For this trip I was only photographing the campus signs of three colleges: University of California Santa Barbara,
California Polytechnic Institute (aka. Cal Poly State University) and San Francisco State University.
Although originally scheduled for this trip, once I learned that for my September trip the following month I would
be unable to enter Canada (they still refuse Americans during the pandemic), I cut parts from this trip to give me
something to do in September since my flights were already booked. Two things moved from this trip to Septemner
were visiting the town of Truckee (missed a few years ago due to snow but I did drive through Truckee in August)
and Lassen Volcanic National Park (also missed due to the same snow).
I entered California on I-15 from Las Vegas and Primm. First thing CA does is run everyone through an inspection
checkpoint. Mostly, I think, it was a chance to photograph every vehicle. Then, we quickly got into "mountain climbing"
which really messes with traffic due to big trucks and the "speedsters". I noticed the temperature at this point, per
my car, was 104 degrees. I-15 was three lanes until it got to Baker. However, further west, closer to the Los Angeles
metro area, it picked back up to three lanes again. It needs it too because even weekend traffic is incredibly thick.
Basically, I-15 is a rather boring route, scenic-wise. Looks pretty much the same. What was nice to see is the highway
has one exit named for Dale Evans and another for Roy Rogers.
I have said it in past -- Los Angeles drivers seem to drive more efficiently than everywhere else. Nary a slowpoke driver.
I-15 exit #239 is to a road named ZZyzx. Guess they want to make sure they are absolutely last in alphabetical order!
Something else I noticed is the highway has a small bridge to go over a dry creekbed that probably only gets wet during
a heavy rain. The state calls these sry creekbeds. And they name each of them using common words such as Coyote and Telephone
and Dock and Midway.
Something I noticed while driving I-15 through Nevada and California is what I call "Clogs, Speedsters and Gaps". A Clog is
a traffic grouping that is usually held up by large trucks. They are usually separate from other Clogs by a mile or so.
The Speedsters, those who exceed the speed limit by at least 10 MPH, zip past the Clogs via the leftmost lane. Then they
quickly zoom through the Gap before encountering the next Clog. Since this is crazy driving to me, and feels somewhat
unsafe, what I learned to do is let a grouping of Speedsters get into that leftmost lane to pass a Clog, then I get in
behind the last Speedster. I get past the Clog, then slow down and remain as the sole car in the Gap for a minute or two
before I reach the next Clog. Repeat the process again. Thus, I safely spend most of my driving time in The Gaps!.
My route from Primm NV to Oxnard CA took me on quite a route. Highway 18 was a 40-something mile stretch. Its surface was
horribly bumpy plus ran like a rollercoast with constant up-and-down.
Temperatures vary from around 50 along the coast (where is also is very foggy in the morning) to around 100 an hour inland.
Smoke from the various forest fires in eastern California hung in the air east of Sacramento. And, traffic was unbelievably
(to me anyway on a Sunday around noon) thick going both ways on I-80 from San Francisco to about halfway between Sacramento
and Truckee. And those unfortunate drives that were westbound were in very long traffic jams that were in multiple places.
I currently live in Overland Park and thought that is an unusual name for a town. I noted that I-80 exit 190 is to Overland Trail.
So California is The Trail and Kansas is The Park "where the trail is"!!