Chapter 9: Sightseeing Near and Far Away

I didn't head back home. The Map told me I still had eight days to get Sally back to The Highway, and I wanted her to see a few sights I really like before she left me.

I headed us west into the Golden State, and then north to Yosemite.

A week earlier I'd burned some mix CD's of driving music. I started out with East Bound and Down, my favorite drive-fast song, along with Wild Thing, which I remember from a movie where at trucker played it as he cleared out a bridge of blocking vehicles with his eighteen-wheeler. Then there's Convoy, which everyone should recognize — they made a movie about that one — and the ageless classic Truckin'.

For easy listening I included Carefree Highway, which actually exists by name a little bit northwest of Phoenix, and Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque, which lies on the opposite direction. I also got all those early sixty's racing songs including Hey Little Cobra, 409, Little Old Lady from Pasadena, Little GTO, and Dead Man's Curve — the latter a suitable cautionary tale. And never forget Hot Rod Lincoln, or Beep Beep. And of course I included that Queen song that was the first thing I'd heard on Sally's radio.

After that I visited a friend who is really into music (and completely jazzed when he saw Sally) and borrowed everything he had relating to cars as well. I expected to be hearing a lot of both new, and forgotten, stuff during my time on the road.

We spent a night in Yosemite Valley at Camp Curry, where I worried that the bears might assault Sally in the parking lot. They've got all kinds of warning signs about that. They didn't.

Then we exited to the west and headed up California's state highway forty-nine — obviously named after the Forty-Niners — through Gold Country.

Knowing Sally's interest, I took us off the highway at every occasion, and through every little mining town to be found. Even when the buildings aren't that old due to the many fires these towns historically have had, the settlement locations themselves date back over a hundred and fifty years.

This part of our leisurely trip used two and a half days, and Sally was magnificent over the twisting mountain roads. It was like she was born to them.

Next I headed out to the coast, across the Bay and Golden Gate bridges, and north of the Bay Area into Wine Country. Driving up California Twenty-Nine now, we went through Napa, Yountville, Rutherford, Oakville, and Saint Helena, on the way to my favorite of all the small towns.