L.A. Express

Neither the Hippygeek nor I were interested in going to Los Angeles. We really just wanted to bypass the whole city. But, driving from Fresno to San Diego in one stretch was going to be too much so half way landed us in L.A. for the night.

below: A smog bank obscures the mountains into L.A.

It was slow going over the mountains, through the smog and into 12 lanes of traffic in the city. And, driving a bus towing a car through L.A. rush hour proved to be some of the most stressful driving to date. So, we quickly found the closest RV campground we could and parked.

below: Stuck behind convoys of trucks going 30-40mph.

The campers and cars were packed liked sardines in a can. The Hippygeek managed to maneuver the rig into the tiniest, most unkept and expensive site we’ve ever had. The campground appeared to be inhabited mostly by permanent and semi permanent residents and no sooner did we get settled in and two police cars showed up at the park to investigate a domestic disturbance. We were glad this was going to be a one-nighter.

below: Cars for as far as the eyes could see.

So, here we were in L.A., where there is so much to see and do and we were beginning to feel a little guilty about not doing or seeing any of it. It was late in the afternoon when we arrived so we only had a couple of hours to paint the town. With the limited time, our neighbor suggested taking the Princess to a nearby dog park and possibly hitting the City Walk at Universal Studios.

We all stretched our legs at the dog park then headed over to the City Walk.  The City Walk is an outdoor mall built with L.A. flare and is situated next to the Universal Studios Amusement Park. So, instead of shuttling the masses through a gift shop at the exit from the park to squeeze the last few cents out of the bottoms of their pockets, they provide a whole mall for shopping so everyone can empty their entire bank accounts before leaving the grounds.

Everything was neon and flashy. The dudes’ eyes widened and their jaws dropped upon entering the mall and stayed that way until we left. It was stimulation overload at its finest and even I could feel the increased energy level.

We oohed and aahed at all the glitz, saw a movie being filmed, bought some caramel popcorn, listened to the retail help brag about celebrity sightings and let the Dudes go crazy in the biggest candy store we have ever seen called It’s Sugar! It was like a dream come true for the Lil’ Dude. We had to drag him out of the store so he wouldn’t get high on the fumes.

right: This is an example of stimulation overload. (He was in his “groove”)

After a couple of hours, we decided that that was about all of L.A. that we could take and headed home. Fortunately, we had no more police encounters and the next morning we headed out for San Diego. We timed our departure to miss the morning rush only to find ourselves, once again, sitting in 12 lanes of traffic and a smog bank.

” I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They’re beautiful. Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.” Andy Warhol