White-Knuckle Highway

As we began the day's drive North along the coast, we passed a picturesque lighthouse out on a point. It would have been nice to visit, but there was no place to park "The Bus" and we didn't see an adequate turn-around for our 60 foot long rig including the Blazer. So we continued on down thr road watching the lighthouse disappear in the rear-view mirror.


As we continued North toward San Francisco, we began encountering fog. (Fog in San Francisco?) The fog got thicker as we entered town and continued all the way through town. When we started across the Golden Gate Bridge, we were still in fog so heavy you couldn't see the upper reaches of the bridge.


But when we neared the middle of the bridge, the fog dissipated and we could see the rest of the bridge ahead of us. Good timing for a quick picture on-the-fly.


Soon after we crossed the bridge, we turned off onto Hwy #1 again to follow the Coastal Route. We immediately again encountered a narrow winding road . . . and Carole began to get a little apprehensive . . . again.


But then we entered the Redwood Forest and the road straighted out some. Those big trees are awesome. So inspiring it's easy to forget about what lies further down the road.


We then came upon a large yellow and black road sign warning "Not recommended for vehicles over 30 feet in length because of narrow roadway" . . . and there was absolutely no place to turnaround. We were trapped! Our only alternative was to forge on ahead.

Even though "The Bus" is 40 feet long and we were towing the Blazer making our rig about 60 feet in length overall, I thought, "How can length be of concern because the roadway is narrow?" Well, I found out. The road had numerous steep inclines and downhill runs with many sharp curves of probably 15-20 feet radius . . . and "The Bus" doesn't bend in the middle! To get around most sharp turns, straight up on one side and straight down on the other, I had to take up the whole road. I couldn't see around the curves and the oncoming traffic couldn't see me until they were right on us.

We encountered many close calls with oncoming traffic screeching to a stop until we got around the curve. Needless to say, it was a "White-Knuckle Highway" . . . and Carole nearly had a nervous breakdown. By the time we got through that section of Hwy #1, she was a total nervous wreck threatening to take a flight home.

I wish I had some pictures of that section of the road to post on this blog. But Carole was in no mood to operate a camera and I was too busy to even consider picking up a camera while I was occupied keeping "The Bus" on the road and avoiding collisions with oncoming cars . . . most of whom were driving way too fast.

At our first opportunity, we were both eager to divert from Hwy #1 to Hwy #101, which was more of a normal road, and stop for the night. Wow! What a day.