For those of you who have noticed the existence of my (short, but adequate) list of things I don't like on the side of this page, you would have noticed that the Interstate 5 is on the list. Now, in short freeways are important and the 5 in particular provides a key route from Seattle to San Diego and Beyond. However, I've spent entirely too much time on it recently.
I *think* I've spent approximately 3 weekends at home in Sacramento since a work retreat the weekend of June 23rd. To be fair, I've spent a fair amount of time in much cooler and more pleasant places, including a fair amount of time in Santa Barbara, a place I generally prefer over anywhere else. This weekends trip was made down the 101 as I was coming from a meeting in the city (ie San Francisco for those outside of NorCal) which meant I exchanged Santa Nella and Los Banos for Salinas and Gilroy on the trip down.
For the record, of any of you think that this post will have a point soon it won't, so stop reading. I mean it. Stop it right now. I will, however, comment on my increasing hatred of traffic outside of rush hour. I AM FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. I am not bothered by traffic and have come to accept it as part of life in the civilized world- plus I love driving my car. In SoCal I generally hate the toll roads and would probably feel disdain for most of the people who drive on them. Oh, and Fastrak---don't EVEN get me started on Fastrak.
If, however, one is to make the trip from Northern to Southern California or vice versa on one of our lovely highways- please learn to drive without causing a traffic jam in Morgan Hill at 3pm. According to MapQuest.com (how did people get around before this creation?), it should have taken me 5 hours and 15 minutes to get from Daly City to Santa Barbara on Friday. Hmmm...try about 6 and a half. Granted I can't get away from gridlock in San Jose on a Friday afternoon, even at 2 o'clock, but I will not tolerate people who are so intent on keeping me from my destination that they must slow down to watch a minor fender bender as though it were legitimately something interesting. We've all seen a car accident before people-nothing new here, move along.
When I first moved to Santa Barbara from the Inland Empire for college, I thought the 3+ hour trip was too long of a drive for just a weekend. Now, I regularly make the 6+ hour drive from Sacramento- occasionally just to drink tequila and catch up on gossip. I flip through the radio static and daydream about the trip that I'll someday make in less than 6 hours.
As I don't anticipate Southwest Airlines offering a $49 flight from Sacramento to Santa Barbara anytime soon- I'll keep driving, and hopefully buy a hybrid car before all my friends move away from the central coast.
On another note- someday I'll be able to make it to the Inland Empire without worrying about Group A, B or C. (State map) Oh wait, the ballot initiative process is a mess.
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