Weekend Driver San Diego

Another trip to take before things get too hot, here’s an oldie but a goodie — a cruise out to Font’s Point in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. It’s Drive 4 from my book, Weekend Driver San Diego, so I’m sure most of you have the book and have taken this drive already (!). We [...]

Jack, I just got home from going on the drive that you described through Santa Ysabel and Mesa Grande Road. I have to say that it was AMAZING! I am writing you to thank you for giving such clear directions and sharing your experience. I wish you would’ve mentioned the presence of law enforcement because [...]

Here’s an e-mail from another road addict who has much better toys that I have. + + + Jack, Thanks for the on-line newsletter. I want my book signed too. I’ve been a fan of your for a while. I’m a car enthusiast first and foremost. Well, not just cars. Anything with wheels or wings. [...]

I recently received this e-mail from a reader that captures what Weekend Driver is all about. + + + Dear Jack, With the economy the way it is, we asked our 3 teenage daughters to think of creative inexpensive ways to give gift this last Christmas. My oldest daughter Kassi, almost 18 and soon to [...]

The lost city of Petra, Jordan, is a long way from San Diego. This faraway place, where the final scenes of the 1989 movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” were shot, came to mind in a trip to Split Mountain, in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The spectacular Petra gorge, where Indiana, his father [...]

One of the great things about living in San Diego is that in about an hour, you can drive from the coast to the mountains to the desert, which is where we’re headed today. Borrego Springs is the northeastern outpost of San Diego County, an oasis at the edge of the Colorado Desert, which extends [...]

Perhaps no place on earth better illustrates two meanings of the word “bluff.” Physically, it is a bluff — a high, steep bank — on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, at the most southwesterly point of the continental United States. The peacefulness is also a bluff — a deception. On one hand, a typically [...]

A smooth, fast connection to the east has been a dream of San Diego boosters since the Spaniards setup the first European settlement here in 1769. In the way are the rugged and sometimes cruel mountains that lead to an equally cruel desert. One of the earliest routes east is the subject of today’s drive [...]

There’s almost always a different way to get from here to there. Sometimes it’s not paved, sometimes it’s partially paved and sometimes it’s full of potholes. Today’s drive is all of those things. Going from Alpine to Mt. Laguna is no big deal. Just get on Interstate 8, exit Sunrise Highway and you’re there. Maybe [...]