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BradnDad2014
Up n about around 7.30am, saw us packing and ready to go as planned. We dropped Ethel at the carpark where we had found her and left the keys under a rock in the gravel as requested... She had served us well and we're off to collect our Mustang.. at least we thought we were...
Phone calls on Saturday, Monday and this morning had failed to secure a commitment from the nice people at Hertz that we would indeed have a Mustang. Although very friendly, even suggesting we could have a convertible Mustang or a Camaro, they would not confirm either. After Alcatraz yesterday, we had called into the branch to get a confirmation, but the information was not available. As you are probably now suspecting, they didn't have a Mustang available for us....
Although disappointed (under statement), I remained calm (moderately) and polite(not very)..
"But Sir, we can give you this lovely Nissan Altima or I have a beautiful new Kia"... They just didn't get it... With Mustangs being fairly common here, comprehending the dream doesn't make sense...
We tried Avis and Budget to no avail, but as we had half a day travelling in front of us we had to get going, so we left SF in a lovely (we would have preferred Ethel) Nissan.
I have a plan "B", but we were fairly flat as we departed SF..
Anywho, onto Pismo Beach which is about half way between SF and LA. Hitting the coastal highway just out of SF, we travelled for a while along the coast. The West coast is not unlike our coastline, with wide white beaches and coastal dunes. Although picturesque, it was a very windy afternoon with huge amounts of spray coming off the ocean, not exactly conducive to a pleasant stop over.
At some point Gertrude (our GPS) decided she'd had enough of the view and preferred highway 101 for the rest of the trip. Not realising until the coastal dunes had given way to rolling hills and eventually farm land, we continued to have our destiny decided by a $95.00 piece of technology.
As highway 101 changed into route 154, then into a mountain road (I forget the name), a gravel track and eventually a farmer's driveway, we suspected Gertrude was lost...
The look on Brad's face as we approached the gate at the end of the driveway was priceless.
Torn between launching Gertrude out of the window at speed and making it to our accommodation for the night we back tracked to route 154, figuring that would at least get us to a town. It was a lovely scenic journey that eventually found us in Santa Barbara and re-joining Highway 101.
Pismo beach is a small coastal town, probably similar in size to Kalbarri. As we didn't arrive until about 5.30pm, we checked into our motel, dumped our gear and went for a look around.
Back home after a meal in town, we crashed for the night at about 10.00pm.
Gertrude stayed in the car....
Phone calls on Saturday, Monday and this morning had failed to secure a commitment from the nice people at Hertz that we would indeed have a Mustang. Although very friendly, even suggesting we could have a convertible Mustang or a Camaro, they would not confirm either. After Alcatraz yesterday, we had called into the branch to get a confirmation, but the information was not available. As you are probably now suspecting, they didn't have a Mustang available for us....
Although disappointed (under statement), I remained calm (moderately) and polite(not very)..
"But Sir, we can give you this lovely Nissan Altima or I have a beautiful new Kia"... They just didn't get it... With Mustangs being fairly common here, comprehending the dream doesn't make sense...
We tried Avis and Budget to no avail, but as we had half a day travelling in front of us we had to get going, so we left SF in a lovely (we would have preferred Ethel) Nissan.
I have a plan "B", but we were fairly flat as we departed SF..
Anywho, onto Pismo Beach which is about half way between SF and LA. Hitting the coastal highway just out of SF, we travelled for a while along the coast. The West coast is not unlike our coastline, with wide white beaches and coastal dunes. Although picturesque, it was a very windy afternoon with huge amounts of spray coming off the ocean, not exactly conducive to a pleasant stop over.
At some point Gertrude (our GPS) decided she'd had enough of the view and preferred highway 101 for the rest of the trip. Not realising until the coastal dunes had given way to rolling hills and eventually farm land, we continued to have our destiny decided by a $95.00 piece of technology.
As highway 101 changed into route 154, then into a mountain road (I forget the name), a gravel track and eventually a farmer's driveway, we suspected Gertrude was lost...
The look on Brad's face as we approached the gate at the end of the driveway was priceless.
Torn between launching Gertrude out of the window at speed and making it to our accommodation for the night we back tracked to route 154, figuring that would at least get us to a town. It was a lovely scenic journey that eventually found us in Santa Barbara and re-joining Highway 101.
Pismo beach is a small coastal town, probably similar in size to Kalbarri. As we didn't arrive until about 5.30pm, we checked into our motel, dumped our gear and went for a look around.
Back home after a meal in town, we crashed for the night at about 10.00pm.
Gertrude stayed in the car....
- comments
Joanne That's priceless :) And it was a girl (Gertrude) that got you lost!