San Luis Obispo, CA to San Francisco, CA

Day 15: Tue 5 Aug: What a day.

I slept in (there's not really much within walking distance, other than motels and car dealerships). VW service called at 11am to say, "If you were thinking of replacing this car, now's the time." I blew out a spark plug, where "blew out" means "forcibly ejected from the cylinder head". Since that particular spark plug had already been crossthreaded in (previous repair), there wasn't enough metal to make threads to thread it in. To fix, it was going to need a new cylinder head. It really was time.

So, I was the perfect customer. I was trapped, and wanted to be out of there as soon as possible. I had plenty of other options -- but honestly, I had been avoiding replacing the Beetle because I really hate the whole car buying experience, and here was the opportunity to get it all over with in a matter of hours. Decision paralysis? Not possible when you're limited to the cars on the lot.

I looked at a Rabbit, a couple Beetles, and a GTI, test driving the first two, and decided on the Rabbit. My frugal gene was overjoyed, since it cost as much as my Beetle did, ten years ago, with so much more. It took a while to get the paperwork all straightened out (not having a checkbook or the Beetle's title with me required a number of phone calls, emails, and faxes -- thank you Dan!) but I managed to get out of there by 4pm.

It's a 2.5 liter, 5 cylinder, 6-speed automatic Tiptronic, and man can it go!

I stopped in Morro Bay, just to see what it was like because that was where I was to have spent the night, and several other people have raved about it. It's definitely a beautiful spot, not the least because there's a big honking mountain just plunked down at the end of the beach.

I drove up the coast. This is definitely the most beautiful stretch of Highway 1 so far. The new car handles great on the curves. I stopped a lot (for me) to take pictures and enjoy the views. I stopped in San Simeon at Hearst Castle, but just missed the last tour, so walked through the museum in the Visitor's Center. I stopped at Point Piedra Blanca because there were a lot of cars there, only to discover the cause: elephant seals! The males come ashore in July and August to molt. From about there through Big Sur the sun was setting. It was a beautiful double sunset as the sun first dropped below a thick layer of low clouds, and then poked out below them for its last gasp before dropping below the horizon.

To top it off, it rained! In August! Just a little, but enough for there to be a complete big honking rainbow opposite the sun as it was setting. I swear, every person on Highway 1 had pulled over for this sunset.

Once the sun had set, I realized that it wasn't going to be much fun doing Highway 1 in the dark, and so decided on a faster route to San Francisco. I drove 1 to Santa Cruz and did the 17, 85, 280 route to the city. Again, I'm loving this car.

It took me about twenty minutes to find a parking space near Mutt's house, and by 10:30pm I was settled in.