Today was a day of firsts.
We had decided to take a trip down to Monterey, Carmel, and towards the Big Sur. Altogether this was about 2.5 hours drive south of San Francisco.
When you are driving on the “wrong” side of the car, and the “wrong” side of the road, you know that everything that you are doing is opposite from how you would normally do it, so you find yourself actually processing every action before you do it to confirm that you are doing it correctly – backwards – to normal.
And then your mind starts playing tricks on you. You hear Gina issue an instruction like “In 1000 feet, bear left” … and your mind processes that to “In 1000 feet, bear right”, because you know that everything that you do is opposite to what you expect.
Then in a moment of panic, you realise that left means left and you don’t have to convert that to the opposite, so you try to create in your mind a list of instructions that don’t need converting.
Some things are done opposite. Some are done the way that they sound.
And Gina only gives me one chance of hearing that instruction.
And when you are trying to process these instructions at 70mph while you are hurtling down the highway, with your fellow road-users flying by, it’s pretty daunting.
At the same time, TOTIL is screaming instructions like “look out for that car!”, and it gets a bit exciting.
Sigh 🙁 No wonder I’m feeling a bit stressed.
I just mentioned Gina. If you don’t know who Gina is, you will have to go back and read yesterday’s post.
So I started today by saying that today was a day of firsts.
The first first was that I had to fill the car with gas for the road trip.
I’ve said before that Californians are very friendly and easy-going … but they don’t trust you as far as they can throw you when it comes to filling your car with gas (fuel). You have to pay first, then fill.
Which brings me to my second first for today … I met my first Californian that I didn’t like. He was the gas station attendant. Actually I suspect that with the name Mohammad, he possibly isn’t a native Californian. I actually thought that he looked and sounded more Mexican than anything else, so perhaps he was having an identity crisis.
I’m not really sure.
Regardless, I couldn’t get a sensible answer out of him.
I figured that I needed to pay before filling, so I went into the shop an asked him how to proceed, and he shrugged his shoulders like he didn’t understand plain, simple Australian, and he waved me outside to fill up.
So out I went. Took the nozzle off the bowser, put it into the car, pressed buttons feverishly and nothing happened.
And then Mohammad comes out, shrugging his shoulders with a “what’s the matter … are you stupid?” look on his face.
I finally got him to understand that I wanted to pay cash – that paper stuff in my wallet – and he took $50 from me and went back into his little booth and turned the bowser on.
Honestly, if Siri was that difficult to get through to, where would the world be?
So the car is all gassed up and Gina took us on a merry ride down towards Monterey.
Which brings me to my third first for the day. Gina and Google Maps have obviously got a thing going on, because about an hour into the 90 minute trip to Monterey, she suddenly announced that “the traffic conditions ahead have changed … I’m calculating a new route.”
Really? That’s pretty progressive.
So today, life really was a highway for us.
We sat on various highways all the way from home to Monterey, effortlessly sweeping from one highway to the next freeway to the next motorway.
It’s even better if you are going in the opposite direction to everyone else, so you watch 6 lanes of car park coming towards you while cruising along towards your destination.
On-ramps, off-ramps, highways, interstates, freeways, on and on.
California is an enormous configuration of criss-crossing highway infrastructure that all interconnects, and you can slip from one to the next so easily … and all without dropping below 70mph.
If you have aspirations to be a test pilot, you can go even faster.
If you think that you are Tom Cruise in Top Gun, you can probably break the sound barrier.
The car’s instrumentation told us that it was a balmy 52 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Or maybe that’s a chilly 52 degrees … I’ll have to do the calculations and work it out.
About an hour south of San Francisco, there’s this funny smell in the car, and I’m thinking … “did she …? Would she …? That’s disgusting!”
TOTIL was obviously thinking the same thing about me, because she says “can you smell that?”
We were passing through a place called Gilroy CA – where garlic is grown … and the smell of garlic in the air is incredibly strong.
We got to Monterey mid-morning and went for a stroll down onto the wharf.
Here’s another fun fact about California. In NYC, tax is charged in different ways, on different purchases, and according to the value of your purchase – if it is charged at all – in what can only be described as an arbitrary process.
In California, tax appears to be charged at a consistent 9.00% on every single thing you purchase.
We stopped in at a coffee shop on the wharf and bought 2 coffees at $4.50 each.
So here is a spot quiz. How much did we pay? If you said $9.00 you’d be wrong! We paid $9.81 including tax.
From there, we drove down to Lover’s Point, just a short drive south of Monterey.
It was here that the wind picked up, it got very cold, the clouds rolled in, and I was concerned that maybe it does rain in Southern California … but it didn’t.
We then drove down along the 17 Mile Road and stopped at Pebble Beach …
… and on to a beautiful little seaside community of Carmel.
The Big Sur is a very pretty and scenic drive along the coastline. We’d come this far, so we decided to go a little further and drive some of the road along the Big Sur.
So glad that we did – we saw some spectacular and rugged ocean views from various points along the road.
I understand from a number of people that approximately 12 months ago there was a landslide on the Big Sur and the road has been closed – only re-opening a few months ago.
After seeing some of the Big Sur and taking photos, we decided to head home. I had my fourth first for the day.
We stopped in Castroville CA – the artichoke center of the world. Evidence is displayed below. I’ve never been to the artichoke center of the world before.
I didn’t even know such a place existed.
We stopped at a little Mexican cafe for a very late lunch, and we had another first – our fifth for the day – artichoke enchiladas.
Tasty – yes.
Unusual – definately.
Would I have one again – hmmm, probably not.
So we headed home via a different route, just for the variety. Another beautiful and scenic route through redwood country.
And so we arrived home, to Fleetwood Drive, Pleasantville. (It’s not really Pleasantville – it just reminds us of the movie.) I’ll try and post some more neighbourhood photos tomorrow to prove my point.
What a great day!
Other than a bit of chilly weather for an hour or so in the middle of the day, the weather was sunny, clear, and gorgeous.
We got to walk on a beautiful sandy beach at Carmel and feel the sand between our toes, and the sun on our faces.
We spoke with one of our boys for a while thanks to the magic of internet, 4G, and Messenger.
We had a great drive through a beautiful part of the world.
We didn’t get to visit the Googleplex, but I can live with that disappointment.
We did get to visit the artichoke centre of the world, and eat artichoke enchiladas.
Which brings me to the final – sixth – first for the day. For the first time since we arrived in the USA, I didn’t walk more than 5000 steps for the day, because we spent the day in the car.
We will address that tomorrow, undoubtedly. We are taking the train into town.
Having a blast. Roll on Tuesday 🙂
Ciao
#G&KTAKEUSA