Nightmare on the 101

We left Danville this morning without a time schedule, the weather was nice and we thought it would be fun to head home on the 101 South.  We always take the 5 up and back, but there isn't anything fun to look at and I've always wanted to see San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara.

The ride started off great through the rolling hills, beautiful farmland and wineries along the way.

We stopped in San Luis Obispo and drove through the campus of Cal Poly and got lunch downtown.

We were so excited to find a Spudnuts in Santa Barbara too before getting back on the freeway.  Unfortunately, it was bumper to bumper as soon as we got back on.  I checked Google Maps and it said it would take 1 hour 25 minutes to go 10 miles.  Yikes!  We took some backroads to avoid some of it, but there was no escaping it.  Traffic was horrible through Ojai and Ventura and by that time we were in rush hour traffic through Burbank and Pasadena.
The scenery was gorgeous but was not worth the 12 hour ride home.  I think I will take the ugly 7 hour drive on the 5 from now on, but we made it home safe and were so excited to be out of the car!