Originally Posted by dbuckho
...Here in LA the equivalent is San Diego south, Palm Springs east, and Santa Barbara north/northwest. If I will be going for a longer period, I might be tempted to drive to San Francisco or places of similar distance.
I'd second that.
I used to drive between Newport beach and SJC area more than twice a month. Depending on the schedule, I'd prefer to go on 101 >> PCH for the South bound, I-55 >> I-5 for the North bound, sometimes I spent a night at Monterey. It was indeed a fun. Though, a couple of months later I got bored and decided to opt AmericanEagle flight to/from SNA or LAX instead.
I do still remember its course layout and scenery. Also remember a black BMW E38? driven by woman doing flat out overtook me as I'm crusing on I-101 North around Salinas. Unfortunately, I was driving a PT Cruser that day (dollar rent a car, turbo model was not available nor 300C) so that couldn't catch it
Back to topic: It's been quite a while since I did do that last and have no idea the current road conditions though, "LGB--SMF" that looks doable to me unless it is on a weekly basis.
Originally Posted by Jailer
I can drive in 5 hours and a half hours @ 75 MPH (when I behave myself).
You should be able to get there in less than a 6 hour barring any traffic. One thing's for sure... There is a lot of bad driver tries to provoke you on I-5. So, it's going to be hard to behave yourself doing at only 75mph.