SF to the 299 (2 days)

After a lazy Sunday of brunch with Halley, some packing, and some planning, I hit the road later in the day, passing through hwy 1 just north of SF as sun was setting and the moon was rising. I stopped by Russian River Brewery for dinner and some beer tasting before getting to my hotel in Anderson Valley.

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I woke up early and headed straight for the Anderson Valley Brewing Company brewery (one of my absolute favorites) to get into their first tour of the day. Fortunately, as it was a monday at 11AM, I got a personal tour from one of the head brewers, I couldn't have asked for a better experience because I got to pester him with questions and he spoke a little more candidly about some of the aspects of their business. At the end of the tour, I went for the obligatory tastings and tried a beer they're testing out called Limited Huge'r Boont, a blend of 60% IPA, 40% Porter, it was delicious, I hope they produce that. It had all the body and smooth finish of their Porter but the bouquet and citrus flavors of their IPA.

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After the brew tour, I headed west to the 1 and then up the coast. That section of hwy 1 has to be one of the most tiring drives I have done up to this point (and by this point, I mean 9/18/09, I'm in Montana on my way to Denver at this point), it was an incredible relief to get to the 101. When I got to Humbolt, I took the Avenue of the Giants detour which had a lot of interesting places to stop and walk among very old trees (redwoods I think). They have a marathon held there every year and if I was into running, that would definitely be one I would train for.

When I finally reached the 299, I started heading east to Redding, CA. The 299 drive has to be one of the most underrated drives in CA. It is a nice wide road in good condition that slowly sweeps through scenic views of old forests dotted with small towns and campgrounds along the way. As the sun started to go down, I decided I would camp for the night rather then continue to Redding and pay for a cheap hotel. I decided I would find a market to get food for dinner and then a campsite. I passed a camp site that looked somewhat alive with people and then found a market to get food. Rather than backtrack a couple miles to the campground I saw, I decided I would continue to Redding and not waste miles. I finally came across a state owned campground that had a few tents pitched but not one person around. I drove into the empty campground in the middle of nowhere, parked, paid, read the bear warnings and walked back to my car as the last minutes of light burned away faster than I could find my flash light, the full story another time.

Los Padres National Forest

 

I embarked for my travels on 8/18/09 around 10:30am. First stop? Irvine. I met with my old engineering professor and adviser, DDR, for lunch. It was good to catch up with him and talk about the environment, engineering, education, and the interrelationship of the 3. I was excited to hear that DDR was now the chair for Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCI, a very big deal. I also met with Jansen for one last pint at the Pub, Sunny, Steven, and ran into Marissa on my way to get coffee for the road.

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Once I did that, it was off on the open road! Nothing in the world to hold me back.....except for traffic on the 405....and the 101. But when I finally hit the 33, the fun began. I took the 33 because I had read somewhere that along the 33 was a cool small little town. The problem was I forgot to check what the town was called before I left and it was written down in my laptop, not on the paper I had with me up front. I later found that the town was Ojai which I skipped completely. The drive was not a loss though. The 33 was a beautiful drive, a somewhat hidden gem of southern California. The weather was nice and skies were clear which lended itself to beautiful views across the Los Padres National Forest (I was told later there are some natural hot springs along the 33 that you can get to only by foot that are supposed to be very nice).

The last 1/3 of the 33 was freshly paved which made for easy driving. As I began to descend from the mountains on the freshly paved straightaway coming down from the mountains, I started to smile, everything started to sink in, the trip had began. I wish I would of had more time to stop and take photos but I was racing day light (and the check in time at the HI in SLO). There are a lot of farms, abandoned buildings and equipment, and nice views along the 33 that I would have enjoyed stopping to see more of.  

 

I Hopped on the 166 as the sun was setting so it was a pretty dark drive. I had Kanye West on shuffle on the iPod and 15 seconds into Flashing Lights, I came up over a hill to see all the lights of Santa Maria break through the darkness. I found the Hostel and checked in with about an hour to spare. Not a bad place for $23/night.

A Preface

A lot of you are probably a little confused on the title. You are probably thinking something along the lines of, "Adrian, this makes no sense! You are far from ugly, the epitome of beauty and excellence in fact!" I would probably disagree with you(but only out of pure modesty of course). The name actually spurs from a stupid inside joke from 6 or 7 years ago between Rochelle, Sellan, and myself. But ever since, we have called each other uggs, ugglie, ugly, and just about any possible variation of the names, to the point where it feels odd calling Rochelle by her name. Last time I did it by accident she told me it sounded weird and to never do it again.

Anyway, long story short, Rochelle met the people at ugly dolls at a conference a while back and they gave her some ugly dolls and she gave me one (see above). Since it is hard to get any pictures of yourself when you are traveling alone (people get very intimidated by my camera), I decided to bring the doll along to represent me throughout the trip. Besides, I think it kinda looks like me. If you don't see the resemblance, what about now? Exactly.

I am going to try to keep on top of this as best I can but internet is sometimes a little scarce. In the meantime, you can see the pics from the going away party here. I will be posting all of my pictures from the trip on my picasa as well as some on my flickr (you can also see my pictures from Australia there). If you feel like a more up to date, ADD account of my travels (including my routes), you can follow me on twitter.

Here's to the good times, people, food, drinks, and stories of the past, present, and future. I'm off.