The second road drive of 2019 took us back to one of our old favorites — Santa Cruz. It’s one of the best-known routes and always draws a good crowd, with a bit of adventure guaranteed. The Sacramento group got an early start to meet up with everyone at the official starting point in Pacifica.
The fun began earlier than expected, right at the Bay Bridge toll plaza. While lined up in the cash lanes, we were entertained by the usual chaos — cars cutting in line or realizing too late they were in the FasTrak lane.
After the toll booth excitement, we reached the meeting spot and gathered the day’s lineup: BMWs, Porsches, Teslas, Jaguars, Mustangs, and even a Fiat. After morning greetings and some much-needed coffee, we set off up Highway 1. The first stretch toward Skyline was mostly a cruise thanks to heavy traffic — a theme that continued through much of the day.
Just after our first turnoff, we got a radio call that a cop had slipped into the middle of our group and soon pulled one of our drivers over. More on that in a minute. As we headed down toward La Honda and Pescadero, we ran into a cycling race going the opposite direction, which slowed us down even more. Riders were spilling into the oncoming lane, and police were stationed all along the course.
Once we regrouped in Pescadero, the pulled-over driver rejoined us and filled us in. The officer had only given him a warning — for his stock GT350 exhaust, no less! During that stop, we also learned the cycling race was running along the same loop we were about to drive. That was a bit of a letdown, but we managed to work our way around the course without any issues.
Heading back up to Skyline, we made our way south before peeling off to head down HWY 9 and back to the coast. Being that this was the weekend following a holiday weekend, the roads were surprisingly busy. This prevented us from ever really having a chance to open up and enjoy any section of road in its entirety. This was the flow for the day and while not ideal, we all settled in knowing that was par for the course on these roads.
The last section heading up Empire Grade was rough, as the road did not fair well from the recent winter storms. We successfully navigated our way over the extremely bumpy sections and across numerous one lane stretches. Finally, we made it over the mountain pass and then started down to the coast. Arriving back at HWY 1, we headed to Santa Cruz for lunch before the group parted ways to head home. This was another great day on the road and we look forward to seeing new and old friends out on the next drive.
