Freeway From Hell
05/02/07 11:35
Henk and I braved insane Los
Angeles traffic on patched concrete and grooved
asphalt highways ten lanes across to get to Palm
Springs to visit a childhood friend who was
there on flight exercises with the Canadian Air
Force. Once again, I wish I'd had a helmet cam
because you wouldn't believe the hell that is
L.A. freeways. The city is all about the car -
the bigger the better - and little two wheelers
like Henk are few and far between. I felt like
an idiot waiting in traffic at a full stop
breathing in SUV fumes an hour outside of San
Bernardino; but I'd have felt like a bigger
idiot splitting lanes like motorcyclists do
here. It took me three and a half hours to get
to Palm Springs on the 10 - a 2 hour drive at
most if southern California had not been overrun
by cars! A world gone completely mad - and yes,
in that moment, there I was with Henk
contributing to the madness trying not to get
too mad.
I decided to do anything not to have to take a ten lane freeway home, so I rode south to Palm Desert and turned right onto the 74, which snaked gradually up into the high mountain desert. Although the air was cool as I climbed, the sky was blue, and I could tell by the land (and the number of retirees in Palm Springs) that it hardly rains in this part of the world. When I got to 4,000 feet and looked out at the desert valley below, little toy houses and cars catching the sun's rays and reflecting brilliantly in the sun, apart from feeling very alone and peaceful, and very high and isolated, I wondered why on earth the entire city below was not powered by the sun.
I decided to do anything not to have to take a ten lane freeway home, so I rode south to Palm Desert and turned right onto the 74, which snaked gradually up into the high mountain desert. Although the air was cool as I climbed, the sky was blue, and I could tell by the land (and the number of retirees in Palm Springs) that it hardly rains in this part of the world. When I got to 4,000 feet and looked out at the desert valley below, little toy houses and cars catching the sun's rays and reflecting brilliantly in the sun, apart from feeling very alone and peaceful, and very high and isolated, I wondered why on earth the entire city below was not powered by the sun.
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