California? Check!

Two years ago Kerri and I planned to spend a serious amount of time exploring the state we both grew up in – California. For me, even though I spent 37 years here, I rarely got out and explore the state. Sure, I drove the Reno or L.A., and I even got into Yosemite once when I was a kid, but otherwise I spent little to no time seeing the state. Once I started traveling in 2010, I really only came into California to visit family and then to get the heck back out of the state. That all changed in recent months.

We entered California way back in October of 2017, but our travels didn’t get to really start until near the new year. Six full months later I think we accomplished our goal and are finally leaving the state. Not every moment was spent in the state, of course. We did pop into Baja for two months, and even tapped Nevada three times for short periods, but the vast majority of the 7500+ miles driven in 2018 has been in our home state of California. The state can be properly checked off the list, and now I never have to come back here again… yay!

For those that want to trace the route we took; we started in Grass Valley, drove I-5 south, crossing the Tehachapi mountains to the Barstow area. A lap around Death Valley, then straight south south the the Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree, and into Baja. After two months in Baja, we shot straight up through San Diego, around L.A. and up the eastern sierra highway 395, all the way up too and past Reno. There we crossed the Sierras, connected to highway 49 which we followed South (now on the western side of the Sierras) all the way to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. Out of the mountains we shot across the valley to Big Sur, up the coast into Monterey, Half Moon Bay, and eventually crossed the Bay Bridge in SF and followed I-80 all the way back into Grass Valley. From there we started North, first to Red Bluff to see my brother then up the mountains to visit Lassen Volcanic National Park then Mount Shasta. Afterwards, we jumped across the valley to get ocean-side and to go see the Redwoods before finally exiting the state at the North Western corner.