Today I started this long drive from Seattle to San Diego. I could have driven straight through I-5 and it would have taken me around 20-22 hours to reach San Diego and I could have done it in 2 days. I know a student from UCSD (he was also doing an internship at Amazon) who drove from Los Angeles to Seattle in about 19 hours in a VW Jetta GLI. But I did not want to do that – rather I thought it would be a nice opportunity for me to see a lot more of this region of this country on this drive. So, I have planned for a 5 day long driving trip – mostly along the Pacific Coastal Highway – and today was the first day.

I will try to post something about the places that I am visiting on my way to my blog as time and/or opportunity permits me (not because many people are keen on reading them – but because it is fun for me, and for me it would be interesting to read them later :) )

Today’s post is going to be short one – because (1) I am totally exhausted (2) I was so late (characteristic of me) in starting that I could not cover as much as I was originally planning to do. Also I seriously need to redo my road trip timing calculations as most of the time I find my calculations off by about 100%. (i.e. it takes double the time that I had expectetd). My plan was to visit mount St. Helens and then take the coastal highway (HW 101) from Chinook, cross the 4 mile long bridge at Astoria and then drive to another 100 miles south and then spend the night somewhere there. Mount St. Helen took a lot of time … a lot. The place was so beautiful that I stayed till the sunset to take some photos of the sunset in the mountains. I am glad that I did so – I think the scebery was worth it. I don’t know if I have been able to successfully capture then in the camera – but being there and enjoying the amazing views were worth the time spent in going and staying there. The only regret is that there was a patch of cloud covering a portion of the top of Mt.St. Helen – and that stayed there for one and a half hours – i.e., all the time I was there.
After St. Helens, I retraced my route back to I-5, and then took Highway 4 towards Long Beach to reach Highway 101. One bad thing happened on my drive from St. Helens to I-5 through highway 12. It was a 55mph limit highway and I was cruising at 80 (I don’t know why) and I got my first speed ticket . Thinking about this maked me sad and makes me want to kick myself in the a**. Oh well…
Anyways, I didn’t want to cross the Astoria Bridge in the dark – so I am staying the night in a motel on HIghway 4 – about 10 miles from Chinook. This place does not have any cellphone signal (my parents are really worried by now I know) – but this is a nice and comfortable motel. I was thinking of camping but dropped the idea after driving through thick fog. It is very cold outside.
That was my day! I wil post this tomorrow sometime when I have cellphone signal.
This photo is of Mt. St. Helen – but the cellphone camera is terrible.

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