My ~1000 mile drive to San Francisco and Back

[dnav]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but here I go anyway.

So last Thursday, I finished finals for the first half of summer school and had a couple blank days in my schedule. So, what did I do? I started driving north..The goal? Nothing, really, just to go north.

I've had this car for about 3 months now and I took off with a little less than 172k on the odometer so I was a little worried, but I was feeling adventurous and went for it.

Needless to say, i made it all the way to San Francisco after driving for about 12 hours, with stops, and camping out on the side of PCH for a night without much incident and had a great time.

The only incidents were that on Friday night, I got really drunk and had to drive back (8 hours) hungover and exhausted Saturday afternoon.

Then, my CEL briefly came on and the code said it was my knock sensor, which someone here had mentioned about this car before. It disappeared almost immediately and I averaged almost 40mpg on the way back. Good times.

Here's a few pics I took along the way.


easily the most beautiful highway in the country





..about 4 hours into the trip I picked up these two hitch hikers from Belgium. everyone thinks I'm crazy for doing that, has anyone else picked any up before?

[dnav]

At like 1030pm, Thursday night, I got tired and pulled over on this "tsunami evacuation site" where the hitch hikers and I set up camp for the night. What a view.



I slept in my car, they slept in the tent. It was kinda cold..

Could anybody from NorCal please explain how this would even work?

[dnav]

...yeah this actually made me laugh...

Really neat bike in Downtown SF

Looked like it had directions or something written on the gas tank.

and this hideous thing in Chinatown

you really know you can drive stick when you drive and parallel park on some of the hills here.

[dnav]

sandwiched between 2 tiny driveways in Fillmore


and that. I actually took around 200 pictures of the city in general. Lots of neat graffiti, walls, architecture and random small, urban details.

Thanks for viewing.

[pnosker]

Awesome man! I love the Socal-Norcal drive. Could you post all of your pictures on Picasa or something? I might end up going back to CA (like to make at least 1 trip a year) to visit my cousins in Irvine so we should meet up then. One of my visits I went to a SoCal ti meet in Irvine at an IHOP which was neat.

[2ndBimmer]

40 mpg? Wow!

And people fly in from another country and then just bum rides from here to there?

[b.u.ti-ful]

Thanks for the virtual trip.

Cops don't care if you camp on the side of the road?

Nice airhead motorcycle - similar to what I ride.

[Marv17]

looks like it was a neat drive and experience. kinda scary picking up hitch hikers but good thing they were cool with you.
if you need a sensor LMK, i have a used one i'll give you for cheap.
What school do you go to btw? im at CSULB.

[mgbman69]

Wow, that looked like sooo much fun.

I've always wanted to make that trip, well any trip up or down the PCH.

Please post all your pictures somewhere so that we can see them.
Did your hitchhikers speak english?

[dnav]

Originally Posted by pnosker

Awesome man! I love the Socal-Norcal drive. Could you post all of your pictures on Picasa or something? I might end up going back to CA (like to make at least 1 trip a year) to visit my cousins in Irvine so we should meet up then. One of my visits I went to a SoCal ti meet in Irvine at an IHOP which was neat.

For sure, here is a link to all the pics on shutterfly, http://danielnavarro.shutterfly.com/

yeah, I'm the hipster looking kid in the flannel.

Originally Posted by 2ndBimmer

40 mpg? Wow!

And people fly in from another country and then just bum rides from here to there?

Apparently they had been hitch hiking and riding greyhound busses cross country from New York? I figure, someday when I travel through Europe, someone owes me. lol

Originally Posted by b.u.ti-ful

Cops don't care if you camp on the side of the road?

Actually, I think it might be illegal, but I was way too tired to care and I saw other cars doing it along the way, I think that law might be unenforced in those areas.

Originally Posted by Marv17

looks like it was a neat drive and experience. kinda scary picking up hitch hikers but good thing they were cool with you.
if you need a sensor LMK, i have a used one i'll give you for cheap.
What school do you go to btw? im at CSULB.

Sweet, yeah if the light comes on again and actually stays I might have to look into that. I go to UCIrvine, by the way. Summer Session II starts today. Lame.

[dnav]

Originally Posted by mgbman69

Wow, that looked like sooo much fun.

I've always wanted to make that trip, well any trip up or down the PCH.

Please post all your pictures somewhere so that we can see them.
Did your hitchhikers speak english?

One of them did, the other didn't so he was awkwardly silent the entire time, except when I played Muse on my iPod, he sand along to that.

[acevedo12]

wtf hatchless integra?! the paint doesnt match on the roof and the hood and they cant even properly install tie-downs, look at that gap.

that's just sad

[lkwd318ti]

Originally Posted by dnav

Then, my CEL briefly came on and the code said it was my knock sensor, which someone here had mentioned about this car before. It disappeared almost immediately and I averaged almost 40mpg on the way back. Good times.

Told ya hahah...

Originally Posted by acevedo12

wtf hatchless integra?! the paint doesnt match on the roof and the hood and they cant even properly install tie-downs, look at that gap.

that's just sad

Del Sol with Integra front end hahah...
I've seen a few around here with regular Civic front ends on em...

[tiFreak]

nice, did you even plan that and pack or just take off?

[dnav]

Originally Posted by tiFreak

nice, did you even plan that and pack or just take off?

Nope, I just threw my laptop, my camera, a water bottle, and some chargers in my backpack and left. Wore the same clothes for 3 days.