Sunday, October 17, 2010
Palos Verdes Estates to Redding, Ca
Up just after six am, breakfast with Bob and Celine, on the road by eight am after goodbyes, thank-yous, and warm wishes.
Down Hawthorne Boulevard, very little traffic all the way to Hwy 405, as we hoped. Once on the 405, a brutally busy freeway during the weekdays, the light traffic flow of a Sunday morning was again evident. Again, as we hoped. Jan was decked out in her travel regalia, consisting of maps, guide books, and the GPS. She counted down our journey helping me to 'stay left in 800 yards', or to get into the left, right, or middle lanes when needed. This left me clear to just focus on the traffic around us, and I avoided all of the many opportunities to get into trouble. The car performed beautifully, a steady 70 to 75 mph in Overdrive, the brakes worked when needed and we had good acceleration when needed also, something that the Honda had denied us.
Yesterday, we were heading home either via I-5 or up Hwy 101, depending on weather and traffic. We had our wipers on all the way on 405, so that made the decision for us, we took the fast route up I-5 when it came into sight. We continued our high speed ways along I-5, and the miles fell behind us with little effort. After a short time we out-ran the rain though we left the top up as the skies were still grey. We made a series of gas stops, never letting the tank get below half full. That was perfect for us too, a chance every couple of hours to get out and stretch. Without a lot of effort, as 70 mph is only about 2700 rpm in Overdrive, we gobbled up the miles as we were well rested after a good nights sleep at Bob and Celine's.
Finally, we rolled into Redding, California for the night quite pleased with our progress.
