I forgot to mention that it had rained, very, very hard!!! So, because of this, some roads were blocked and just not used at all ,including Hwy.1!!! parts of it anyway. We drove route 23, from Hwy.101 to Hwy.1, this route 23 wound itself up and down, through an incredible landscape, cacti everywhere, bougainvillea,growing as high as the trees,some Joshua trees, beautiful pink and orange rock formations,now it really felt like we were going south!!!! We kept meeting snow plows though, at least, that what they looked like, but, after a while, after meeting up with some car size rocks on the road, we realized they were rock plows, the sides of the hills were caving in, just too much rain to handle. I just could not imagine if one of those rocks were to come down on your car,kind of reminds me of the look of the royal terns……. After about 10 minutes driving ,we stopped behind a huge lineup, no idea what was happening. Should not be too long we thought……2 hours later……no use going back, once the line moved slowly again we were directed to route 27,by now it was almost dark, route 27 is the same idea as route 23, up and down, winding through the dessert, back again to Hwy.101. We found out later on that there had been a huge mudslide, blocking hwy.1. So now it was dark, and oh yes, Bert quietly mentioned that we were almost out of gas!!! cute!!!! We made it to the outskirts of San Francisco, found a gas station, and a Starbucks, so i could check online for an RV place, but, like i said, it was dark, and raining,looking at a map, i really had no idea where to start, so we ended up parking the van in a Target parking lot, its free, very secure, all you need to do is check with the manager that its ok, he looked at us as if we were crazy, but heh!!! we slept ok, a bit noisy , but we felt safe. Walmart is another store you can park at, but always let the manager know you will be there.