Yeah, I did this yesterday morning. Thanks to getting on the road early, Pinehurst and Redwood were completely free of any cars in front of me. Palomares had only one car in front of me and I was able to go around it.
The 94 octane pump at Sunol Super Stop automatically shut off at 7.99 gallons for a total of $39.99. Thought that was interesting. I mistakingly took Tesla Road instead of Patterson Pass out to the 5. Oops. Kind of a boring road especially with slow traffic holding me up.
The stretch of 5 from the Tesla onramp to the Del Puerto Canyon offramp seemed way longer than it looks on the map. I was going 80 and it felt like I wasn't moving.
My first time driving Del Puerto Canyon turned out to be pretty fun. Overall road conditions were good with a few bumps and potholes in some places, but easily avoidable. The road gets gravely as you approach The Junction where the road surface changes into the same type as the later section of Mines Road. It's an interesting road that in my opinion is fairly high speed (3rd and 4th gear) but with a few surprise technical corners thrown in there that you have to be ready for. Also somewhat annoying are the numerous cattle guards that seem to come out of nowhere. Definitely hit a few of them going way too fast because I couldn't slow down in time without excessive braking.
At one point there was a rock in the middle of my lane and I thought to myself "Oh, I'll clear that no problem, I'm only dropped 3/4 of an inch." Well, the front bumper cleared it but as it passed under the car maybe the wind rolled it and made it taller for a moment because there was a loud BANG metal sound and I realize the rock hit something as I look in the rear view and see that the one rock is now approximately 9 little rocks.
I ended up getting to The Junction at 10:15am, so I waited around until they open for lunch at 11am and admired some of the many motorcycles (especially the Ducatis and an Aprilia) that were beginning to show up. Had a delicious plate of pulled pork and headed back the other way on Del Puerto back to the 5.
On the way back as I approached one of the blind mountainside right hand turns, I noticed cars were parked on the shoulder. As I rounded the turn, I see a man on the left talking and on the right all huddled up against the mountain on the tiny shoulder, there are probably 15-20 people standing there. I guess the guy was giving some sort of guided tour and talking about a section of the canyon? Anyway, there was no time for me to slow down out of courtesy so I pretty much entered and exited the turn at the same pace as all the previous turns I had taken. I looked in the rear view mirror and notice the guy made a unfavorable and sarcastic motion toward my car as I drove way. I wonder what he said?
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Originally Posted by lamune
Did I miss a drive today? Or is this the plan for next Sat?
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