The Second road drive of 2019 took place in another of our old stomping grounds, Santa Cruz. One of the most well-known drive areas, it always brings a good turnout as well as offers some sort of adventure in one way or another. The Sacramento caravan got an early start in order to make our way to the official meeting point in Pacifica.
To our surprise, the fun began as soon as we reached the Bay Bridge. As we lined up in the cash lines before the bridge toll, we were entertained by the number of other vehicles trying to cut in line or realizing at the last minute they were accidentally in the FastTrac lane.
Despite the toll booth fun, we made it to the meeting point to gather all the drivers for the day. Another great group of cars was out in force, BMW, Porsche, Tesla, Jaguar, Mustang, and Fiat. After the morning pleasantries and a much-needed coffee, we headed out and up HWY 1. The first section to Skyline was just a cruise, as there was a lot of traffic. This would be a re-occurring theme throughout the day. We had no issues making it to our first turn. However, just after making the turn we got a radio call that a cop had pulled into the middle of our pack, and the shortly after pulled over one of our drivers. More on that in a few. Heading down to La Honda and Pescadero we ran across a cycle race going the opposite direction as us. This slowed the group to a cruise pace, as there were a lot of bikes taking over opposing lane and there were a number of police officers parked along the race course.
Regrouping in Pascadero, the car that was pulled over caught up and gave us the details to why he was pulled over. He informed us the officer gave him a warning for his exhaust (which for the record was a stock GT 350 HAHA). During this stop we also learned that the cycle race we had been driving along followed the same section of road we were about to embark on. This was a bummer, but we made our way around the loop and passed the course with no issues.
Heading back up to Skyline, we made our way south before peeling off to head down HWY 9 and back to the coast. Being that this was the weekend following a holiday weekend, the roads were surprisingly busy. This prevented us from ever really having a chance to open up and enjoy any section of road in its entirety. This was the flow for the day and while not ideal, we all settled in knowing that was par for the course on these roads.
The last section heading up Empire Grade was rough, as the road did not fair well from the recent winter storms. We successfully navigated our way over the extremely bumpy sections and across numerous one lane stretches. Finally, we made it over the mountain pass and then started down to the coast. Arriving back at HWY 1, we headed to Santa Cruz for lunch before the group parted ways to head home. This was another great day on the road and we look forward to seeing new and old friends out on the next drive.
