Just to emphasize your point, California is larger than Great Britain. It takes about 14 hours and 30 minutes to go from San Diego to Crescent City, from the Mexican border to the state border of Oregon with a largely straight route. For comparison the route from Portsmouth England to Thurso Scotland is only 12 hours thirty minutes, and the route through Scotland is rather windy.
I got my journey time from google maps.
Im surprised ya went with the original and not the remake.