On the Road Again - Placentia -SJB 03-22-12

The first obstacle in driving anywhere is getting out of civilization!  Leaving at 2pm it took two hours to drive through the traffic and construction to hit the "open road".  And there is open road in SCalifornia.  These pictures were taken along I-5 where today the traffic and the wind were both light and the pavement not too bad.  Someone recently wrote that driving I-5 is like driving on cobblestones!  There are places like that and some even worse - like driving on a dry creek bed.  One would think with the high price of gas ($4.35/gal) and the extra tax we pay for highway maintenance that the road surfaces would be perfect. 

Gorman is a small community close to where the highway goes "over the top", but it is just what we once would have called a "wide spot in the road".  Gas, fast food, auto repair, a couple motels.  These black trees have been standing for years, leftover from a wildfire, I believe.  But is the sky blue, or what?

High up on the west and north facing slopes there are still a few swaths of flowers - not sure what these are, the wrong shade for poppies, maybe they are Goldfields. 

A few more areas closer to the highway.

A double load of oranges going south - probably to become orange juice.  

On the other side of Tejon Pass the highway drops down into the central valley - the blue sky was behind me and beautiful clouds sailed the sky.  Here is a lady floating in front of the sun  - she is heading north with me, her arms are stretched out a la Superman and her long dress floats behind her to the left of the image.   Nice touch with the snaggly fence posts right on the horizon.

Further north the clouds were darker and lower.  The southbound lanes are about a third of the way from the bottom of the picture, quite a distance from the northbound.  And nary a car in sight.  It was an easy six hour drive and Mary fed me roast chicken with roasted vegetables and GRAVY!   First I have eaten since Thanksgiving - it was Divine!