The Drive

Los Angeles to San Francisco:


Okay, the drive today was one of legend. At least ten times the amount of traffic as normal, which in itself was interesting. At least four near-death accidents, and that was just with me!
The highlight, just briefly, and if you are easily offended please skip this posting.
The thing I found most intriguing was the guy with a pair of fake balls hanging from his back bumper. Yep, it takes a special kind of guy to hang a fake scrotum from his rear bumper, and lucky for all of us this individual was out and about this close to the holidays. Cheers to this redneck!
For all you NoCal folks, it was in Los Angeles I noticed this. Whew! I hear ya. Hey, don’t look at me, I live in Orange County.
Another observation, seeing as I drive a hybrid car, there were A LOT of Prius on the road, and I’m using Prius as the plural here folks. Many, many more than say a year ago. Most of these cars were headed from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. And, for every one Prius, there were about twenty-five ENORMOUS trucks, most ripping along at 80-90mph. An exaggeration? I was doing 75, so if someone blows by me like I’m in reverse, I’m thinking I can safely guess their speed in the 80-90 range. Most of these trucks had one or two people inside, plus lots of empty space.
I just kept thinking, “Man, I would have loved to hop on a train in OC and be able to get off near SF.” I know, I know, you CAN do this, but I’m talking a nice train, a practical train, an affordable train.
I’m thinking of taking the train from Florida to OC in a few weeks, just for kicks, but I have a feeling this trip will take a week and will cost far, far more than air travel.
Oh, quickly, another take from yesterday. The feedlot off of the I5 had razor wire on the fence surrounding it. And, this wire ran and ran and ran, miles past the lot.
Yes, the smell, but why the razor wire? To keep something in or out?
I find this entire drive fascinating, even the long stretches of farmland, steaming with ground fog and dust from tractor wheels. The landscape is beautiful and a perfect example of man’s epic battle with nature.
We should all be punished, however, for the newer, manmade structures being created along the route, the quick-build strip malls, made to last about ten years before they begin to break down. Boring, ugly, cheap and created with no thought as to the environment surrounding it. In fact, made simply to try and keep nature out.
Thinking beyond the norm is a good plan for 2007.