Happy Birthday Jan hope the night at the Farrah was a great night out (Did Dave run a raffle?)

Right next to the Belterra was river crossing back into Kentucky and I  was soon on my way back towards Covington. My trusty GPS took me on a 5 minute detour by taking me to the second freeway on ramp not the first one.

40 minutes later about 10.30pm, I was back in Covington at the Country Inn & Suites, my hotel for the night. I was in room number 314 which was a suite with a separate lounge area and a King sized bed. The room had a fridge and a microwave oven.

Unlike in Australia most of the hotel rooms do not have fridges in them and you are supplied an ice bucket and each floor has an ice machine to supply the bucket. Most people you see carry a cooler with them to fill with ice to keep drinks etc chilled whilst in the room and also for travelling in the car. 

Sorry for the lack of photos, I went to take some today and the camera's battery was flat. I took some with my cell phones camera but could not work the adapter properly to load them up. I will try again to load them up when I get to my next hotel.  

Day 1 - Sydney to Covington

I finally finished packing about 7.50am and weighed my case. I am allowed up to a total of 32 kg in two suitcases on the Qantas flight to Los Angeles but the internal flight with US Airways from LA to Covington via Charlotte, North Carolina is a domestic flight and only allows 20 kg per case.

When I weighed my case it was 21.4 kg so I put some of the flat items from the case to my computer bag and it got to the 20 kg limit. They also charge you per case, you do not get the first case free like on my previous flights with them and South West Airlines. Seems that this year the rules changed at US Airways.

Some interesting observations.

• I am flying US Airways this trip because South West do not fly into Cincinnati,Ohio.
• Cincinnati Airport is in Covington, Kentucky not in Cincinnati, Ohio. The official title is Cincinnati - North Kentucky Airport.
• To fly to the airport from LA you need to make a minimum of one stop along the way, there is no direct flight. To only have one stop you have to fly via Charlotte, North Carolina,which is on the east coast of the USA and then fly back north west 1 hour 30 minutes to Cincinnati.

Back to the trip. I arranged for a shuttle bus to pick me up from home and drop me at the airport. It arrived right on time at 8.30am. They will again bring me home when I return from the trip in September. This costs $110 return. ($60 one way) On shorter vacations I will drive and park at the long term car park, which as I saw on an ad on the back of a taxi is currently having a sale, book 5 days parking and get up to another 10 days free up till the 22nd of September - the long term parking business must be pretty slow to make that offer. Funnily if you just go straight to their web page to book they don't tell you about it you need to press the promotions button to find the deal

I got to the airport about 4 hours before the flight and was able to check my bags straight away. The was able to sit and place all my printed A4 reservation bookings into my travel folder, this is one thing that I run out of time to do before leaving, I normally have it done weeks in advance. Three other things I forgot were my Business cards with all my collecting details on them, the card with the PUK number of my international SIM card and some DVD's of Aussie Rules I had taped for an American collecting friend who is a Collingwood supporter. So hopefully I will not need the PUK number and I can get some cheap business cards printed here over the next couple of weeks before the conference starts.

The Qantas Flight QF11 was a A380 airbus named the Bert Hinkler after our famous aviator. It was a problem free flight, as good as the Emirates A380 flights I had in May. The seating was more comfortable than I found the VAustralia seating last year and the food and staff service was top notch.

The entertainment package for the screens on the seat backs in front of you was not as wide ranged or as easy to work as the Emirates flights though. I watched three movies Big Mummys Boy - an Australian movie about a 25 year old Greek man who lives with his mother and his exploits to try to get out from under her apron. Water For Elephants  which was good and Cedar Rapids which is a funny movie about a very straight up man who attends an insurance brokers conference for the first time.

The rest of the time I listened to some music or slept. The couple next to me on the plane were going to Canada to meet up with his brother and travel around the east side of Canada by car.

Landing in LA at 9.30 on Wednesday morning (with crossing the international date line I landed 3 and a half hours before I took off) it was a breeze to get through Immigration Control as we must have been the only plane that landed at that time at Terminal B. It only took about 10 minutes and I then had to wait about another 15 for my luggage to come through and there was a line of only 4 people in front of me to get the customs check, and I got waved straight through without having to stop.

I then had to walk around to Terminal 1 to US Airways check in for my connecting flight. It is about a 15 minute undercover walk past terminals 4, 3, and 2. I checked my luggage and of course paid the $25 fee for doing so. and went through another security check to get through into the departure area. Had my first full body security scan in the new machines that are in use. Then had over an hour and a half to wait for my flight. 

I was in the last group called to get onto the plane and by then there was no room for any overhead luggage on the plane so I had to check my carry on bag through to Covington. I carried my lap top onto the plane and had to stow it under the seat in front of me. 

The flight to Charlotte was uneventful, there is no flight entertainment available on the plane so I tried to get some sleep and also did the Suduko puzzles that were in the in flight magazine. At Charlotte airport I grabbed some food and had to wait about 1 hour for the connecting flight to Covington. 

The plane was a commuter jet only two seats either side of the aisle and only about 25 rows of seats. I sat next to a lady from Cincinnati who was very helpful telling me a lot about the local area and all the places to go and see. The Ohio river goes between Cincinnati and Covington and there is some good boardwalks and tourist spots to check put apparently.

The flight was only 1 and a half hours and I slept most of the way arriving in Covington at midnight the terminal was empty and all the shops shut. You have to go via overhead walkway to the baggage claim and I only had to wait a few minutes for my luggage. 

I am staying at the airport in the DoubleTree Hilton Cincinnati Airport. When I knew I was arriving at midnight I checked out the Airport Hotels as I did not want to have to travel to far to get to a room. This hotel had a list of room rates about 50 rates long and they were starting at $125 and then upwards. Then I saw one room rate of $50 dollars only amongst all the rest. That was a no brainer so I booked it straight away.

I rang for the shuttle bus after getting the luggage and once again being the middle of the night it was only 5 minutes before it turned up and only another 5 minutes and I was at the hotel. When I arrived I was given room 239, it has a King Sized bed and flat screen t.v. It is a large room with plenty of space in it and the shower was great after the long series of flights. 

I rang home and checked on my mother, she has a sore hip at the moment and it is slowly getting better. My sister arrives from Cairns on Saturday morning to spend 10 days with her before Mum is going to have a break in a respite home at Ryde for 4 weeks. We checked out the facility before I left home and I hope she has a good time there and gets plenty of attention from all the staff who seem very friendly. Hopefully the hip will be back to normal by then.

So that was Day 1 of my trip, it was a long first day being 32 hours from waking up till getting to my room in Covington. So lets wait and see what the rest of the trip brings.

Hope you enjoy reading about the journey.

2011 Round The World Tour

It has come the day when I head off on my latest trip overseas. This is my second overseas trip this year, if you haven't already you can read about the first one here:
http://www.kbtours-ireland2011.blogspot.com/

I am flying out this afternoon for the USA. I have 26 days there to explore and catch up with my collecting friends.  I will put a detailed plan of my trip up later but after the USA I am also going to England, Ireland and Singapore before arriving back home in late September.

The Annual Brewery Collectables Club of America Canvention is on again and I will be there. It is being held in Covington, Kentucky which is across the river from Cincinnati Ohio. I will be there for seven days at the end of the USA section of the trip.

Also whilst in America I am lucky that some of my beer collecting friends have invited me to visit them and their collections. I also intend going to a few baseball games, hopefully a Green Bay Packers NFL trial game and to the Nascar race in Bristol Tennessee.

I will again be documenting the trip, so if it does not bore you to much please keep coming back to these pages and you should get a pretty good idea of the fun and adventures I will be having.

Cambria to Los Angeles And Heading For Home

After a good nights sleep I woke up about 9am and started to sort out all the things I have loose in the car to enable me to get them all into luggage for the trip home. I have already taped up my last parcel for postage home so I need to arrange everything left to fit into my suitcase, my carry on bag and my laptop case.

I loaded up the car and found a post office to post off the last parcel home. A quick look through an Antique shop turned up nothing to add to my collections and I then found a dinner and had an early lunch and turned the car onto highway 1 for the run down to Los Angeles.

It was another hot day for driving but being on the coast helped keep the temperature down to about 90 degrees. Following the cost provided plenty of photo opportunities and some nice places to pull over for a break. I stopped at Avila Beach which looks like a good weekender type place for people coming up from LA. It was quite during the weekday I was there but it is a real beach side holiday spot.

Back on the road I was passing plenty of farmland growing crops and then started to come into the larger city's like, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara. There were once again a lot of wind farms for electricity as well.

I came into Los Angeles onto a 6 lane each way highway. I pulled off the freeway to fill up the car with petrol and I drove it through a $5 car wash to clean it up. Whilst paying for the petrol I found two coke cans that were different and I put them into my luggage full as I had nowhere to keep them if I emptied them.

My navigation system directed me straight to the Hertz depot at the airport. You leave the car and get onto a shuttle bus provided by Hertz that takes you directly to the terminal you need to get to.

Going through the security check I was stopped and made to open my carry on case. They had noticed two large cylinders with something in them that they could not distinguish. It was my two Pringles cans full of casino chips I was carrying home. Once I explained what they were I was okay to proceed through to the boarding area.

I arrived three hours before the flight so I had plenty of time to relax and read.

The trip home was quite good. The plane was only half full and I managed to have three seats to myself so I was able to lie down and sleep across the seats. The steward on the flight noticed my Beer Can Collecting polo shirt and passed comment on it. I explained to him what I had been doing on my holiday and asked him if they had any of the special James Squires beer cans on the flight. He said they did and told me to come up to the galley after the dinner had been served. I was able to get two sets of the three cans from him plus I mentioned I also collected Qantas memorabilia and later during the flight he bought me two bags of all the different give aways on the flight. It was a good haul for my collection.

The plane arrived back in Sydney on time and customs was quick coming through so I was out of the airport in about 45 minutes. I had to wait about 20 minutes for the shuttle bus before heading home.

It was a great trip. Meeting family and friends in Singapore and England, a great time in Dublin at the Guinness Brewery and watching the Gaelic Football and Hurling. The USA section was brilliant, Firstly the Canvention, what an eyeopener. I made a lot of new friends, got some good items for my collection and generally had a ball. Vegas was fantastic, it is a place I will want to go back to. Then driving through Death Valley, Yosemite, San Fransisco and down the coast to LA. Really it is to hard to pick a favorite of all of the things I did.

Everything went to plan. My Internet bookings all worked out, people were so friendly, the collecting was superb.

Cant wait for next years trip, as I am planning on going to the Canvention in the USA again. It is in Springfield Illinois.

Golden Gate Bridge - Highway One (Three Yellow Lines) 8th September

I only post this now due to the fact I was looking for the photos of the last two days of the trip for a while and I could not find them, then i forgot about this blog with everything else that is happens. They still haven't turned up and so I have to post them without the photos. Here it is.
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Before I left on my trip and I knew I was going to be in California with time to do some driving, I knew I had to see the Golden Gate Bridge. By seeing it so often on TV and in pictures it has really appealed to me. It is like how I really like viewing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and marvel at how it was built before all the modern equipment was available. They both are from a different era. Nobody would even attempt too build a bridge like either of these today.

Got up this morning and packed the car before going to put some petrol in the car. My motel was right near the freeway entry so filling with gas and getting onto the freeway only took fifteen minutes and I was on my way.


I had about two hours driving to get to San Francisco and I pulled off the freeway once to get some breakfast and then arrived on the eastern side of SF just about ten o'clock. Following the GPS it lead me over the Oakland Bridge into the centre of San Francisco and along some of the main city streets towards Fisherman's Wharf before turning left following the harbour front until I looped onto the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. I filmed crossing the bridge and as soon as you get to the northern side you turn right into a viewing area.


I took some video and a lot of pictures, unfortunately it was overcast and quite windy whilst I was there. Walking around the viewing area there are some memorials to the various mariner groups At the centre of this is a bronze casting of "The Lone Sailor" who represents all sailors who have sailed out under the bridge in service of their country. Around the sailor are tributes to the Navy, Marine Corps, Merchant Marine and Coast Guard.


Whilst looking at these and taking some photo's I heard my name being called out and turned around to see two blokes waving at me from the upper deck of a double decker day tour coach. It was Doug & Keith, two of our Aussie group who went to the Canvention in Orlando. I spoke with them for five minutes before the bus departed to it's next stop. They had been to Vegas also and then spent four days in San Francisco looking at all the sights. They were flying home to Sydney tonight. It was a welcome surprise to see two people from home when I would not of expected to see anyone.


I was surprised at the viewing area that there was no information building or shop. I had wanted to get some books on the history of the bridge so it was disappointing that there was nothing there to be bought.


I jumped back into the car and turned back under the freeway to go back south across the bridge and there was a sign saying Golden Gate Recreational Area, so I head off on that road instead of going back over the bridge. There is a few areas to pull off the road to get photos of the bridge and if you follow the road around you get to Rodeo Beach where there is a large marine research centre. Driving back around toward the bridge I came across the Golden Gate National Park Visitors Centre which was open so I stopped and went in. They had a good selection of Golden Gate Bridge items to buy and I purchased a t-shirt and two books on the history of the Golden Gate Bridge. Outside the Visitors Centre there were some deer wandering along the roadside.


I then drove further around the headland and came across a US Army base. It is actually a old base that was one of the Nike Missile Sites that were set up to have anti-aircraft missiles deployed in case of enemy attack on the USA. I then drove back towards the Bridge and stopped and got a few extra photos from another angle before driving over the bridge and going to the pylon base of the southern end of the bridge.



This area is known as Fort Point due to the fact that the southern bridge pylon has been built right next to a Fort what was built in 1850's. The fort was built to protect San Francisco's bays and as a major protection for San Francisco from naval attack. The fort itself is built of brick and the structure is described as one of the most perfect examples of brick masonry in the USA.


I walked into the fort and looked around plus checked out the bridge from below. The cold day even felt cooler here as it is quite windy at the side of the bay. Several tourist boats were in travelling around the harbour and there was even an antique Fire Engine doing tours of the city.


From here I left to follow the coast road south. Straight away I drove along Lincoln Boulevard and onto El Camino Del Mar which was an old trail way between Spanish missionary outposts in the 17th and 18th centuries. You see a lot of mentions of this road all the way along your drive along Highway 101 all the way to Los Angeles.


Whilst driving along this road you pass through the Lincoln Park Golf Course which includes some holes with great views of the Pacific Ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge. From there I drove across to the western coastline to a beach area and past the San Francisco Zoo. It was now about 2pm and I still had over 200 miles of driving to do for the day to get to my accommodation plus I still had a list of micro breweries to visit in Santa Cruz. So my original plan to totally follow the coast road needed some revising as there would be not enough time to stop at the breweries if I did that.


I headed slightly inland and started looking for somewhere to get some lunch. I ended up in Belmont and grabbed some lunch in a shopping mall. From there I picked up highway 101 and headed south towards Santa Cruz following the directions on the GPS navigator.


By the time I got to Santa Cruz it was about 3.30 and I headed straight to the Seabright Brewery which is celebrating it's 20 year anniversary as a brewery. They have a great building which is really spacious and a great outdoor area as well. I stopped long enough to speak to the main brewer Jason Chavez about their setup and the different brews and got some information from him on the other micro breweries in the area. Before leaving he gave me a heap of coasters and a shot glass with their name on it and I bought a couple of T-shirts.

I was out of money so I had to find an ATM to get some money before heading off to the next stop. I had to go across town to the Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Company. They have a small bar on site for you to quench your thirst whilst picking up some takeaways. I spoke with the lady behind the bar and she checked for t-shirts, coasters and labels in the storeroom but there was none to be found. I spoke with her for a few minutes and was about to leave when she called out to me to wait and then came over and gave me a pint glass. She said she found it next to the bar and sorry it has a crack in it but I could have it. Luckily the crack was in the back of the glass so it is a good addition to my collection.

By now it was 5.30pm and I headed off to the Santa Cruz Brewing which was on the outskirts of the city. By the time I got there unfortunately it was closed for the day so I missed out on meeting the people.

It was then time to get the GPS working to find my way south towards Cambria. I drove for about an hour passing Carmel and arrived at Monterey where I pulled off the freeway to get some petrol and also call my motel for the night to tell them i would be there late. They said the reception closed at 10.00pm and if I was not there by then that they would leave the door key under my entry mat at the room. I told them where I was and the man said I had about three and a half hours drive to get there. As it was starting to get dark I decided to get some dinner and called into a supermarket where I found some M&M containers I did not have. I also got some food and ate it before taking off again. Once on the road I started down the the coast road.

The main freeways between San Fransisco and Los Angeles travel inland from the coast but there is a California State Highway 1 which in this section follows the coastline. It is a single lane each direction. At night whilst I was travelling it all you could see was yellow lines to follow. two in the centre of the road and one on the right side of the road.

For the next three hours these three lines became my good friends. It was a cloudy night and the road has no lighting so unless there are other cars all you can see is the three yellow lines.

Occasionally you would see the lights of a ship travelling off the coastline and I think I went through two small townships as well. The road many times doubled back on itself quite sharply and you would only be travelling about 20 kph. There were so many turns and up and down hills that I actually felt seasick and had to stop to get out of the car to get some fresh air at one stage.

Finally I came to the township of Cambria and found the motel about 10.30pm and finding the key under the mat as promised I quickly got all my stuff out of the car and after a very long day of driving I was asleep very soon after settling into the room.