Well after 4000 miles and 16 days on the road I thought I leave some impressions. If you have already been to Southern CA then stop reading as nothing you have not experienced yourself.

6300 miles. 14 mpg. 82 hours on the road.

Weather: Well it was 35 degrees in Vancouver when I left. It was 40 in Olympia and 41 - 105 in Portland. Man that is hot. However, the coast of CA is fabulous. Not to hot, not to cold, just right. About 18 degrees overnight. In the morning there is a light marine cloud that burns off by noon to reveal a sunny day of 26 - 28 degrees. A nice breeze off the ocean. Go inland a few miles and temps pick up but I love the heat. All in all, a great place to be.

Surf: FABULOUS. The water is so incredably warm and off course the surf is a hoot to play in. Spent three days on the beach of the 12 we were there.

Roads: WTF is it with Americans and concrete roads? Throughout the LA region they are ALL concrete. Makes for a rougher ride and loud road noise. Hated it. However, there is LOTS of room on the road. In some spots there were 6 lanes for traffic plus TWO HOV lanes. How decandent. The thing is, that there is a TON of traffic on the road ALL the time. At night there is a LONG line of red lights filling all 5 - 6 lanes and just as many white lights coming at you. BUT, and this is the good news, Its ALL moving at about 60 - 70 mph. In fact, the average speed through Seattle and Portland may be 60 on medium busy roads and its 70 -75 for the same volume in LA. But it is not just the number of lanes (Seattle has 5 lanes in a number of spots) but the individual lanes in LA are about three - four feet WIDER then anywhere else. In other words, there seems to be PLENTY of room.

Saw three accidents. Witnessed one more - relatively minor. Saw a body beside a flipped Ram pick up
Only saw one rader trap . Saw about 20 peeps by the side of the road with flats and about 19 in the LA region. Maybe those concrete roads.

What the hell is the problem with NA drivers from understanding the concept of "...slower traffic to right..."?????!!!!!!! Fortunately you don't get ticketed for overtaking on the inside.

Land of the Automobile: For a car nut, WHAT A PLACE. Howabout a dealership with 100 H2's in stock? One was $56k with $30k in extras including a satelite dish

What about a Mercedes dealership with 1300 cars in stock?

Also the land of the 'Slade. EVERYWHERE you see Escalades. In addition every third SUV you see is running on dubs. Plenty of H2's as well,

Good news is that I saw almost zero rice.

Long Beach Port: Well Vancouver is a port. So is Seattle and Tacoma. You ain't seen NOTHING until you have seen Long Beach. FREAKIN HUGE. Parkings lots of Japanese cars that are simply to the horizon. Countless cranes on the docks. Quite awe inspirings.

Brush fires: There are literally countless brush fire incidents on the I5. probably well in excess of 100. Also, north of Santa Barbara there has been a VERY large fire in the recent past. Interesting to see the power of nature.

Random observations:
- On the 8th day God created Game Boy and DVD playing laptops. The Dad's of the world were very pleased and gave praise to the Lord many, many times.
- You know how we know that God favours Canada over the US? Because he gve us 94 Octane

 

down in the states they have 100 octane

 

I concur about the roads Shaun.
They may be easier to fix and last longer but I believe the cars pay the price. I think of every one of those joints as 1/1000 of a major pothole, given enough time it has to have a bad effect on vehicles.........oh well....

What were you driving?
Must have been the Durango to get 14mpg......

 

Sounds like an awsome trip. One day I want to drive down to Texas.

Side note . . . wtf is a blog ?? I hear this all the time now

 

I was rather wondering that also.........

 

did u go through Valencia, in the santa clarita valley, north of LA?? i used to live there, that place is paradise....

 

Thanks for the recounting. It brings back memories of my trip down there.

 

Ah memories! I went there for spring break with 3 of my buddies, we took his Van and drove down in 21 hours, back up in 18. We went to Venice, Manhatten beach Hollywood Beverly Hills BEL AIR! I noticed Hollywood = very tacky, but it's awsome LOL. The only thing is we stopped by to see my buddy's family friend in Northern Hollywood and they told us to park the car at this store called Ralph's. Basically what it is, is the equivilent to a Safeway or an IGA. When we went back to get the car, like 60 "gangsters" were hanging around blasting music out of a nearby K-car. Since they were blocking off the exit with their loitering we couldn't exactly ask them to move so we just jumped the median and got the **** out of there. lmao I love LA.

 

A blog is a personal journal that is posted on a website.

Unfortunately I did not get to see much of silicon valley. And I'm NOT talking about Palo Alto near San Fran. Being that I was there with wife and kids we did not go to the same places that you 'young 'uns' would want to frequent.

However, I heard that Venice beach, Muscle beach and Huntington beach have some of the most spectacular scenery known to modern human engineering.

Given my experience with the road system it merely confirms that our Transcanada Hwy is a complete joke, an embarrassment. That road is rush hour bumper to bumper for 20 hours of the day. We should have at L#EAST three lanes plus HOV and the Port Mann should be twinned.

 

I've bean saying that ever since I got back from Toronto <--v. nice highway system

 

I couldnt agree more with you. Two lanes... with one basically being an exit/merge lane. That leaves one lane for the entire lower mainland....how pathetic.