Thanks for the tips and offers of help! Here are a couple pics of the trip so far:
<br>Emeryville<br>
<br>Picnic just north of the I5 /505 junction. No mere plebes, we.... just disregard that rusty dented car in the background.<br>
One incident so far... just after we left our picnic, I was messing around with the radar detector plug in the cigarette lighter socket, and the whole thing fell apart, shorted and sent blue sparks out (and a small flame, i think) and melted the connectors. Alternator light came on, so I pulled over in the almost-dark. Waited for the socket to cool, disconnected the bits, and the car fired up, thank god.
Further updates to come when I next have internet access.