My husband has been long haul trucking for over 30 years and I constantly have to correct his sense of distance, lol.
When he tells me the rest area is only 15 miles, rest assured it will usually always be atleast a minimum of an hour before the potty break! :)
Well, I was really thinking more about the length of the drive. Some have speculated that Ann’s friend actually picked them up in San Francisco, rather than Seattle on her way back from Santa Cruz. Again, my laziness prevents me from getting out, or Googling, a map, but my gut (from having lived and traveled in the area) is that Santa Cruz is somewhat less than 180 miles from San Francisco — and that would take more than 4 hours to drive in 1960. For one thing you probably would take the Coast Highway 1, or slightly inland CA Hwy 101. Hwy 1 is very twisty, although scenic, but it would take forever. 101 is not quite so bad, but it was still not a high speed highway — lots of stops and starts as it wends its way through little towns. Speed limit was between 55-60 mph. There was nothing that could be called a “Freeway” in Northern CA in those days. The great North South Interstate 5 had not been completed in 1961. In any case, it was not near Santa Cruz.
Jes sayin’...