The drive from bakersfield to San Diego today was endless. As soon as I got into the LA basin the Waze app sent me waaaaay east and then on some suburban surface streets before finally putting me on the 15 freeway. This added about 30 miles to the trip but probably saved time since the 5/405 freeways are stop and go pretty much 24 hours/day. But I still got to my sister's by around 3:00 so I can't complain. And tomorrow I have a great hike planned.

I'm reminded of the second time I ever came to southern California. I drove here with my parents from denver to visit my sister about 1 1/2 years after she'd moved to San Diego back when I was still in college. My folks and I had spent the night before in Las Vegas. Dad drove the first half of the trip from LV to San Diego, then after we'd had lunch or coffee or whatever he suggested that I drive since I had been to San Diego the previous summer to visit sister so knew my way around better. What he was actually saying was "I hate urban freeway driving so please do this chore for me." So I started driving and suddenly we were on one of the LA freeways that was shoehorned into an existing neighborhood back in the 50s/60s where all the lanes are as narrow as allowed and there's no shoulder. Everyone was driving 65-70 in bumper to bumper traffic so I did the same because otherwise people would just crowd in front of me and we'd end up going slower and slower. At some point I looked over to my mom in the passenger seat and she had her hands clenched together in her lap and was staring at them, afraid to look at all the traffic around us. As terrified as she was she knew that I was doing what needed to be done so for the only time of all the times that she was ever my passenger she didn't say anything about the fact that I was going faster than the speed limit.