North on I-5 again 04-17-09

Yesterday I drove up here to Mary's in San Juan Bautista. I was all packed and ready to leave, but several interruptions and a mishap prevented going, so I didn't get on the road until 2pm. Which would have been okay since it takes five to five/one half hours for the drive. Unfortunately .....

...it was a Friday and rush hour(s) traffic had already begun. I did twenty miles at fourteen mph and then stopped looking at the readings because they just made me more anxious and I couldn't go any faster anyway. The picture above is not far from my house where two freeways diverge and merge and traffic stands still. There was a stalled tanker truck ahead, but mostly the back up is too many cars.

This is a few miles further on - after I've seen basically the same cars crawling along with me for an hour I feel that we should exchange phone numbers or e-mail addresses! Let's do this again sometime!

It is citrus time here so there were many open trucks full of oranges, lemons, grapefruit - mostly juiced and canned or frozen at central facilities. I don't think there are any packing houses left in the LABasin. I thought I would get pictures of all of fruit, but it didn't happen. Finally, I was over the mountains and down in the Central Valley and it was smooth sailing. And then I made good time, I was on the road 7hours.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Way north on I-5 there was a quite beautiful sunset with different kinds of clouds - the plume on the left, the feather across the top and the crisscrossing jet trails out of the Bay area on the horizon. The southbound cars on I-5 are the southbound lanes. I think I arrived here at Mary and Joe's house about 9pm and only took two stops alon g the way, one for gas, one for facilities along with a quick walk around part of the the parking lot at Harris Ranch. The Lexus was quiet, responsive, and comfortable..... a dream of a vehicle. I love it! Just wait, Ruth, you will love it also.