The Devil is in the Details

The Devil is in the Details

Road Trippin’
with Steve McCarthy

The devil is indeed in the details. And in spades! Stepping back and looking at it, planning a long range Road Trip is a lesson in Details. Having to be more or less self-sufficient for a month of cruising anywhere is a daunting task. Doing it on foreign shores, even in allegedly civilized countries is, well...

To give you an idea of scale, one of the things I’ve had to do is make a list of all the Stuff we’ll be packing in the TR to be shipped to the Auld Sod. The upside of shipping in a container is having the ability to ship car essentials with the car, not in your carry on baggage. I have a feeling the TSA would take a dim view of a loaded toolbox with all it’s assorted iron mongery in the overhead rack! To say nothing of blowing the airline’s fifty pound weight limit per checked bag!

Anyway, I made a little list. With photos. the list is FOUR PAGES LONG! Every spanner (I’m trying to learn English before we go), screwdriver, set of points, sparking plugs, and nard and skizzy has to be on the list. Damn, I never knew just how much stuff we haul around on a regular basis. Is it all essential? Who the hell knows. I call it the Umbrella Theory of Spares. If you don’t take it, you WILL need it!

Then there’s all the other details of travel that one just doesn’t think about here. Like Insurance. OK, we all have car insurance and medical insurance here. None of it’s worth a Tinker’s Damn over there. None of it. So, off to the good people at Hagerty’s for road insurance for the car. About a ten page application form and several hundred pounds sterling and we’re good to go. I have to say, Hagerty’s people are GREAT! They are Car People first, and Insurance Gnomes second. They clearly get Us. Which is good because no one else will touch the kind of folly Marianne and I are planning to commit. Since they have a UK division, it makes it all a piece of cake.

Then there’s medical insurance. Your US policy, be it Medicare, Obamacare, or Whothehellcares, won’t cover you across the pond, and since you’re not a citizen of the UK or Eurozone, neither will their vaunted National Health. An internet search for travel health insurance will net you mostly travel insurance. There’s a difference. Travel insurance is a good idea if you’re paying for a cruise in advance and have to cancel because poor Aunt Edna kicked the bucket, or you break a leg and can’t go. Travel HEALTH insurance will cover you if you trip over your own big feet and break a leg while on holiday. Given our advancing years and length of stay, the Umbrella (or should I be saying “brolly” or “bumpershoot?”) Theory applies here too. Enter  a company called IMG. For $200 bucks, we’re both covered. They have good reviews on line (the slightly scary bit is, most say “I didn’t need to use it but it was good to have”) and seem to be a reputable company. With one drawback. You know that maybe the Number One Good Thing about Obamacare is the removal of “pre-existing conditions”? Doesn’t seem to apply. If you keel over from a heart attack because your arteries have been clogged for decades, they won’t help you. How they get away with this is a mystery to me (but I smell a lobbyist in the woodpile somewhere).

The last insurance is shipping the car. In case its container falls off the boat, or some such other disaster. Hagerty will cover you, so will your shipper. Both cost the same, but it’s a bit easier to do it through the shipper. There are a lot of details they can cover (like who’s trucking it to and from the port, taking photos--which you should do anyway, etc) that led me to get the coverage from them. It’s a toss up.

  Those are the larger details. Here’s a bunch of others:

Phones: We got Marianne a new iPhone (what a REALLY cool piece of kit THAT is) and the attendant two year plan from Verizon. AT&T works as well and the cost is about the same. What’s important is the Travel Plan. I learned about this from my buddy Bill Morgan. He and his Girl Friend took a jaunt to Spain, France, and Italy last year. The deal is, in Yurp, each country seems to have it’s own cell system and they are naturally incompatible with anyone else’s! Seems silly, what with the Eurozone and all, but there you have it. One option is to get a burner phone cheap and the appropriate sim card for the country. That’s OK if you’re not crossing a border. Then you need a new sim, AND you get a new phone number. So, if you’re in Spain and call for a hotel reservation in France and give them the number in Spain, when you change sims, your old number goes away and the hotel can’t get in touch with you. Did I lose you yet?

With the Verizon travel plan, you can pay monthly (and cancel without penalty when you get home) and you keep your phone number, and can make calls and text and do interwebnetstuff to your heart’s content. BEWARE however, most of the data plans will cost you and it’s easy to eat up the data, so ONLY do web stuff where there’s WiFi, like at your hotel.

The really bitchin’ thing about the iPhone? With its BluTooth, we can play music through the intercom headsets we got! Just be SURE to download the music to the phone and disable the web access so you don’t eat up your data plan!!!

Electricity: Another thing we added was an electrical adaptor. Not only are the plugs in the UK/Ire of funky shape, they use 220v to our 110v. Stuff like hairdryers will fry! Allegedly, Apple stuff doesn’t need a voltage converter, but...Enter the Papeak Travel Power Center. It’s like a power strip on steroids. It’s a surge protector, adaptor to different voltages (and does it automatically, no fiddling with little switches, hoping you got the right amount of juice), AND it has four USB ports. The other advantage is it has a long cord so you don’t have to plug stuff in to the outlet that’s in an inevitably remote spot behind a sofa. It’s about $40 on Amazon.

AAA: Roadside Assistance. No, your Triple A card won’t help you much. I asked. So, enter AA (no, not the booze people). It’s the UK equivalent. And again, the Umbrella Theory is at work. Now, it’s a bit tricky setting things up, and it took several emails and live chat back and forth but here’s the deal. Using the UT, I went for the maximum “cover” (what they call coverage). Not only the UNLIMITED calls of the regular plan (ARE YOU LISTENING AAA?), where they will either fix your car at the roadside (including a couple of litres of petrol!) or tow you to the nearest garage to get it fixed. Add to that the “Trip Forward” option, and you’ll get a hotel room AND a rental car for a day. Then there’s the REAL KICKER! Opt for the cover that gets you PARTS AND LABOUR to fix the Auld Crate! The limit for parts is 500 pounds and they won’t cover normal wear and tear items. This is an amazing option.

So, drawbacks. There have to be drawbacks. It ain’t cheap and you have to buy a year’s worth. Price is based on the age of the car, so for the TR, it came to some $300. The other problem is you have to have a UK address and phone number. The phone isn’t much of a problem, the customer support people gave me a “generic bogus number with a lot of 1s in it. The address is more problematic. Luckily, we have friends across the pond who were willing to let us use theirs. When all the documents arrive, they’ll forward them on to us. You CAN get the coverage once you get there, but there seems to be a delay on when it starts. A little creative contact with a hotel you are planning to use for more than a couple of days might cover this problem.

Money: Ireland uses the Euro, the UK still has their Pound Sterling. You still have to deal with exchange rates. Here’s the hot tip. Get a credit card (you have more protection from fraud than with a debit card!) and use ATMs for cash. That’s where you’ll get the best rates. Try for a card that offers a rebate on ATM fees! Get one from a major bank, one that they’ll recognize over there. And make sure it has the new fancy chip. Most of Yurp uses those, have been for a donkey’s years. Large establishments will take Visa/MC, but if you’re stopping in small towns or B&Bs, they’ll want cash, so have enough on hand (and of course, don’t be an idiot! DO NOT FLASH YOUR WAD IN PUBLIC!) for routine purchases. Remember too, ATM fees are generally uniform. If you use one, get the maximum allowed, that amortizes the fees over the withdrawal.

Now, when you land or cross a border, you’ll also need some cash in fist. AAA here and probably your bank will sell you some Euros and Pounds. AAA has it on hand, your bank may need to order you some. A hundred of each should be more than sufficient to cover whatever costs you may have until you can hit an ATM. DO NOT GET CASH AT THE AIRPORT THEY WILL RAPE YOU ON THE EXCHANGE!!!  Important Tip: notify your banks that you will be traveling and they will see unusual activity on your cards! And nobody but nobody uses travelers’ cheques anymore.

Nards and Skizzies: Extra plug adaptors for when you forget one in a hotel, extra power/adaptor cables for phones/computers/cameras for the same reason. Several data chips for cameras. Spare keys for the car and luggage. Extra batteries for cameras. Extra battery chargers for same. Web addresses/phone numbers for potential hotels/B&Bs. Pack underwear, meds, copies of prescriptions (it’s not a bad idea for OTC meds to have the packages to ID what they are), toothbrush, and toiletries in your carry on luggage in case your real luggage gets lost, or sent to Abyssinia. Extra eyeglasses. A travel clock. Small flashlight. Hard copies of ALL reservations made. Bring a small reusable shopping bag. Markets don't provide them! You look silly coming out of a Spar or Tesco juggling beer, cheese, bread, and bangers! Copies of all documents (registration, insurance, Driver’s license, passport, title). A small knife. Clothing size conversion charts because if you need extra underwear, you’ll NEVER figure it out without help. I know, a lot of this stuff is now part of your smart phone, but what happens if it grows legs? Hmm?

So, that’s a lot of Stuff. It’s amazing how it all adds up. The danger is of course carrying too much Stuff. Understand, most consumables are available in one form or another over there. Ireland and the UK are civilized countries and have most of the usual amenities that we are used to. You may have to use a different shampoo or soap or toothpaste, so DEAL WITH IT! Most importantly, bring a good attitude. Don’t be the Ugly American, When in Rome... And above all, observe what used to be the Golden Rule of Polite Society. Never discuss Religion or Politics. Ever. 

Finding Your Way in Foreign Lands

Road Trippin’
with Steve McCarthy

Technology is a marvelous thing. Sometimes. You have to make it work for you, not the other way around. All this computer jazz is fun, but all the nards and skizzies are just tools. If they don’t do what you need them to do, why have ‘em? That’s why I resisted getting a computer for so long and still don’t have a cell phone. Still, I’m not the Neo-Luddite I make myself out to be. For the Grand Tour of the Isles, technology is going to be our friend. 

The obvious thing is of course GPS. As long as you don’t think it’s the end all and be all, it’s extremely useful ( see: http://roadtrippin-thebook.blogspot.com/2011/11/to-gps-or-not-gps.html) but beware of the limitations. What’s really neat about my Garmin is the add in chip that gives me a full set of UK/Ireland maps. Well worth it. The chief limitation is of course, the GPS’ major failing, it always wants to send you on a freeway (motorway over there) or some other main road. To defeat that, we’ll be programming in the small towns on the back roads to force it to see it our way. You use the “Trip Planning” function and enter in a list of towns along your planned route, forcing the thing to send you on the way YOU want to go. 

That leads us to another necessity. A real live, physical, analog piece of paper called a Map. You remember those, don’t you? Big ol’ fold out thing with squiggly lines all over it that you can never re-fold again? Yeah, those things. Thank God for the late, lamented Thomas Map Company. They came up with the brilliant idea of putting maps in books, each page an easy to read detailed map with arrows and page numbers for where the road went next. I cut my teeth on the LA County one when I drove buses back in the Dark Ages. Well, Michelin, you know, the French tire company? They’ve done the same thing and we got one for Ireland and the UK. Works on the same principle and has all the fine detail you need to explore the “B” roads. This will be a vital tool for nightly route planning and playing “Fool the GPS”. 

So, now I can hear all you Young Whippersnappers saying “What about Google?” What about it? Yes, it is a useful tool, but Google Maps (about the only really reliable set up) isn’t as good as it used to be! The idiots there eliminated the most useful tool for long range planning. It used to be, you could make up to 24 alterations/destinations. Now, it’s only about 10. Makes for a whole lot less flexibility. Yeah, I wrote them. they don’t care. They know best. They are Google. sigh. 

That doesn’t mean we won’t use it. It does make it easy to find places to stay and I’ve found that the Google ratings, along with those on Trip Advisor are the most reliable. They don’t play games like Yelp does, forcing businesses to buy ads to boost ratings. I don’t trust Yelp and won’t use it. This whole internet rating game has changed the business world, and generally for the better. It forces businesses to offer the consumer better service and products. Instead of questionable magazine reviews that may or may not be influenced by those that advertise (except Consumer Reports and Cooks Magazine, who take no ads), you get reviews from actual users/visitors and overall, they are quite useful. Not infallible, mind you. Businesses have caught on and pay people to write good reviews and even bad ones for competitors. The trick is to read between the lines and look at the overall picture. One lousy review because the yabbo couldn’t bring their hyena into the restaurant, or complaints about the WiFi shouldn’t really deter you. Several reports of vermin in the room? Yeah, might want to stay away from that one. Look at the overall impression and weed out the whiners. 

The coolest thing about Google Maps is of course, the street view. Not only can you take a look at the accommodation you have in mind, you can look at the neighborhood. And, most importantly for us, the parking. No, I don’t want to park the TR on the street overnight! In large cities, I want something secure, in small towns, at least something off the street. The other cool thing is checking out possible backroads. Yeah, you drag the little person to the road, click the compass thingy to get you oriented, then, click on the road and away you go! This will help you see if it’s a road you want to bother with or not. Damn, I’ve found some doozies out there! There is an added Bonus as well. Remember, this is the Land of Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road. Back in Aught Six, we flogged around Ireland in a Fiat Panda, learning to not only keep on the wrong side of the road, but shifting with the wrong hand. Now, using the street view, I can practice a bit, acclimating myself to the wrongness of it all, understanding the road signs and seeing what REALLY narrow roads look like. I’m telling ya, some of ‘em look like back alleys, not backroads! So, a Mac AirBook will be accompanying us, as well as an iPhone so we can call ahead for rooms (remember, we’ve only made a couple of advance reservations, we don’t want to get locked into a rigid time frame). 

That brings up another limitation on technology. You’d think, with all the globalization, that cell phone service would be globalized too. No such luck. Each country seems to have it’s own specific system that doesn’t want to talk to your phone. Le Sigh. This requires that you do one of several things. Get a cheap “burner” phone in each country, or a sim card that will connect you to their system. Trouble is, you get a new phone number each time and you STILL can’t ET it and phone home. To exacerbate it, say you are in Ireland and call a place in Scotland for a reservation. You give them your number. Then, when you get to Scotland, you have a new number, now they can’t contact you. Poof, there goes the reservation. My good buddy Bill Morgan solved that for us. He and his main squeeze Danni took a trip to Spain, France, and Italy. He discovered that his provider here (AT&T in this case) offers an international plan for $60/month. It’s not a contract deal, so, just sign up for a month or two, then cancel it when you come home. That allows you to use your phone just like you were at home. BIG WARNING!!! Only use your phone when you have to and ONLY use your hotel WiFi for anything involving the internet! You’ll burn up your data plan REAL fast. Verizon has a plan that’s similar to the AT&T, so pick your poison. The smaller carriers DO NOT SEEM to have such deals, unless you want Mexico or India, so you ARE stuck with one of the biggies. 

The next bit of Techie Legerdemain is for our own communication. The TR is loud. It’s a four wheel motorcycle. Usually, we wear earplugs under our Davida helmets to save what’s left of our hearing. That means, Marianne has a white board to write me messages and route instructions. That’s fine for a day or three. This trip is a WHOLE DAMN MONTH! Now, some guys might think that a whole month of not having their wife be able to talk to them for hours on end is a good thing. Maybe you need to evaluate your relationship. Just sayin’. The complexity of this trip, plus the desire to just be able to converse about what we see means that the white board just isn’t going to cut it. 

Technology and the Motorcycling Community to the rescue. Ever see those couples on their giant Honda Goldwings or Harleys? Ever see the boom mikes that comes out of their helmets? Yeah, they have communications. Used to be, they had to plug into a sound system on the bike. No more. Two words. Blue Tooth. Yeah, you get a unit that clamps onto each helmet. There’s speakers that go inside the ear flaps and a boom mike. They are both synced to the Blue Tooth on your phone and Hey Presto, Robert is your Mother’s Sister’s Husband, you can talk to each other. It’s Freakin’ Amazing! Now here, you can dial your phone into Pandora or Spotify and get music, but over there, you’ll burn through your data too fast. Enter the Blue Tooth MP3 player. That can sync in as well (or replace the phone) and again, Hey Presto, etc., you have tunes. We got the out fit from a company called Sena. It’s the SMH-5 model. It comes with a pair of units, already set up to talk to each other. For a few bucks more, you can get one with an FM radio, but have you heard BBC1? Or RTE? I do have to tell you that when we got the units, I had to call their support people to get it to synch with Marianne’s phone. A human answered on one ring (I know, right?) and were amazingly helpful. I had to download to the units a software update and the tech guy patiently walked be through the entire process. Oh, and because they're Blue Tooth, you can use them for hands off phone calls. Naturally, BE CAREFUL doing this. Even hands free calls ARE distracting. And another interesting concept, if your GPS has Blue Tooth (unfortunately, ours is not), pairing it with it means the directions will come through the headset! The other cool thing about this is that you can pair these units with others in other cars/motorcycles, so an entire group can yak back and forth. Them Motorcycle Folks have got this whole touring thing down! 

So, Tech can be good, but remember, these gizmos are just tools. If they don’t do what you need ‘em to do, why bother? 

What to Pack for an Epic Trek?

Road Trippin’

with Steve McCarthy

This is the big question for any Road Trip. Especially a really long one. We are not planning a really long one. We are planning an Epic Trek. Not so much in miles, heck, we’ve done the 2500 mile to Olympia and back. Twice. In the TR. So, the 2800 miles or so around The Isles shouldn’t be an issue. And since we usually do the Oly Trip in three days, up, three days back and say, a week with the family (and their laundry facilities), that’s just a week’s worth of clothes, or so. The Grand Tour will be a bit more extensive. More than a month on the road. That will require more thought.

One of the things we learned from our friends, Guy and Eunice and their 18,000 jaunt in an Austin 7 (constant reader will remember that column) was that constantly worn clothes wear out. Marianne had to take Eunice shopping to replace a good part of their wardrobe while they were here. Now, we aren’t in their league, but still, it’s a consideration. We’ll need more than a backpack between us (the usual for a three day tour). We’ll need more than the two small suitcases we used for the last trip to Oly. But then, the TR will only hold just so much stuff. There’s the rub. In a normal car, you can pack most of your closet, the requisite 12 pairs of shoes, tuxedo, formal dress, hats, the whole magilla. Not happening.

We settled on five full changes of clothes (all long pants and long sleeve shirts), some extra underwear and socks, two pair of shoes, a light jacket, our heavy jackets, and a sweater. Each. That’s it. Since I’ve built in rest days every three or four days on the road, we should be able to do laundry as we go along. Bigger hotels and many B&Bs offer laundry services, we’ll just have to choose carefully and keep ahead of the game. 

Since we also know that Erin’s Green Isle is green because it rains, A LOT, and because over there, weather in the 70s sends people looking for cooling shelters, we’re planning on clothes that will keep us comfortable and (hopefully) dry. To that end (and I can’t think why we never thought of it before) we sprung for some motorcycle touring jackets. Over the years, we’ve tried all manner of parkas and heavy jackets, all to varying degrees of disappointment. Usually, they just aren’t made with driving in mind. The motorcycle crowd have managed to perfect touring clothes. No surprise there if you think about it! I just wish sports car and motorcycle people talked more. We could learn a lot from each other!

We went to Burt’s Mega Mall in Covina to look around. The other possibility was Laidlaw’s Harley-Davidson, but everything there is emblazoned with H-D logos and as a result, costs 50% more. The people at Burts were great. Took the time to talk to us and understand what we wanted. We picked Joe Rocket jackets for a couple of reasons. First, they fit just right. Especially for Marianne. You see, they make WOMEN’S TAILORED JACKETS! Up until now, Marianne has had to put up with heavy snow jackets made more for men. Face it, her figure is a whole lot different (and better looking) than mine. The distribution of bulges on the female anatomy just doesn’t fit into a man’s jacket, if you know what I mean! 

These jackets are also water PROOF, not resistant, have a zip-out liner, and zippered vents if it gets warm. They are also cut in the shoulders and sleeves for a riding/driving position, so you don’t get the binding you do in a normal parka. Hell, they not only have an extended back and shortened front, but you can tie down the back to your belt so it doesn’t ride up on you! One oddity is the extra pads in the shoulders, elbows, and back. We took out the back pad, you can’t sit in a car seat comfortably at all, but the shoulder and elbow guards will add extra wind protection at the joints. We tested them last spring on our tour to Yosemite and they work perfectly. If you do a lot of touring in an open car, you MUST get one of these jackets. Try on several brands and see what fits you the best. The other nice thing about the Joe Rocket jackets, the women’s styles come in more feminine colors, not just black. Made Marianne happy! They aren’t cheap, figure a good $200+ each, but SO worth it!

The other worry was also weather related. The last time we went to Oly, I added a trunk rack for the extra bag. Now, that outside bag would, I knew, be exposed to the weather. Oregon and Washington are comparable to Ireland when it comes to rain. For that trip, I found (of all things) a rain cover for a BBQ grill to wrap the suitcase in. It worked well enough, but by the end of the trip, the wind had torn it. I knew something better would be needed. Something completely water PROOF, not just water RESISTANT. There is a huge difference. Water resistant will get you from the house to the car and stuff won’t get wet inside. Riding on the back of a sports car in any kind of a real rain? FUGGETABOUTIT!

So, where to look? Again, time to look outside the normal box. I got to thinking about what kind of travel involved a lot of water. Of course, travel ON the water! Kayaking, sailing! Naturally, Sport Chalet and REI were the first places I checked. The best I could find were duffle bags that were too small for the amount of clothes we’d need. At REI, I found someone who set me on the right course. What we wanted were called “Dry Pack” bags, and yachting equipment places were what we wanted.

Now, I asked me self, “Self, where would we find that kind of store?” Well, where else, but near local marinas. DUH! We poked around a few and finally, in San Pedro, found someone who knew what we’d need. Sadly, they didn’t carry them. He did search his catalog and found what we needed. They are Kwik-Tek Dry Pak Duffle Bags 

(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003818CJO/ref=s9_hps_bw_g200_i2) and are perfect. First, unlike most duffle bags, these open more like a sports bag. This means you have a nice large opening to pack and unpack through, as well as handles to make carrying easier. Second, they are made of water PROOF vinyl/polyester. Third, and maybe most importantly, they don’t have zippers. Zippers cannot, repeat, CANNOT be made water proof. Period. The way the closure works is the edge is velcroed together, then you roll the seam over several times, finally locking the ends down to the base and then doing up a cross strap. Anything short of full immersion for hours will be no problem. What sealed the deal were reviews by several motorcycle riders (them again!) who reported riding through heavy down pours for hours and arriving with dry clothes. SOLD! Again, they ain’t cheap! $150 for the extra large. We got that and the medium (after checking measurements on the TR. The large will fit in the trunk, the extra large on the rack! Add on a heavy duty bicycle locking cable for theft protection and some heavy ratcheting tie down straps and we will be set to go, come hell or high water! 

Next month, we’ll talk about the necessary ancillaries. 

Road Trippin' to the Isles-More Preparations

Road Trippin’

with Steve McCarthy

Road Trippin to the Isles: More Preparation

This is really getting complicated. Finding air fares for six people in this Brave New World of internet everything is a pain in the butt. Remember when, before deregulation, the air fare was the air fare. Because airlines couldn’t really compete on price, they competed on SERVICE! Yeah, not so much anymore. And who knew that Dublin was such an out of the way place to get to? I’ve had a crash course over the past few months on internet air fare and hotel sites. Here’s some of what I learned.

As confusing as the myriad options are, they are actually quite similar. Kayak and Orbitz were the easiest to use. Trip Advisor, Hotels.com, and Travelocity were decent. What’s important is to check them all. Each seems to promote different options, especially for hotels. Check them all, check the reviews, and make sure to check the airline or hotel websites directly. For the most part, the deals offered are similar, but occasionally, one will have a killer deal. It’s worth checking into. 

Beware of promises of “cheap flights.” Check this video on youtube, it’s SO true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAg0lUYHHFc  Kayak in particular will entice you to cheap fares on the likes of Ethiopian Air, Turkish Air, Norwegian Air, and some planes out of Uzbekistan. A quick perusal of the reviews of these carriers should disabuse you of any idea of “saving” money. For some, it seems the only thing that goes with your ticket is the air inside the plane. I kid you not! We got tickets through Aer Lingus, the only one to fly direct from LAX to Dublin. At least they offer one free checked bag/customer (50 pound limit), and a meal. We flew them before and it was a decent trip. 

Now, once you’ve found your flight, BEFORE you choose your seat (most airlines allow that), go to www.seatguru.com and find the airline and plane you’re flying on. This will let you know which are the acceptable seats and which are the crap ones (usually located near the potties-NEVER voluntarily take one of those. Especially on a long flight. Not only is there a passing parade of people, six or so hours into a 12 hour flight, the bogs get a bit ripe. Airlines have also figured out which are the best seats, and by golly, they now charge extra for them! BASTARDS! Well, if you are a large fellow, like me, plunk down the extra $60/person/flight for the leg room. It’s worth it. And, if you’re on a plane that has four across seating in the middle, DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES PICK ONE OF THESE. They are meant for skinny short people only. 

Now, hotels. It’s amazing the deals the above websites will give you if you package up your hotel with your flight! The hotel is almost free! Almost. To get the swingin’ deal, you have to stay at least a week. This may or may not suit your plans. In a tiny place like Ireland, you can rent a car and drive about from your hotel base and easily see most everything. Hell, the Auld Sod is only 150 miles, coast to coast! Clearly, this was not for us, but we did plan on staying a week with the kids in Dublin and tour with local bus tours. 

Then, things got really interesting. Meaghan, daughter #2 and the family expert of travel, suggested AirBnB (www.airbnb.com) . Yeah, the outfit that is causing a ruckus in Frisco, Anaheim, and Santa Monica. What they do is, for a fee, connect you with people who have either a spare room or an entire house/condo that they will rent you. I’m telling you, this is a great way to go, especially for an extended stay. We snagged what looks like a nice place near public transportation and only a short walk from several of the key sites in Dublin for about a grand. FOR SIX OF US! FOR SEVEN DAYS! A hotel would have needed three rooms and cost considerably more. More than double, on average. The process is interesting. You contact the renter through AirBnB and REQUEST the dates you want. To do this, you set up a profile and tell them a bit about yourself and your proposed trip. Then, it’s up to them to accept you or not. Each renter sets parameters for guests, such as minimum stay, cancellation policy (some are quite strict, no cancellations, no refunds; some will be more flexible), and tell you what they offer. If you strike a deal, AirBnB takes your money and a handling charge (about $100 in our case) and hey, presto, you have digs. 

Now, for other places, we used three different options, and we probably should have stuck with one. For one place, we used Hotels.com, another we used the hotel’s website, and a third, we used Travelocity. If we’d stuck with one provider, we could build up points and discounts. We’ll probably pick one to reserve rooms a day or two ahead as we travel. We did run into an interesting snag in all of this. Most places won’t let you reserve more than 11 months or so in advance. Not quite sure why, but that’s they way of it. So, some patience is required. If you are traveling in the High Tourist Season, if there are “must be at...on...” places, book in advance. 

Now, my biggest piece of advice is to do as little advance booking as you can. We are only locked into four specific places. Dublin for the week with the kids, Portsmouth for the four nights for the Goodwood Revival, Edinburgh, and Portmerion (the resort where The Prisoner TV series was filmed). Dublin is obvious. We needed a large place for a week for six people. A hotel for Goodwood way in advance is essential. Remember when I said they won’t book you more than 11 months in advance? Well, it seems the hotels nearest Goodwood WILL iNDEED do that. It’s like trying for a room in Monterey for Pebble Beach. As people leave, they reserve for the next year. Other large festivals might do the same to you. Edinburg and Portmerion were places I figured might just fill up if we waited, so we’re locked in to them. The rest? We’ll let St. Serendipity guide us. 

Now, that’s not to say we’re going into this without any preparations. In each town we plan on staying in, using both Google and Trip Advisor (don’t use Yelp, they seem to extort ad revenues from businesses!) we could identify decent places in our price range. A day or so before we plan to get there, we’ll call up and book a room. If there’s no room at the inn, we can find an alternate easily enough. Most towns have a local tourist office that can hook you up with a BnB or just look for places that have a “BnB” sign in their window. What this really does is give you a lot of flexibility. You’re not racing from one place to another, you don’t have to cut a stay short in a place you fell in love with, or stay an extra day in a place you didn’t like. 

Next month, I’ll give you some advice on stuff to take and niggly little details that if you do some planing ahead, will make your Massive Road Trip more pleasant. 

Planning, Planning, Planning
 Road Trippin’
with Steve McCarthy

This is already becoming quite an adventure. The stuff I’ve learned! Oh, wait, let me back up a bit. We are planning a Mega Road Trip. Not so much when it comes to driving miles (more on that later) but clearly in terms of logistics. Back in ’06, we took a two week trip to Ireland. A dream vacation. A second honeymoon that was in a lot of ways, better than the first! That one was a whole four days. At the time, I was managing a BAP/Geon store in Long Beach and they would only give me that much time off. Hell, the buggers even had the unmitigated gall to ask (a few weeks before the wedding, mind you) if we could change the date because of store inventory!!! That was in 1980. Flash forward to 2006, and we were off for two weeks in Ireland, and the longest trip we’d ever taken alone together! Up until then, the only longish vacations involved trips with the kids to Washington to visit my folks and my sister! What’s that they say about life being what happens while you’re busy making plans?
Anyhow, while we were over there, the one thing that kept running through my mind was ‘DAMN, I wish I was driving the Blue Meanie on these roads!!! So, that’s what we’re going to do! Yep, gonna pack the Auld Crate into a container, ship it to Dublin, drive around for a month, then ship ‘er home! Crazy, ya think?

Not as much as you might think. Yasee, Ireland and the UK are NOT very big. The UK (England, Scotland, and Wales) is about the size of Idaho. Ireland is about the size of Indiana. That’s it. No Kidding! And all of it is filled with some of the neatest roads you can imagine. I did a few preliminary routes to see just how feasible it all might be. Turns out, a lap of Ireland, crossing to Scotland, up into the Highlands, down to Liverpool, then London, over to Cornwall, and out through Wales is a whopping 2800 miles. That’s it. To put it in perspective, our round trips to Olympia and back, in the TR, using 1 and 101 were 2500 miles. That’s it. The Oly trips we’d do in 3 days up and 3 days back. That’s like 400+ miles/day. On this trip, we’d be doing under 200 miles/day and spending an entire MONTH! Granted, Most roads in The Isles are more like Hwy 1 than 101, but that just suits us just fine! So, yes, the whole idea isn’t as nuts as one might think!

Having cleared up the major question, it now came down to time of year. Seems, late August, early September is the least crappy weather. Do you know what happens in September? THE GOODWOOD REVIVAL! THE coolest vintage race weekend on the planet! Well, that sealed THAT deal. The one small fly in the ointment, is that Goodwood doesn’t announce future dates until a MONTH after that year’s festivities. So, it came down to some guesswork. When Goodwood ’15 was announced, I looked at the calendar and figured what would be the probable dates and planned from there.

I must have spent hours on Google Maps (who changed their bloody format half way through and made it worse, thank you very much!) figuring backwards from Goodwood. About half way along, I realized that on the beginning end of things was daughter Meaghan’s 30th B-Day. Oops, can’t be away for that! So, back to the drawing board. Again, sigh. Finally, I had a basic plan. Marianne and I’d been talking about things we REALLY wanted to see along the way. Since she’s never been to the UK and my trips there involved London for a few days and Scotland over a long weekend with relatives (Mormon ones at that!) we developed a pretty good list of “givens and druthers”.

Givens are the Absolutely, Must see or drop dead stuff:
Goodwood (of course)
Stonehenge
Bromley (where some of Marianne’s family hails from)
Lock Ness
Liverpool (for Marianne’s Beatles Fix)
Our friends in Cornwall who drove their Austin 7 to Argentina (and in some ways, inspired this trip)
The Cliffs of Moher and the Ring of Kerry, both of which we missed in ’06
Cong, Ireland (where the “Quiet Man” was filmed)

The Druthers. Stuff we’d love to see but if it didn’t work out, well, that’s life, like:
The Whisky Trail in Scotland
The York Railway Museum
The Village (from the TV show The Prisoner)
The Lake District
Dartmoor
The old TR factory in Coventry
Robert Burns Cottage
And a bunch of other stuff.

Surprisingly, this wasn’t too hard to figure out. Much of the stuff we wanted to see was, more or less, on the way. We also planned plenty of flexibility. One of the things we learned last trip over was to not lock yourself into too many room reservations. St. Serendipity should still rule the day! The other logistical challenge was to keep the drives fairly short each day, and plan in some non-driving days as well. This forced me into an entire mind shift.
Now, you all know me by now, I’m all about 300 miles+ in a day. Heck 500 mile day trips are not uncommon. A lot of that has to do with living in SoCal. In the West, we are REALLY spread out! To get anywhere in a limited amount of time means some massive days in the saddle. I really had to wrench myself away from that mindset. In talking to people who know driving over there, I settled on a cap of 200 miles in a day. That, ladies and germs, is from here to about San Luis Obispo. That’s it. Given our past experiences, this should be very doable, especially with rest days every 3 or 4 days. This will also give us a chance to stop and see “Stuff” along the way. There is a LOT of Stuff over there, believe me.
So, I thought I had a pretty good handle on things. I was even using the internetwebthing to find possible hotels/B&Bs along the way. Then, as Burns said, “The best laid plans o’mice an’ men gang aft aglee.”
Goodwood announced the dates for 2016. A WEEK EARLIER THAN I’D SUPPOSED! Back to the drawing board! Since this was the centerpiece of the whole trip, the one Drop Dead Date That May Not Be Changed, I had to do some serious re-thinking. And then, the beauty of touring small countries hit me. I could simply head to Scotland a week earlier, then do the stuff in Ireland after Goodwood. So, here’s the basic trip:

Fly to Dublin 8/20, arrive 8/21
8/27 Dublin to Mullaghamore, Ireland
8/28 Bushmills and the Giants’ Causeway
8/29 Ayr, Scotland
8/30 Loch Ness and Inverness
8/31 Whisky Trail (rest day)
9/1 Aberdeen
9/2 Edinburgh
9/3 REST DAY
9/4 Lake Country
9/5 Southport
9/6 train to Liverpool for the day
9/7 Coventry
9/8-9/11 Goodwood
9/12 Hastings/Bromley
9/13 Train into London
9/14 Salisbury/Stonehenge
9/15 Cornwall
9/16 Wales
9/17 The Village
9/18 Ferry to Dublin
9/19 Cong
9/20 Doolin
9/21 Boat tour of Aran Isles
9/22 Ring of Kerry
9/23 Ring of Kerry
9/24 Clonmel
9/25 Dublin
9/28 fly home!

WHEW!
So, next month, I’ll talk some about some specific logistical planning, using the web to search hotels, and a host of other details. And yes, there WILL be a Road Trippin’ Book about all of this and yes, there will be regular updates as we travel!

Have a great Turkey Day, all you Turkeys out there!

Sometimes, a little fiction, based on a little truth is fun. With any luck, this little missive might be included in an anthology for the Coffee House Writers' Group I belong to. Enjoy:

Mad Couples In English Sports Cars 

Need All the Help They Can Get

by

Stephen McCarthy

Jeeze it was dark. Dark as the Earl of Hell’s riding boots, as the English would say. That darkness that only comes at 3AM in the moonless desert. The galaxy spread above us and winked through the cloud cover that promised thunderstorms. As we rocketed along, the cold, crisp air stung our cheeks, while a dry dusty smell, overlaid with the scent of sage blossoms hit our noses, and the thunky-splat of the occasional bug ended its life on our helmets. It all made us feel alive in ways that no sanctimonious Prius driver could ever understand.

We’d loaded up the Auld Crate an hour earlier at the Cameron Trading Post where we’d spent far too little of the night, and rumbled off into the darkness. The raspy flatulence of the exhaust stretched out behind us, splitting the utter silence of a world where there was no one to waken. The long, straight, two lane light tunnel arrowed out ahead of us into an infinite sea of black velvet. I turned the wick up to about 80 and we thundered on towards our date with the dawn.

Off in the distance, shining like a lone star was the oasis of Tuba City. We stopped for a pee, some coffee, and a splash of gas and were off. In Kayenta, we turned north and could see the barest hint of dawn oozing from the east, turning the inky black to a deep purple. We’d just have time to set up the cameras in expectation of a glorious sunrise in Monument Valley.

Half an hour later, or so, we found our spot. We’d discovered it on our first expedition through the area years ago. In Arizona and New Mexico, there are these abandoned looking stands on the sides of the roads. In California, we’d think they were fruit stands, selling strawberries, oranges, lemons. Here, they sold turquoise jewelry, handmade by a variety of local craftsmen and women. This one was located well into the valley, about where John Wayne’s cavalry troop met it’s doom.

In the growing half-light, we set up tripods and cameras, our fumble-fingers still numb with the cold of the drive and waited for Nature’s glorious light show. We were not disappointed. As the sun made its command appearance, the sky shifted from purple to violet to dark azure and revealed red and yellow tinged  dark gray clouds. Then massive rock formations silhouetted first in stark flat black began to make an entrance.  

Wordlessly, we klatched off frame after frame of film, knowing that each shot would be different from all the others, as the light changed and we entered the Golden Hour, that time of long shadows, yellow and red highlights, and changing clouds filled with the promise of a new day. Most people shoot sunsets here. Give me the Dawn every time.
In two hours, we shot about four rolls of film each, both color and black and white, then, satisfied and hungry, we loaded the Triumph and set off into the gloriously mundane full daylight to find breakfast. Somewhere, anywhere that didn’t have golden arches.

As we trundled along, feeling wonderfully minute against the giant volcanic plinths, we exalted at being alive. There really is no feeling like an open sports car or motorcycle in such a place. The down side was the loneliness of it all. Although beautiful, it meant that there were no warm and friendly diners to feed the hungry traveller. Not anymore. There were just remnants. Monuments to broken dreams as the Interstates siphoned off all the traffic and the business that went with it.
As our stomachs began to shout for pancakes or waffles, we rounded a bend as the road navigated a split in two formations. Marianne spotted a sign: “EAT”, and an arrow. That’s it, just “EAT”. She pounded on my leg and pointed to the turnoff. The coffee we’d had in Tuba City had worked its way through and I knew she was getting desperate. Women have it rough out in the back of beyond.
I nodded and turned off onto a deeply potholed road that soon turned to rutted dirt and washboard. Great. Fearing for the underside of the low slung sports car, I cringed at every bump and oil pan threatening rock. After a good ten minutes of this, I was ready to turn back.

“Go on,” Marianne shouted, “the place can’t be too far.”

I shook my head and soldiered on. Deeper and deeper we bumped between rocks that rose higher and higher around us. In the full daylight, they’d taken on a deep rust red color that was highlighted with streaks of blue, yellow, and orange. Then it happened. A mighty THUNK of a rock shook the car. I looked in the mirror, and Oh Horror, a streak of black began to follow us. Damn, we’d holed the oil pan.

I shut off the engine and began to swear. We were totally screwed. Literally in the middle of nowhere with a broken car. I spewed out a blue cloud of obscenity that is probably still hanging somewhere over Mexican Hat, Utah. Marianne had the good sense to keep silent.
We got out and I crawled around, assessing the damage.

“She’s done. Toast.” I could just see the gaping hole that was dripping the last drops of the Triumph’s most vital bodily fluid.

“OK, I’ll walk ahead to see if that diner place is just up ahead,” Marianne said quietly, “you go back to the main road and maybe you can flag someone down.”

“Did you...”

“Yeah, no bars. Haven’t been any since Kayenta.”

“Figgers,” I mumbled sullenly. “Take some water, you never know.”

She nodded and set off up the road as I trudged back to the highway. Within a minute, I heard her shouting.

“Steve, STEVE, Come here. There’s a town!”

A wave of elation spread through me as I jog-trotted up the road.
I rounded a bend, and there, squeezed in among the towering rocks that only let in light at midday, was a collection of shacks. It looked like what Knotts Berry Farm wished it looked like. Weathered, paintless wood buildings, mostly roofless. A sagging sign said “Beggars’ Corner-Welcoming Weary Wanderers Since 1854”.
In the center of “town” was a stone building made of the local rock. A sign with a huge arrow sputtered to life as we approached. “EAT” it flashed as a generator roared to life and the sound of a jukebox spilled into the street, Fats Domino moaning about Maybeline.

“Well, I’ll be damned!” I muttered. Marianne was beaming with relief.

We pushed our way into the dusty darkness of the place and saw a long stainless steel counter with tattered fixed stools that oozed dirty stuffing. Several bare tables were spread around, some with rickety chairs that didn’t look capable of their once intended use. The jukebox glowed in the corner and shifted to “Blue Suede Shoes.” The Carl Perkins original, of course.

We sidled up to the counter and sat, the cushions sagging beneath us, giving off puffs of filling. An old bent man dressed in stained white shirt and overalls, with the longest white beard I’d ever seen came out of the back, bearing two cups, one smelling of coffee, the other, piled high with whipped cream. Silently he set them down, the coffee for Marianne, the hot chocolate for me, his pale blue eyes shining wetly and returned to the back.
“How’d he know?” she whispered.

“I dunno, I guess we wait. How’s the coffee?”

She sipped and sighed the grateful sigh of the true coffee addict sampling the perfect cup of Joe. I plunged my mustache into the cream and tasted deep rich chocolate with a hint of cinnamon and ground chilis. I smiled through my creamy mustache.

“Damn,” I said, “that is good!” Marianne just nodded and kept sipping.

A clatter of plates and the old man reappeared bearing plates stacked with mammoth sized pancakes  dripping with syrup and rashers of thick smokey bacon. Only Marianne’s had a sunny-side up egg. Again, silently, he set the food in front of us, the silverware clattering on the worn and scratched steel counter. We dug in.

Wordlessly, we scarfed down the best breakfast we’d ever had. As if on cue, the old man now supported by a well worn and highly decorated cane came back to clear the plates. Silently but for the clink of forks and knives on plates, he cleared the counter and shambled through the swinging door.

I looked down at my cup of chocolate, and noticed that it had been refilled.
“How’d he do that?” I asked Marianne.

“Mine’s full too. Didn’t even notice him doing it.” She sounded a bit worried, thought a bit, and accepted it.

Sitting there, sipping the cocoa, I looked more carefully around the room. It was filled with an odd assortment of stuff. Anywhere else, I’d think it was an antiques store. All around the walls, shelves were overflowing with stuff. Old candlestick phones, rusted wrenches, cracked Depression Era Green Glass bowls and goblets, walking sticks, weird women’s hats, even a kitchen sink. The swinging door creaked again and the old bent man hobbled back in.

“Wow, that was great!” Marianne said. He merely shrugged.

“Thanks,” I added, “what do we owe you.” He shrugged again. I didn’t know what to do. I fished out my wallet and pulled out a twenty. He shrugged yet again. I pulled out another and dropped the $40 on the counter. He smiled a gap toothed grin behind his nicotine stained beard.

“Have you got a phone?” I asked, “Our car broke down just down the road.”

He slowly shook his head. I detected a hint of a smile behind the beard. I sighed with frustration. I’d have to walk back to the main road and flag someone down. It would be a long wait, I was sure.

“Well, thanks again for the great meal,” Marianne said as we turned towards the door.
I was about to push the ancient sagging screen door open when Marianne elbowed me in the ribs, then pointed to a sign.

Leaving something behind is the surest way home,
Leaving a part of you will aid you as you roam,
Leaving a token
Something not broken
Will mend things in ways surely unknown.

I read the doggerel twice, and not really knowing why, I took off my wristwatch and placed it on a shelf next to a battered celluloid Kewpie Doll. Marianne followed my lead and removed a pair of silver hair clips and set them next to my watch. I looked back and the old bent man with the white beard was nodding and unsteadily managed a tremulous wave. First up and down, then, side to side.

I pushed open the door for Marianne as the generator hum ceased, the sign sputtered out and Chubby Checker was cut off in mid-Twist.

We trudged back to the car. My poor dead beast, unsure of our next step. As we rounded the bend, I stopped short. The pool of oil had disappeared. I shook it off, figuring it had simply been absorbed by the desert sand. As I got closer, the car looked, well, different. For one thing, it was shining clean. Not a bug splatter to be seen. We’d left it covered in dust, now it gleamed, as if freshly washed and waxed. Looking inside, even the clutter of long travel was neat and organized.

“What the hell?” I whispered to Marianne.

“Yeah, really, what the hell?” she whispered back. “Look underneath.”

“Why?”

“Just because. Look underneath.”

I got down on all fours and peered under the car. There was no hole in the oil pan. No hint of oil on the ground. Everything looked shiny and new. I opened the bonnet to reveal a gleaming engine, sun winking off the polished valve cover. It had never looked that good.

Slowly, I got behind the wheel, put it it neutral, turned the key, and pushed the starter button. It roared to life with one touch. Even on a good day, it never did that. Never. I looked over at Marianne. She was as stunned as I was. After thirty-five years of marriage, she’d endured this car. Helped me more than once push start it, gotten rained on, sun bleached in, and generally had a great time. But this...

I nodded to her to get in. We buckled up the racing harnesses, I snicked it into gear, got the Auld Crate turned around and back to the road.

We drove quietly on to the Farmington, the closest big town, all the time wondering what had happened. Believing indeed that Mad Couples in English Sports Cars are protected by a Higher Power. They need it. 

Long Day in the Saddle!

Road Trippin’
with Steve McCarthy

Sometimes, we just get carried away. But, there are SO many neat things to see, SO many neat roads to drive, SO much good food to eat...But, 530 miles? In a day? Yeah, I know, sometimes, we just get carried away. sigh. Of course, if you’re not as crazy as we are, there are plenty of places to stay the night along the way. If you’ve read enough of these columns, you’ll know a few. If not, Cambria has great places, as do Atascadero or Paso Robles.

It started innocently enough. “Let’s go to breakfast!” I was up early and restless. Marianne got up too, groggily got herself ready, was happy to have a coffee at the AM/PM and we headed out. Nothing fancy, not as yet. Up the 210 to the 5, across the 126 to Ventura and our new favorite breakfast place, The Busy Bee in  Ventura. The old Worker Bee in Carpinteria is ok, but they don’t open early and with the new owners, it just doesn’t have the same funky charm.

From there it was up 101, just relaxing and letting the ocean views calm us. About Atascadero we gassed up (just on general principles, we took the Dart, so that 38+mpg gets us a LONG way), then over the 46 to Cambria and Lunch. There are so many good places there, it’s pick one that tickles your fancy and chow down. We’ve never had a bad meal there.

We did a brief walk about town, hit one of our favorite antiques stores and damn if Marianne didn’t find a turquoise ring! S’OK, I found some cool TR3 magazine ads. We headed out of town, back over 46, down the 101 and east on the 58.

California 58 is a fascinating road. It starts amid the coastal oaks around Santa Marguerita, then hits the vastness of the Carrizo Plain, it’s desert moonscape is amazing. In Bakersfield, we continued up through the Tehachapis and low and behold, Marianne spotted an old GM 4104 bus cruising along! I used to drive them for Embree’s back in the 70s. They were old then. this one was, well scruffy, but seemed to be running well. Glad to see one of these Auld Crates still on the road.

In Tehachapi, we tried the Redhouse BBQ for dinner. It was OK, but not the best we’ve had. The people were nice, the service quick, and the atmosphere appropriate. I’d give it 3 out of 5 stars.

After dinner, it was east on the 58 again, then south on the 14, up over Angeles Crest and home. Yep, 520 miles, three good meals, and lots of great scenery. Beats hell out of the Tragic Kingdom any day and cheaper too, even when you buy a turquoise ring along the way!


Driving directions

9 h 43 min
530 miles
United Artists La Canada 8
1919 Verdugo Boulevard, La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011

1. Head west on Verdugo Blvd toward Hilldale Dr 0.4 mi
2. Turn right onto Montrose Ave 0.4 mi
3. Turn right onto Ocean View Blvd 0.2 mi
4. Turn left to merge onto I-210 W 0.3 mi
5. Merge onto I-210 W 17.4 mi
6. I-5 N/Golden State Fwy toward Sacramento 0.6 mi
7. merge onto I-5 N/Golden State Fwy
Continue to follow I-5 N 10.9 mi
8. West 126/Newhall Ranch Road toward Ventura 0.3 mi
9. Continue to follow CA-126 W/State Hwy 126 W 40.8 mi
10. Continue onto US-101 N 3.2 mi
11. Take exit 70A for California St 0.2 mi
12. turn right onto S California St 0.2 mi
13. Turn left at the 3rd cross street onto E Main St
Destination will be on the left 115 ft

1 h 19 min (75.0 mi)
Busy Bee Cafe
478 East Main Street, Ventura, CA 93001

14. Head west on E Main St toward S Oak St 358 ft
15. Turn left at the 1st cross street onto S Oak St 0.2 mi
16. Turn right to merge onto US-101 N toward Santa Barbara 0.1 mi
17. Merge onto US-101 154 mi
18. Take exit 224 for Vineyard Dr 0.2 mi
19. Turn left onto Vineyard Dr 3.2 mi
20. Turn left onto CA-46 W 17.2 mi
21. Turn right onto CA-1 N 2.3 mi
22. Turn right onto Main St 0.2 mi
23. Turn left onto Eton Rd 0.4 mi
24. Slight right onto Burton Dr 0.4 mi
25. Turn right to stay on Burton Dr
Destination will be on the left 0.1 mi

2 h 49 min (178 mi)
Robin's Restaurant
4095 Burton Drive, Cambria, CA 93428

26. Head south on Burton Dr toward Rodeo Grounds Rd 0.5 mi
27. Continue straight onto Eton Rd 0.4 mi
28. Turn right onto Main St 0.2 mi
29. Turn left onto CA-1 S 2.3 mi
30. Turn left onto CA-46 E 17.3 mi
31. Turn right onto Vineyard Dr 3.1 mi
32. Turn right to merge onto US-101 S 0.2 mi
33. Merge onto US-101 S 8.0 mi
34. Take exit 216 for Santa Barbara Rd 0.2 mi
35. Turn left onto Santa Barbara Rd 0.4 mi
36. Turn right onto El Camino Real 4.6 mi
35. Turn left onto CA-58 E 1.5 mi
36. Turn left to stay on CA-58 E 68.8 mi
37. Turn left onto 2nd St 0.8 mi
38. Continue straight onto CA-58 W 9.3 mi
39/ Get on CA-99 S 27.5 mi
40. Turn left onto Corn Camp Rd 3.0 mi
41. Turn right onto 7th Standard Rd 24.3 mi
42. Use the right lane to take the ramp onto CA-99 S 0.3 mi
43. Merge onto CA-99 S 3.0 mi
44. Keep left to stay on CA-99 S 3.3 mi
45. Keep right at the fork to continue on CA-58 E, 39.4 mi
46. Take exit 149 for Mill St 0.3 mi
47. Turn right onto N Mill St 0.3 mi
48. Continue onto W H St 0.3 mi
49. Turn right onto N Green St 305 ft
50. Turn left at the 1st cross street onto E Tehachapi Blvd
Destination will be on the right 0.3 mi

3 h 36 min (192 mi)
Redhouse BBQ
426 East Tehachapi Boulevard, Tehachapi, CA 93561

51. Head east on E Tehachapi Blvd toward S Hayes St 1.7 mi
52. Turn right to merge onto CA-58 E toward Mojave 0.5 mi
53. Merge onto CA-58 E 13.4 mi
54, Take exit 165 toward Mojave 0.4 mi
55. Turn right onto CA-58 BUS E 4.6 mi
56. Continue onto CA-14 S/Midland Trail
Continue to follow CA-14 S 38.4 mi
57. Take exit 30 toward Angeles Forest Hwy 0.4 mi
58. Sharp right onto Sierra Hwy (signs for Angeles Forest Hwy) 0.2 mi
59. Keep left to continue on Angeles Forest Hwy 16.2 mi
60. Turn left onto Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Rd 9.1 mi
61. Turn right onto CA-2 W/Angeles Crest Hwy
Continue to follow Angeles Crest Hwy 18.3 mi