Except when it's a parking lot. My California experience really gave quite mixed results.. I'll feel sorry for you guys when you all slide off into the ocean, but I think I can live without anymore California for me.

Thanks for all the information on some twisty roads out there, that was one of the good parts of the trip, but I found the corner of Mulholland and Mulholland. I turned right, was that right? And, yes, the roads and scenery looked like Guatemala. Houses are a bit more upscale in Cal. Off the scale, actually.

Rental car: bad. Chevy Cobalt PITA. I couldn't drive it for more than about a half hour without my hips starting to hurt, and you can't get anywhere in a half hour.

There are actually, what. about 42 freeways out there? And about ten times that many bottlenecks? One of our first drives was to Mission Viejo where Phantom Regiment was practicing and the freeway was slow with three lanes, so they took away one lane!

Didn't see a single 914 all the time we were there. I thought they would be all over! Did see two BMW 2002s, or it might have been the same one twice. Got pictures of the first sighting on the freeway. Didn't get a good look the second day. One approximately the same color was getting loaded onto a tow truck. Different freeway, different direction, might have been a different car. Sorry, picture posting isn't one of my skills.

Rose Bowl sucks for handling people! And the crowd wasn't half of what they get for the big football games! An hour to get the last half mile of freeway and to the parking lot and then another hour and a half to get from the parking lot into the stadium, thereby missing our other son's drum corps (Spirit from JSU) show. This was Saturday, the big one. I guess I should have been warned when on Friday when the crowd wasn't as big and it took over a half hour to go out to the refreshment stand to get a drink.

Beach. The ocean is just for kids? Hardly any adults in the water. Maybe kids don't mind that the water is a little cool because their metabolism runs higher than adults? Very little time to spend there what with not knowing how long it will take to get back where we needed to be on time.

And then the airport/airline situation wasn't good either. Do airlines not know that all their planes are booked solid all morning? (all day?) Do they not realize that means there will be large crowds trying to get checked in with baggage? Maybe they should put some more people on to get everyone processed in a timely fashion? So we can catch our plane!!!! And they should communicate to the airport and TSA so there is more than just one guy running the X-ray machine.

More rant than good comments, I guess. Sorry about that. California drivers are good about merging and permitting others to merge. And I didn't see as many drivers going through traffic lights still as they were changing from yellow to red like they do in Atlanta.

Another rant: "Motorcycles are everywhere. Share the Road." etc. etc. How can motorcycles expect us to respect them when so many will drive between lanes of cars? "Same Roads, Same Rules" Isn't that one of their slogans, too? I have also seen bicyclists do the same thing here in Ga. Not that I would ever do anything intentionally to endanger a motorcyclist or bicyclist, but they put themselves where you are not expecting anyone.

Have a good day, y'all. Alfred

It's too bad that you didn't get to see any other areas of our state. Believe it or not, only the areas between LA and San Diego, and around San Francisco and Sacramento are super crowded. Most of the state is a much mellower driving experience.
I must agree with you that LAX sucks. I knew that they were going to loose my suitcase before I even got on the plane, just by the way the TSA jerks were handling the overwhelming pile of bags. I showed up 2 1/2 hours early and I still ended up running for the plane because everyone at LAX did such a poor job.
Maybe if you ever make it here again you'll get to visit some of the cool parts of California, the High Sierras, Yosemite, the Redwood Forests, the Mojave Desert and Death Valley, Big Sur, Monterey Bay, or even one of our great racetracks, Laguna Seca, Thunderhill, Sears Point, Willow Springs etc.

You forgot Buttonwillow... And YES, the entire LA basin sucks. It can all slip off into the ocean for all I care. I live just over the mountains (In the desert on the other side) and I hate going down there for anything. And yes, there are plenty of cool areas in CA, but you have to be willing to drive there. Anywhere there's a big airport, there's millions and millions of inconsiderate/distracted/scatterbrained drivers. Everyone I grew up with wanted to move out of my town because there was 'nothing to do'. Now I want to move out because all those LA assholes are coming up here. Rant over.
Mark D.

Yeah, it's pretty tough here. Motorcycles are the only way to get around. I'll be leaving as soon as I can retire. I sell this place and go to somewhere that has no traffic and I can buy a dock with a house attached and a pool in between.
As far as motorcycles go there are legal to go between the cars here. We call it splitting and they call it lane sharing. It's in the DVM handbook.
All of the attractions here in La La land are just as hard to get to. My parents drive between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm and manage to do all of the things they want to do. If I'm going somewhere I leave the L A area before traffic and return between 10 and 2. Also there are a few freeways that are to be avoided at all cost.

say what?


you must have taken a wrong turn and ended up in germany. otherwise, the statement above does not make any sense. unless you were drunk out of your mind that day.

CA has got to be THE WORST place on earth for "merging".

the proper way to merge is to change lanes while traffic is still moving at a good speed,
and NOT the CA way, which is to drive up until your lane ends, then try to squeeze yourself into the other lane, thus slowing EVERYBODY ELSE down to a crawl as well ...



Andy

Andy? You live in the Bay Area. Don't expect the rest of us to drive like that ................. The Cap'n

yes, but i've been to smell-a and it wasn't much better down there ...

but you're right, bay area is probably the worst place. man, i miss the autobahn!
Andy

OK, maybe LA is not the easyest place to get around, and yes LAX sucks. But I

have lived in other areas of CA and I (now this is just me mind you) Love LA.

Of course I grew up here, a great place to grow up, lots of concerts, activities,

THE BEACH, the Girls, the cars, the Girls, the weather, the Girls and lets not forget

the GIRLS. I am in North New Jersey right now, in the hills, its quiet, not many

people. Being with family keeps my mind off of missing Cali. Not alot happening

here, but I hear alot of complaints about "Too many Damn people". So I can see

why someone that did not grow up here having a problem, unless there from NYC.

Now I will say if out of staters would stop moving here it would not be as

crowded. . But in all fairness I will say that I am moving to Hawaii to get away

from the sprawl. Only place I could find that I could move to, being from LA.

Everywhere else just didn't measure up.

Sorry you didn't have a good time, next time go with a local.

Unfortunately you've seen one of the worst areas of California. LA and Bay Area traffic SUCKS and is a totally miserable experience IMO. Yet for some reason there are the only parts of California people hear about.... ?
Central and northern coasts are gorgeous..... and a hell of a lot less populated than LA etc. San Fran. can be fun if you're visiting and staying for a while. Try seeing the sierras next time. NOT Yosemite because that is literally a LA in the mountains. It's disgusting what that place has turned into IMO. I was there a few years ago and there was literally an hours long TRAFFIC jam in Yosemite valley. What a joke. They've really destroyed that place. Instead go way up 108 for some magnificent views. The lower sierras (foothills) are also a beautiful site with many rolling hills and very country. Downtown Sacramento can be fun if you go on a less busy day of the week.

Anyways, don't judge California by LA. I go down there myself and hate it.

What can I say?

Alfred's right.



Maybe next time you'll have more fun.

I've been someplace worse.
My wife and I lived in Honolulu for 2 years. After about a year had passed we'd become accustomed to things there. One day we were driving down the freeway and my wife said "OH MY GOD! DID YOU SEE THAT?" What she saw that caused such an exclamation was that somebody had actually merged properly. Seriously, it was the only time in a year that we'd seen anyone merge right.
What you usually saw was some idiot pull into the emergency lane, stop, look over their shoulder, floor it, and shoot out into the traffic. Sometimes there were 4-5-6 of them over there. Sometimes they stopped traffic all the way out onto the surface streets because there were so many of them.
I managed a bodyshop there. Business was good.