Hey guys!

I joined NAM 4 months ago when I bought an irresponsibly maintained LY/B R53..and I've just finished all the repairs and maintenance, exclusively thanks to the teachings of this fine forum and 6 full weekends of 110 degree blood and sweat (no tears yet, haha)! I even made a fellow LY/B friend of CooperSAZ, who came and helped me diagnose an engine code!

Now it's time to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

My girlfriend are throwing some clothes in the back of my freshly refreshed MINI on Saturday morning at 7am, driving to a local MINI event planning meet at 8am, and hitting the road to Portland! I'm going on a sort-of driving road pilgrimage, so I'm making a point to drive the important roads. If you guys would like to cruise with, let me know! All are welcome.

The two main driving highlights of the trip will be:

• Sunday, August 7th: 12:30pm-- Meet at Venice Beach, Drive Mulholland Snake & Old Topanga
• Monday, August 8th: 8:00am-- Meet in Morro Bay at base of PCH, drive PCH to Monterey, hang out in Monterey for the rest of the day

We're gonna go all the way to Portland, and if you know of a good drive between Phoenix & Portland, let me know!

 

Sounds like great fun, please post some pictures and let us know how everything goes!

Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

What's your time table for the trip and what's the plan when leaving Monterey? Driving up the CA coast all the way to Oregon would be really fun in a MINI, but it will add a lot of time to the trip. Also, it goes through a lot a small towns so If you have any issues with your car it might be a problem getting parts or service.

 

Wife and I took similar trip in our Mini 2 summers ago. Took I10 west, then got on the 210 west to avoid as much of LA as we could. Took the 101 into Santa Barbara for the first night (long drive, but wanted out of the heat). Took PCH hiway all the way into Washington. Lots of stops along the way. Your timing is fairly good, a lot of schools are going back into session. From Washington went east toward Montana, then into Yellowstone. Then down toward Denver and home. Think we spent 3-4 weeks on the road, great trip.

 

Leaving Phoenix on Saturday morning.

Day 1 (9/6): Phoenix>San Diego
Day 2 (9/7): San Diego>Mulholland Snake>Old Topanga>Morro Bay
Day 3 (9/8): Morro Bay>Monterey
Day 4 (9/9): Monterey>San Francisco
Day 5 (9/10): San Francisco
Day 6 (9/11): San Francisco>Avenue of the Giants
Day 7 (9/12): Avenue of the Giants>Portland

From there, we'll return to Phoenix via mostly inland freeways. If anyone has any recommendations for anything after San Francisco, feel free to recommend! Trying to get back to Phoenix by August 20th.

 

Don't forget to stop at Laguna Seca (near Monterey) and if you can, Sears Point (near Sonoma). If you're going the long boring I5 route, Thunder Hill is just west of Willows CA about 90 minutes north of Sacramento. No idea who is running at those tracks at that time, but I bet you can look at their website and see. And chances are that you can just wander into the paddock if it's a typical club event... (Sign the safety waiver, of course!)

 

There are some great mountain roads off of Highway 1 between Santa Cruz and San Mateo which will eventually lead you to Highway 280 to go to San Francisco, or you can drive on Highway 35, basically the ridge of the mountains up to San Mateo then go right to 280, or left back to 1. The highways all run parallel to each other and should be only 5-10 miles apart so you wont really be going out of the way on your drive up to the City. Check it out on a map, along with Highway 9 and Woodside Road (84).

The roads shouldn't be too crowded during the week, but they're popular with cars and bikes on the weekends. The big meeting place/hangout is Alice's Restaurant at the intersection of 84 and 35.

 

Thanks for all the advice, guys! Keep it coming! What about non-automotive things to do? (Especially good cheap food!!!)

My gf and I want to really get to see the coast. Roads, towns, tent campgrounds, must-see hikes, caves, cool MINI photo opportunities (we both are semi-amateur photographers) etc.

We're trying to keep this trip under $900, including gas. All we can afford to do for lodging is hostels and tent campgrounds.

Current activities include (but not limited to, of course):

• Salvation Mountain
• Bombay Beach
• Mulholland Snake
• Kayaking Monterey Bay
• Avenue of the Giants
• Intentionally getting lost in San Francisco (spinning in a circle with eyes closed, open, start walking in that direction)
• Intentionally getting lost in Portland (my hometown so it won't be that scary haha)

 

For picture opportunities, your MINI crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and driving down Lombard Street would be cool. Local trivia fact, Lombard is billed as the crookedest street in the world, but it's not even the crookedest street in SF. Also, a pic in the Shrine drive through tree at the Avenue of the Giants since you'll be there.

Interesting/touristy places to check out along the way are the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Fishermans Wharf in SF, and Alcatraz. Apparently a new tourist destination is FaceBook world headquarters. I can't believe I see tour tour buses double parked in the emergency lane of a 50mph road with groups of tourists getting out to pose with the FB sign.

As for getting lost in SF, there are plenty of areas where that's not advised, especially at night. In downtown, only walking one to two blocks in the wrong direction can have you in the Tenderloin or parts of South of Market which are not great during the day, and bad at night. Do you know where you are staying in the City yet?

 

Great advice. I lived in the Bay area for a few years and these are definitely the highlights. If you love chocolate, then Ghiradelli has a walking tour. Also, if you want a day at an amusement park, Great America in Santa Clara is definitely worth it.

Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

Awesome advice--thanks! That chocolate factory might be something my gf would really enjoy. Definitely would be a break from the rattle factory that is my MINI, haha!

Anybody interested in joining for a cruise? A MINIs Take The Mulholland Snake mini-run would be so much fun!

 

This is great advice! As far as getting "lost," we were just gonna walk around during the middle of the day in the more popular/downtown-ey areas to get a feel for the hustle and bustle of the city. That, and I'm 6'2'' and don't carry many valuables when exploring.

As far as where we're staying, not sure yet. My gf is supposed to sign us up for a hostel today. If that doesn't work out, we would camp at a campsite! Any ideas?

 

No idea on hostels or campgrounds. Ghiradelli Square is only about 2 blocks away from the end of the Wharf, and the Pier 39 shops and restaurants are at the beginning, so you can see it all in one stop. The Alcatraz tour and Bay Cruise ferry boats are also docked there. Lombard St. is about about a half mile away so you can drive down it on the way to the Wharf.