The traffic was very light, for the most part, which is partly why we didn't plan to leave earlier. Once or twice in LA basin 'rush' hour traffic was enough for us! Let the traffic thin down a bit before heading out!The roads can be quit confusing at times. First, you are dealing with the sound: thumpthump rrrrrrrrrrrr thumpthump rrrrrrrrrrrrr thumpthump rrrrrrrrrrrrr - the sound of the tires hitting the seams in the concrete and riding over the grooves in the concrete at 65 mph. Very annoying, and I'm sure over time, damaging to hearing ability. :-) I really like asphalt - I really do not like concrete.
Second, when planning to leave one freeway and get on to another, you never know which lanes are going to peel off and when traffic is heavy, you can miss your exit. For that matter, just driving down the freeway you never know when you lane is going to peel off and you'll be on some road going some where you did not want to go. So, we mostly stuck to the 3rd of 5, inside. That's how we ended up peeling off to the LEFT and making a short visit to downtown Pasadena. Whenever something like that happens, we always figure that God is keeping us from something down the road. It's happened 3 or 4 times now that after we have been delayed, we've come across an accident farther on. Mel said this time that maybe God was delaying us so we would BE in and accident, not avoid one. After all, it does go both ways! Fortunately, as far as we know, neither scenario was the case.
Third, the traffic itself. It's not too bad when people are actually doing the speed limit, or maybe just a couple miles over. The big rigs must drive no more than 55 mph and stay in the far right lane that is not peeling off to an exit, cars can drive there if slow or while they are making their way to the exit lane. All other cars, vans, pick-ups and delivery trucks travel in all of the other left lanes (as many as 5! That is a lot of traffic.) But there are drivers who think they are God's gift to the American highway system, with special powers of speed and agility, with cars that will never break down or suddenly have flat tires, who must think that a speed limit of 75 means THEY can really go 80 or 90 if they so desire. It is terrifying when these guys (mostly men, but we did notice some women) weave in and out of lanes trying desperately to "get ahead", or come up so close behind you that you can't see their headlights - at 75 mph!!!! Sometimes in the rain, even. I truly think these people have a death wish. And if these drivers are Believers - shame on them! They take not only their lives in their hands, so to speak, but could cause the deaths or terrible injuries to many more people, to say nothing of the fact that they are sinning simply by breaking the law! The speed limits are there for a reason! I wonder - why is it so important to these drivers that they must be first, or faster, or whatever it is that compells them to drive so dangerously?
But enough of the soapbox. I'm just very thankful to be away from all that traffic. It's easier to stay away from the nuts when there are fewer vehicles on the interstate, like here in Utah, where I am now. :-)
I don't know how many times I've been to the LA basin - maybe 15 or 20 times in my almost 56 years. I do know that in all that time, I've only been there a couple times in the winter. Usually it is summer and hot, hot, hot. Palm trees and flowers and blooming bushes, haze, pollution, and heat waves. This time we came after a week of unusual rains and for the first time, I was able to actually SEE the mountains that surround the area. I took the photo above on our last morning as we drove, when the pollution and marine layer were starting to come back to their usual dirty milk look. But wow! Look! This is one of the many mountains that surround LA, one of those that burn in the summer, that slide during the rest of the year, that are so beautiful and steep and wild. It's amazing that such a huge city has such wild areas surrounding it. Finally we turned left on another freeway and actually headed up into those mountains. I think we drove past Valdez Rocks, on their right side. We've actually been down to them, on their left side and I had no idea they were that close to an 8 lane freeway. Valdez Rocks are where several Star Trek episodes were filmed, and we've seen them in other tv programs and movies as well.
So, up, up, up over the mountains, and then down, down, down into the Mojave Desert. It was interesting to see where the Joshua Trees start growing again. They are obviously a higher elevation plant and do well with hot and cold temps both. Across the desert we drove, mostly in a straight line toward Las Vegas. I just started calling it LV - so we came from LA and were going to LV. :-)
I do not like Nevada very much. I've probably said that before. Oh, I like the geological formations, the desert, the sky, the dirt. I just don't like the people influence in Nevada. Legalized prostitution. Gambling - casinos everywhere. Huge, huge casinos! You can tell exactly where the border is between California and Nevada because there, out in the middle of nowhere desert, when you cross the state line, on one side there is nothing, on the other there is a big casino. In this photo we are still in California. The lake is usually dry.
And here you can see the change from California to Nevada. 
Fortunately, most of Nevada is wild and empty and full of sagebrush and rattlesnake that crawl on their belly, not rattlesnakes that build casinos. :-) I like that part of Nevada. I like the part of Las Vegas that looks like a normal city (well, as much as I like any city, that is!). I felt so terribly sad as we once again drove past The Strip and I saw all the evidence of greed and lust, of broken dreams and broken lives. I find it sad, but appropriate, that one of the first billboards going into the city was a billboard against human trafficking. I look at all of this: 
and I only see waste. Wasted money, wasted lives. Sin. Sin in all of it's enticing beauty. Lights! Colors! Sounds! Music! Naked dancing bodies! Back rooms! And so forth. Thankfully, there is another side to Las Vegas, one that is not thought about very often when you hear the words: Las Vegas.Ok. That's it for now. A rant against LA drivers and a rant against LV. Whew! I'm really not in a bad mood this morning!
But it's time to finish packing up, actually just to get dressed! and get on our way. I'll try and write more tonight, from somewhere in Colorado. :-)
2 comments:
Hey you were in my city!! I grew up in the San Fernando Valley and believe it or not there really were clear beautiful days like in your photo sometimes 3 or 4 in a row when I was growing up. The mountains usually had snow on them in the winter and there has always been a "haze" of smoke, or fog or smog (combo of both) since the Native American days. They called the San Fernando Valley, the Valley of Smokes.
Vasquez Rocks was the hide-out for Pancho Villa a "bandito" from Mexico. There are many cave like areas there in the rocks. Most of the Western movies from the 1950s, 1960s and some 1970s were filmed at Vasquez Rocks. My cousins used to live about 5 miles from there and we would go there and ride horses and chase jack rabbits on horseback way back when, before it became a Park.
Thanks for the memories. :)
Vasquez Rocks! That's it! I kept thinking Valdez Rocks was not right. I thought about you many times, Sue, while we were there, knowing that you grew up somewhere in the area. We went down Topanga Canyon to Malibu twice, too - but I thought of Sharon Tate then. ;-(
It was a beautiful time. I like CA this time of year. Don't like the traffic and all the people, but I do like CA. Mountains, deserts, beaches, huge trees, volcanos, earthquakes - what's not to love? hehehe
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