Away: Day 1 - Gilroy, CA

I drove to Gilroy, California, today. It took six and a half hours between the four pit stops and all the driving. You're probably saying to yourself, "Why Gilroy?" Well, why not? As we quickly realized though, Gilroy is a lot like Lake Elsinore in many ways. The city has only one seasonal attraction (The Garlic Festival which happens in July so we missed it), an outlet mall (Gilroy Premium Out Mall which is akin to the one in Cabazon), a revitalized downtown area and not much else going on. Actually, after comuting to and from Simi Valley for the past year and a half, I didn't know how long I could stand being on the road, so I comitted myself to Gilroy and a cheap hotel room with free wireless internet access for the night and I was proud of myself for making it. Driving long distances without the stress of rush hour traffic I can do.

At 1PM as we neared out hotel, across the street is a quaint themed family restaurant called The Black Bear Diner. Bears and bear paw prints surround you as you dine on their good food. After that we cruised downtown and then made our way over to the outlet mall before checking in.

6:30AM departure
top off gas tank at Arco
5 N
breakfast at Noah's Bagels at Stevenson Ranch
pit stop at Travel America past Gorman
pit stop and gas a Harris Ranch. Cleaned the windshield.
152 W
101 N
Leavesley exit.

Tomorrow, we will spend the day in Mountain View and San Jose.