Enough of Southern California. Judy visited with her mom every day. Did
some errands. Took care of some stuff. What can be done has been done.
Our mission today was to escape the LA Basin. Mission accomplished. We're
stopped for the night at the Lost Hills RV Park on Interstate 5 in the San
Joaquin Valley.
One day, from Temecula, we drove to Anaheim for an errand, over to Belmont
Shore to see sister Sue, then back to Temecula. Another driving adventure.
Traffic considerations dictate every movement. We didn't get on the road
before nine. We were careful to be back by four. Southern California
traffic is just like Denver rush hour traffic, stop and go, but over 100
times the area, and all day long, with concertina barbed wire around the
road signs on freeway overpasses. To get into the basin, we drove in from
the east through heavy traffic for a hundred miles. We drove out to the
north for a hundred fifty miles of heavy traffic.
All that traffic breathing the air before we can. We're breathing seconds,
air that has already been used. The cars turn it white. There are hills
all around, five miles away, but we only get glimpses of them through the
haze. We are such smog weenies. No tolerance. Eyes burn, lungs hurt,
headache. We listened to a Los Angeles traffic report. They listed ten
accidents, ten car fires, then switched to the weather report. The
meteorologist began her report with "A beautiful day in Los Angeles today,
eighty-four degrees, the reason we all live here." We think we're the only
ones who have noticed something is not right here. Something is just not
right.
I know, I'm ranting, I'll stop. But this experience is going to leave a
mark. The reasons we left here in the sixties have only compounded. A
fresher sharper appreciation of where we live and what we do.
