Sarah's Cross Country Adventure

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LA is not the place to be passing through. People who live south of LA who find themselves having to drive north, for whatever reason, try to game the traffic situation. Which is nearly impossible, since it's random and chaotic, but almost always guarateed to be bad.

My drive started off well, then I cursed myself by acknowledging that the traffic wasn't so bad. Coincidentally, my curse was timed just as I passed the LA County Line and had to slam on my brakes. From then on, it was stop and go. I eventually left the 5 for the 10, which actually moved.

Then I hit Santa Monica and took the Pacific Coast Highway. What a pain! I was stuck in Santa Monica for three hours!! And you would think that at least the view was nice, but since all the houses there are build as townhomes infrequently broken with small sidewalks to the beach, what you're really looking at is a bunch of garages and the other motorists. Who, also being stuck in one place for three hours, are not at their most attractive.

The sad thing about all the traffic is that I still thought I could make it to San Simeon for the Hearst Castle Evening tour, so I rushed (as quickly as possilbe, since there was also traffic there) through Santa Barbara, where I had been planning to stop and see the mission.

By the time I made it to San Luis Obispo, where I had a reservation for the evening, it was 9 pm and I was exhausted.

Hopefully this will be the most boring and hectic day of my trip.