figuring i'll leave the eureka area around 12, or later or earlier as nessasary. is going down 101, to 580, to 80, to the 880, to the south bay the best/easiest route? i have no idea of the traffic patterns. what do you californians figure my driving time to be and what time should i roll through the east bay and not burn up my clutch in traffic?

kevin

where are you going in the south bay?

seems like it'd be easier to just take 101 all the way down, over the GG bridge, onto 280 south.

the prune yard in san jose.

What, you don't like my suggested scenic route?

Mapquest says 101 to 580 to 880, 328 miles, 6 hours 9 minutes. Thats only 54 mph so they must be taking some traffic into account. If you are on those freeways during evening rush you will do lots of crawling. I'd try to time it to make Pruneyard by 3-4 pm at the latest. Craig and I are planning to take it easy, only go to Redding on Wednesday, leaving Portland about noon. It is then only 4 hours to Pruneyard so we should be there early afternoon on Thursday. Craig is towing his car with his Jeep so I will have a support vehicle if I have trouble with the 914. Good luck, look forward to sharing stories of our trek on Thursday.

280 will take you right to san jose. there should be less traffic on 280 compared to the east bay highways. if you take this route over the GG bridge you'll have about 5 miles of traffic lights on 19th ave in SF before you're thrown onto 280. it's not bad though, no big hills. 280 is a much more scenic route than the 580/880 highways going through the lovely oakland area.

Listen to Vortrex, not me. I took the GG/19th/Highway 1 south to Ventura last fall. Don't know anything about 280 but sounds like he does.

don't take 101 through SF unless you want to do A LOT of stop'n'go down 19th street. 101 turns into a 2 lane city road through SF (19th street) and then turns into 280/101 again.
on a touristy day (or worse, commuter traffic) this will be bumper-bumper for MILES ...

it's easier to leave 101 before you hit SF and go over the richmond bridge onto 580 which turns into 80 for a short bit and then take 880 down south.
if you hit commuter time, it'll be slow too but not nearly as bad as trying to fiddle through the city ...

Andy

thanks andy, chances are i'll plan to hit the 880 before noon if i'm out of eureka by 7. i'll save the scenic drivin for the weekend and the run home through the klamath mountains.

kevin