For those who don't live in Southern California (such as myself), it is easy to forget how crazy life is down there, how utterly dependent the culture is on freeways (and imported water).
Don't get me wrong, the Bay Area has its share of gridlocked highways and road rage, but SoCal takes it to the exponential extreme.
I was recently invited to give a talk at UC San Diego, and although I initially considered flying from Oakland, I decided to drive. Road trip! Hitting LA at around 8 pm, it started slowing and then crawled to a stop on I-5 around Downey. I needed gas anyway, so I got off to fill up. Getting back on the freeway, I noticed that there were no cars! Where did they all go? Did they finally get beamed up to the Mother Ship? An interesting premise to be sure, but Occam's Razor would state instead that there was probably a freeway-blocking accident upstream.
I continued on, and hitting the Orange county line, it was as if I had entered Oz. The freeway turned immaculate, lots of beautiful sculptures in the retaining walls, no gridlock to be seen.
Approaching San Clemente, Nixon's final home, I then saw an ominous sign - "FREEWAY CLOSED AT SCALES - TRAFFIC JAMMED". Hmm, how else does one cross Pendleton Marine Base to get to San Diego? I called Christa and Calvin for input, Calvin said "take highway 74, the Ortega highway, to get to I-15". It was better than getting stuck again in traffic.
California highway 74 is a lovely windy road connecting San Juan Capistrano to the Lake Elsinore region of Riverside County. Lots of mountains and even some hot springs, it looked to be a place to come again sometime.
Yet, the people drove like maniacs! I was trying to keep up, and luckily my Honda Fit drives like a sports car; I was doing 50 mph around curves that were suggested 30 mph, and still people were on my ass saying "you're too slow! Hurry up!"
It turns out that the freeway blockage was a "pursuit" by the police. I'm glad that I missed that bullet.
