Day 210 : Super San Francisco sends us on our way!

High point: Being led out of this superb city with a relay escort of 1906 commemorative fire engines.

Road point: Pacific Coast Highway 1 is turning out to be epic, with a coastline to die for. It was great to be back on this very special stretch of road as we hit the Big Sur.

TiVo point:  As we made our way to Big Sur via Santa Cruz, I insisted we stop by at TiVo HQ. TiVo is all the talk at Virgin Media (where I work) so I couldn’t resist stopping by for a photo.

Burger point: Best burgers of the USA so far had in Santa Cruz Diner.  The current count at 23, with James leading the way on 8 and surprisingly I am currently in last place with 4 (that’s only one every other day!)

Camping with Ewoks point: Camping rocks and it was made even better still as we were in woods that resembled a scene from ‘Return of the Jedi’.  Dinner under the stars was a delicious ‘Harpin and Morrow Medley’ pasta dish cooked on our camp fire. This was mixed with some good chat, a few beers and followed by toasted marsh mallows, or in Ben’s case – flamed!

Low point:  Not a lot of sleep due to the freezing cold and Ben’s snoring. Hmmm, camping still rocks though, right?

It was a shame to be leaving the fantastic city that is San Francisco, although it has to be said that it’s always great to be back in ‘Martha’ on the road again, especially given what we had in store.

We departed Station 10 at 9.30 sharp with Captain Steve at the wheel, tailing a 1906 commemorative rig. It was now our turn to ‘follow that fire engine!’

As we approached the end of Station 10’s district, another fire truck took over, and the same thing happened again, and again.  All the lights were flashing, the firemen were cheering each time as the baton changed hands, people were waving, and the horns were blowing.  It was insane.

These burgundy rigs were introduced in 2006 as part of the centenary commemoration of the great quake and fires that destroyed almost 80% of the city in 1906. The San Francisco earthquake struck at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906 and registered at 7.9 on the Richter scale. Shaking was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and inland as far as central Nevada. The earthquake and resulting fire are remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States, alongside the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. The death toll from the earthquake and resulting fire, estimated to be above 3,000 is the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California’s history. The economic impact has been compared with the more recent Hurricane Katrina.

When taking all this into consideration, it was a real honour to be escorted out by these fantastic looking burgundy rigs.

San Francisco was superb. It is hard to describe the feeling as we entered the city bang on sunset via the majestic Golden Gate Bridge and as we left to a relay escort with commemorative fire engines. Stuff that that really isn’t supposed to happen. But it did and it was truly amazing, unbelievable, and best summed up with a quote from a very excited Amy in the back of our rig: “this is the best thing that’s ever happened to me!”  (Luckily Steve didn’t hear her say that!)

None of this would have happened without the efforts of Mindy Talmadge and everyone at San Francisco Fire and Rescue. Thanks again Mindy and all of you for the ultimate send off.12

Rob aka ‘Lieutenant X-Pod’

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