Day 4 - February 10th, 2025
7:30 a.m. Temperature: 6.5 C
Usual routine of walking the dogs whilst Emma makes coffee and then we hit the road. Back Northbound until we get to the next exit and then back across to the Southbound side. One last day to get to Santee, just outside of San Diego for our appointmemnt tomorrow. Not that far to go, just under 600 KM we think however, we have to get through the Los Angeles traffic to get to where we are going and the few times we’ve been in that (back when we took the kids to Disneyland and had a shuttle from LAX to Anaheim) it sucked big time.
A quick pit stop in Bakersfield to go to Best Buy (we needed a few cables to connect our Firestick to a monitor as we forgot to pack them) and we also picked up some snacks in Walmart and a couple of retractible leashes for the dogs at the pet store. Before leaving, we had some breakfast in the parking lot, yoghurt with granola and banana - healthy stuff - we don’t look this good without you putting in the effort you know ;) Then we hit the road again and as we drove past Pyramid Lake down to Sulphur Springs it seemed like we were above the clouds and they looked loike a giant wave breaking, coming towards us. We took a photo but it didn’t come out the same way it looked. We mistakingly took an exit in Santa Clarita as we weren’t able to change lanes in time and then we hit the LA traffic! Wow! It was similar to yesterday’s traffic nightmare between Sacramento and San Francisco but at a much, much slower pace. And when I say slow, I mean virtually at a standstill. The speed limits around here must be a dream to most people and I feel for those that have to commute through it twice a day or even just drive in it for work. And we only saw the I5 portion of it - all seven lanes - there were countless other highways and side streets that we could see that were just as gridlocked. We crawled along for a few hours passing signs of all of the places we had seen on TV or read about over the years - Santa Monica, Burbank, Hollywood, Monterey, Pasadena, Long Beach - the list goes on. Getting hungry and stir crazy, we decided to exit the interstate and have some lunch and let the dogs stretch their legs. At this time we were close to Anaheim so we exited and looked for a gas station. Driving down the streets we had previously taken in a courtesy shuttle bus for Disneyland was a little surreal and it took us a while to find a gas station that didn’t have biodiesel - apparently you cannot use it in a Sprinter van unless it’s R99 (something we learned after much Googling sitting at a bio diesel pump after having read the warning sticker on the van’s fuel flap.) After filling up, we found a park and Emma made lunch while I took the dogs for a walk. Then back on the I5 past Santa Ana, Orange County and Laguna Beach. We decided to drive the coastline for a while and exited the I5 once again at Capistrano, stopping to admire the view in San Clemente (Emma wants to go back and explore there.) Also at San Clemente as I was walking back to the van after taking some photos of the coastline, a truck pulled over and asked me for directions. In those situations I’m always tempted to make something up and send the unsuspecting driver off towards who knows where but I’ve never actually done it. Instead “Good Simon” (yes he exists) takes over and I admit that I’m just a visitor also and they go in search of accurate information elsewhere. Or so I assume. Maybe the next person they ask is just like me but without a conscious! Who knows.) Anyway, back on the I5 for a bit and we exited again at the Lantern Point viewpoint, amazing views but there was a sign warning of rattlesnake activity so we left the dogs in the van. Got a great photo of them through the windshield where they look like they are driving and navigating, I’ll try and remember to upload it below.
Soonafter we started to see signs for San Diego and arrived in Santee which is just outside. We found where we had an appointmemnt tomorrow and we were allowed to park and sleep in their parking lot so no need to search for a rest stop or other place to park up. We found a local pizza place on Google (The Sizzling Pizza) and drove the short distance there where we picked up a meat lover’s special (delicious by the way) and as there was a beer store at the other end of the stipmall I popped in to buy some (can’t have pizza without beer. Or Wine, but we needed a beer after the day’s traffic nightmare.) We went back to the parking lot to eat, called the kids and settled down for the night. Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day! Well, probably more exciting for one of us than the other.
