I have lived in the US for more than 10 years now. One of my favorite activity is driving. As GM's old commercial goes, time to explore the God's country. This is an "essay" about driving in the US from the view point of a Japanese. Then, there goes the craving for drive. Once a year, I get a craving for a long drive. On the highway, where I do not have to use breaks for hours and hours.

I still have a California map of 1996. I hilighted all the roads I drove once. Every once in a while, I look at the map to find out any scenic route I have not driven. Luckily, there are still a lot more left to explore.

Woke up at 5:00 am in the Saturday morning before dawn. Started driving east. Within 20 minutes, I was attacking a sharp corner of Niles Canyon just outside of Fremont. Past Livermore; around Tracy, the finally the sun had come. I am in the middle of nowhere of California: central valley. This is an agricultural land and is very flat. And it is famous for very dense fogs. I knew it would be a wonderful day.

After another hour, I drove into the west side of the Sierra-Nevada mountain range. The roads are winding and fun to drive.

I stopped the car and parked by the Interstate 5. The cool and a little misty morning air was blowing.

The western side of the Sierra starts as rolling hills covered with dried grass and oak trees. In this part of California, there is little participation except winter season, the only season you see a lot of green colors. California is a strange place, indeed.

To have even more fun, I drove into a small side road. Suddenly I had to stop for a traffic jam. The road was jammed by a group of cows. I imagine this area was far more crowded during the gold rush. Today, most of the land are covered by ranches and some old towns for tourism along the highway 49. These town kept the atmosphere of the gold rush era, and has many souvenir shops.

There are a lot of reservoirs around here as well, supplying water to SF and LA. Visiting any of them is a pleasant experience. I drove up to one of them for a lunch. There was a cafeteria on a floating structure. I ate good american (greasy) hamburger and French fries while feeling the waves on the lake.

From this point, there are countless destinations to drive. Beautiful lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park are within a few hours drive. I can keep driving this country road. I can even drive across the Sierra-Nevada to visit the magnificent Owens Valley.

To The Ocean (Oregon Coast)

I don't like to go to ocean by myself. Somehow, I kind of like going to mountain alone. I like the solitude feeling.

Oregon coast is also known for "gorgeous" coast line. During the spring break, 11 of us spend 3 days driving along the Oregon Coast. A hectic but very fun trip. It took us 8 hours of driving to get to the coast first. When we finally arrived, we were most impressed with the rugged rocky coast as well as the largest sand beach I've ever seen. We almost jumped into the cold ocean.

Hours of fun time, chit-chatting, and sight seeing, finally the sunset came. Watching the burning sun sinking slowly into ocean, we conversation quietly died out... We scattered into each individual on the beach. The sunset at the Oregon coast was beautiful, and very emotional for everyone of us.

I have drove many of the west coast; from San Diego to Santa Barbara, around SF area, and most of the Oregon and Washington coast. All of them are beautiful, and the impression are dramatically different depending on the weather, time of the day, etc.

I saw the best sunset in Seattle. They said it was the best summer in 20 years. I was driving in a beautiful sunset on the way from San Juan islands. Almost entire sky turned to red. I took a ferry to go back to Seattle. The sunset lasted almost forever. The ferry sailed through the Pugeot Sound painted with sunset. Sorry no photos.

Photographed near San Diego.

A Lot Of Fun

A lot of fun stuff are at roadside, such as flowers and road signs. At the entrance to every city, a signpost tells me the name of the city and its population. I often try to imagine the life in a small city. The thinking about vegetation and climate is another fun for me while driving.

The town of "Antone" had a sign that gives more information than I have ever imagined.

A delightful flower I found somewhere in Utah, on the way to Grand Canyon.

Another signs I like was the one to the Utica Reservoir near the Lake Alpine (highway 4). You will never get lost with such sign, or too much information?

The "Movie Road" near the city of Big Pine made me wonder about the origin of the name. It is in the middle of a Alabama Hills in Owens Valley. I guess Hollywood made some movies here. Maybe John Wayne acted in this deserted hill in a cowboy movie.