It is true….  The sat nav is out to get me!!

I think it senses that I am new to this driving on the wrong side of the road and driving an automatic car.  It decided that this isn’t enough of a challenge for me. Oh no!! 

Apart from deciding to switch of whenever it feels like or to have an epic wobbly when the car gets hot, which is fairly frequent with the weather in California.  The blasted thing decides that it will only work with a Wifi connection. This means that I can programme a destination. That is ok. The difficulty comes in trying to return from said destination or travel onwards. Then it is a problem. It decides that it would rather leave me in the middle of nowhere then guide me to my final stop. 

The woman at Dollar said it was GPS…….  Yeah right!!!

Today’s saga, driving from San Francisco to Monterey via route 1. A lovely scenic drive. A once in a lifetime experience to see dramatic landscape and beautiful scenery. It is on the paper maps, even comes up on my iPhone. Does it register on the rotten Sat Nav given to me by Dollar?  Does it heck. 

Never mind, I navigated myself to the start of California Highway 1 after finding somewhere I could get gas (sometimes difficult if you don’t have an American. credit/bank card). This was the next town over from San Francisco. Luckily all I have to do to reach Los Angeles is to follow route 1 south. Easy enough, even for me. 

However this proved a serious challenge for the Sat Nav who kept on shouting at me for the next 3 hours to turn around and go back the way I came.  The time to get to Monterey kept on increasing, 2 hours, 2 hours 30 mins, 3 hours etc. You get the idea. This kept on going right up till I crossed over the county line of Monterey.  Oh yes, at this point the sat nav decided to finally agree with my directions and stated matter of factly I was 20 mins away.

I could have launched it out the window. The only thing that saved it was that it was a rental. That and the fact I can’t afford to replace the blasted thing 😩📱

What made up for all the drama and stress (I will admit to slight periods of doubt in my navigation abilities, only slightly mind) was the amazing scenery. Absolutely breathtaking. I had to stop a couple of times to take pictures. Easy enough to as there were little bays and small tucked away beaches that were begging for a visit. I had to oblige. 

I am currently in the process of filming the drive on my GoPro so will upload when I have it done. It is spectacular. 

Anyway, made it safe to Monterey. No thanks to the Sat Nav. The place is lovely. Really quietly and quirky. A small fishing town right on the coast. The fisherman used to fish for sardines here and there were many canning factories by the shoreline. Now it is a tourist trap for fishing and other outdoorsy types. I went for a quick walk down the shore line which is known as the cannery. Full of gift shops, ice creams and food places. I found a really nice place for dinner and then a quiet night in the hostel with a movie and tea. Escape from Alcatraz was on the bill, had to be done what with just coming from San Francisco.  The hostel is really nice and spacious with the obvious sea/coast theme. I won’t hold that against them. 

Early(ish) start for me tomorrow as they are kicking me out at 11am. 

Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Santa Monica beach. Well, I need to top up my tan 🏖