San Diego's Weekend Driver

I’ve been hearing about the Feather River Canyon my entire life. When I finally visited, I found it to be everything advertised… and shockingly quiet in the middle of the summer.

Hard to believe, but because of the shifting sands, the first permanent road across the eastern part of the Imperial Valley was made from planks. And on a breezy day a few years back, I went looking for it, then retraced its replacement, what became US 80, back across the desert. It’s a bit of [...]

Ramona is one of the special places in San Diego county. Not just because the low-mountain scenery provides great vistas around every corner, but its bucolic roots and surrounding terrain make for great road and wonderful day trip. Our route this time takes us over the county’s newest and technologically advanced freeways and some of [...]

Hyundai Genesis Coupe enjoys the back roads but watch the head room.

A few years back I spent a several weeks working in Moorhead, Minn., and as things go in the interstate twin cities of Fargo, ND and Moorhead, my budget-priced hotel was across the Red River in Fargo. Wandering around one Sunday afternoon, I headed west to where Fargo runs out and Interstate 94 makes one [...]

Mercury might be gone, but for awhile it sold an upscale version of the hybrid Ford Escape, the Mariner. Back in 2006, I took one on the rugged mountains separating the coast from southern Riverside County. Clean Climbing takes drivers on a ridge with spectacular views east and west, down some twisting, rocky and rutty [...]

Here’s another video from the Coast Starlight, tunnel to tunnel in the Cascades. From Feb. 9, 2011.

From my Starlight trip, a blog entry I wrote but didn’t post. Enjoy… Around Mt. Shasta, Feb. 10 After a decent night’s sleep, those of us on the Coast Starlight today awoke to blue skies as we looped around Mt. Shasta. The big rock is covered with snow and glistened in the morning sun. I [...]

It’s hard to believe, but even in San Diego the weather can interfere with the best plans. With a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee parked out front and a weekend plan to head up Nate Harrison Grade on Mount Palomar (and a Plan B to do some driving on rocks near Jacumba), our local dirt roads [...]

After the bus trip to Portland, it’s been a nice ride down the west coast. My dinner last night was a fine piece of halibut in the dining car. Dining on a train is a great experience; watching the world go by and the waiters managing to work from a tiny prep area and never [...]