Funny how things work out sometimes. When you covertly write a book and you really want to retrace the places that you wrote about, how do you get a 3-day hall pass to drive from the furthest point north in the story, San Quentin, to the furthest point south in the story, LAX, without anyone knowing? (Obviously this excludes Kauai.)  It just so happened that right at the time I was making my final edits, I had the opportunity to buy a new car...well 'new/used' at least. And where was that car you may ask? Menlo Park, CA.  And how would you get it home to San Diego?  Drive!

I flew into San Jose to pick up the car from a nice guy named Keith on a Friday and then immediately drove to Foster City Boulevard in Foster City where I took my first picture.  This is the western terminus of the San Mateo Bridge.  As you can see from my notes above, getting 34 pictures over nearly 500 miles took some strategic planning and an incredible NAV in my car...thanks Tesla!

Couple of notes...

  • When I parked on Walter Street and crossed over to see Duboce Park, I had a surreal feeling come over me. After nearly 10 years of writing, I was standing where it all started.  It's a special place for me and looks to be a special place for many others who live around this wonderful park.
  • I decided along the way I would take selfies at some of the stops.  You can see those below.  Big forehead.  Tom Fords.
  • The windshield on a Tesla Model X is MASSIVE.  It makes for easy picture taking, especially when you put the car in self-driving mode.  Most of the pictures along The Embarcadero were taken through the windshield. 
  • I left out the picture of the Italian restaurant.  I didn't turn out great.  I also took a picture of a liquor store, but it didn't have bars on the windows, so I opted not to include it.  Maybe I should have looked in the Tenderloin!
  • San Quentin is another special place.  As I stood on Main Street to take pictures early that Saturday morning, several cars filed into the visitor's lot. I thought about how truly sad it would be to visit someone there. I felt incredibly sorry for the families of the inmates. The prison really is a strange compound in an otherwise idyllic community. The guard at the West Gate, who spent about 20 minutes talking to me, said that the guy who leased the land to the State in the 1800's had a clause in his will which basically states that the State of CA can lease the land as long as they want. Apparently Marin County has been trying to get at it for years. The trouble is, he said, when you move prisoners on death row you have to review their cases.  Imagine the hay day attorneys would have reviewing the cases of the 747 people on death row. Needless to say, the cost to the State to do so might actually supersede the cost of the high speed train that is nearly complete!  Oh wait...never mind. 
  • The Big Sur is even more amazing than I remember.  If you haven't been, go!  And, Bixby Creek Bridge is really, really cool.  I thought about walking out to the middle of it to get picture of the creek below but determined it was too risky.  There are no sidewalks, so it would have been a sprint out and back with nowhere to go if cars pressured me.  
  • I drove all the way to Santa Barbara only to find that the Mercedes dealer didn't have an AMG GT on the lot, which is why there is a circle on the driving list. I finally found one at the dealer in Thousand Oaks near the Tesla Supercharger I was camped at.
  • The weather that weekend was incredible. I felt really lucky to have the sun out, especially in Big Sur.
  • The selfie on the back cover of the book and in the gallery below is the place on 24th Street I had in mind where Stevin rolled off of the roof, on to the canopy and into Cesmat's lap.  I figured it would be fun to use that instead of some suave picture of me in a sport coat and a mock turtleneck sweater...lame!  

Follow my picture journey below.  I have not included pictures of Kauai yet.  I'm saving that trip for someone special.