We needed to head north in order to get to the Burning Man Festival. The original plan was to head to the coast and then follow it up. After the zillionth traffic light at each block junction the freeway sign had greater appeal.
The freeway (5) took us up to 4000ft on some barley coloured mountains before dropping down to oil country. The blog picture shows the nodding donkeys with a sign saying no shooting (so American).
With LA far behind we cut over to the coast through wine country to bag a National Park and the best bit of the Pacific Highway (an American classic route).
We ended up at Monteray a nice twee American place which is right next to Carmel (where Clint Eastwood was Mayor).
We drove into Carmel out of curiosity and the slim chance of finding somewhere cheap to stay. It is the American mirror of Broadway in England (as American as Apple Pie) and difficult to find your way out of. An American later that evening was saying that the houses or streets do not have numbers or names.
The temperature here is all over the place. South/north LA is warm, downtown LA is like an oven and Monteray is very cool.