Just did a 2,000 mile road trip to Monterey California and then Yosemite National Park and back.

Enjoy these photos!

 

Makes me want to get out and drive excellent shots

 

Great Shots! Love the Bend the rules, Rule the bends on the rear window too. Have not seen that one before!

 

Coulple of great shots. I like the twisty road one... Makes me want to put the pedal down and drive...

 

Some very nice shots. Makes me homesick for California's twisty roads. The mildly hilly northeast just can't compare to Highway 1, Big Sur, Mendocino, and the road to Stintson Beach. *sigh*

 

Nice photos and looks like it was a great trip!

 

You've got a good eye! That is highway 1 going into Big Sur.

Nicely done!

 

It was a great trip until I hit a pot hole in Yosemite National Park almost immediatly after entering. Caused my passenger front tire to go flat. So, in the middle of no where, and a car full of luggage, I didn't want to put on the spare. I used the GPS and asked it for the nearest tire place and it said a Big O tire shop was 16 miles outside of Yosemite in a city called Oakhurst. So I limped the car there.

They took the tire off and found I bend the inside of the rim and I ruined the otherwise 'undamaged' tire by driving 16 miles on it. But they still replaced it for free.

Problem was, they couldn't seal the tire against the rim, so I had them put my spare on for me and I let them work on it while we spent the next few days at Yosemite and that's why all the shots of the Mini at Yosemite are only of it's 'good side.'

But when we left two days later, Big O had hammered the rim back into shape, mounted and balanced the tire and then put it on the car where we immediately commenced with a 10 hour, 600+ mile drive back home.

Thank goodness I had just purchased those tires from Big O just 3 months earlier. I think my GPS just paid for itself.

 

You can find it here:

http://aestheticreations.net/

 

Carey934,

Good testimonial for a spare and GPS. Neither of which I have . If I ever take an extensive trip like yours, I'll saddle up with both! Big Sur is so beautiful. Unfortunately, I've only driven the route in a rental car.

 

My first time there was in a rental car as well. That's why I wanted to take the Mini, as I remember those twisty mountain roads. What I didn't plan on was that the roads in Yosemite would be in such bad condition. I didn't feel too stupid for taking the Mini, as I saw three others while I was there.

Ironically, I changed my wheels and tires from the stock 15" to 17" s-lites. I didn't want the run-flats because I heard how harsh they make the drive. Because the sidewalls are so short on the 17" tires, when I hit the pot hole (which was much deeper than I anticipated) it push the tire down to the rim and bent the edge of the rim in about 2 inches!

It sounded awful, too!

Now, if I had left the 15" tires on the car, which have much taller walls, I probably would have been okay. If I would have stuck with the run-flats, I would have been okay as well, since the tire itself was not damaged, but it couldn't hold air because of the bent rim. On the other hand, with the 15" tires and rims on the car, any speed bump or driveway entrance would cause the car to bottom out and scrape, no matter how slow I go.

So, my lesson was to avoid the pot holes, even if it means moving slightly into oncoming traffic lanes on a twisty mountain road (the Mini is small, so there is plenty of 'lane room' in most cases). Previously, I didn't worry too much about hitting the pot holes, since I knew the car would not bottom out. Until I hit the mother of all pot holes - then I avoided them like the plague.