Day 1: Are We There Yet???

So, we are back from vacation, and had a great time!!! LA sure is hard to get used to though, all the traffic and people everywhere!!!

Day 1: Thursday July 2
We had planned to leave early, around 9am, in order to be in LA by 1pm, to meet a friend for lunch. Well, as you know the old saying about well laid plans and all that.... things did not go that way. We had to get our tire fixed, as it had a nail in it. Mike took it to the garage on Wednesday afternoon, but there were 12 cars ahead of him, and it would have taken too long. So, he opted for first thing in the morning instead. That turned out to be just as long of a wait. Plus, as he was waiting for it to be fixed, he got a call from someone who wanted to hire him for some contract work. So, of course he had to meet with him.

Mike finally got back around 10, and we started loading up the van. Which thankfully didn't take too long. We didn't have the stairs of the apt. to deal with, which made things much easier. But, we were very short on room!! We were loaded up, and the kids barely fit inside!! After some final preparations, and dropping the garage door opener to my brother, to take care of the puppies, we were finally on our way.





With the van in not such great shape, we decided to go the long way around, and avoid the big climb of the grape vine, and go through the desert instead. We went up through Tehachapi, and Mojave and Palmdale. Let me tell you, Mojave is the driest, hottest place I have been!!! No trees in sight anywhere. Mike wanted to pull over and rest his eyes for a bit, and let the van rest some too. The shopping centers had no landscaping and not trees at all!!! So, we ended up at this county park, which was in major dis-repair!! We stayed there for a while, and then continued on.






With leaving so late, we had to reschedule our lunch for Sunday. We still wanted to stop in LA though, so Mike could see their digital art gallery. However, once we got into LA, the traffic was awful!!! And it wasn't even holiday traffic or travelers. It was all commuters. Because, what time was it when we drove into LA??? Yep....5pm!!!! I could not drive in that every day, I don't know how they do it!!! We were actually stopped at times, just sitting there on the freeway!!! Some of those streets in the towns are called Parkways, I think they need to re-name the freeways the LA Parkway hehe!!!


Then, the Google maps directions were really out there sometimes. I made the mistake of following them word for word, and turn by turn, instead of going through them. At one point, it took us off the freeway, down the street at bit, turn left, down that street, turn left again, and right back on the freeway!!! The only thing I can think of, is at one time there was a detour and they didn't update or something. Oh well.

Finally, we made it through all that LA traffic. The campgrounds were about an hour South of LA. We found them with no trouble, with about an hour to set up before it got dark. Harley-Rose and Dad put up the tent in record time, very impressive!!! We were one of the few families there that night. It's a nice place, a county park, down in the canyon. But, only about 5 minutes from town. Kind of wierd, but nice. We went and got Jack in the Box for dinner, since it was so late, brought it back to the campsite and ate. Then we got ready for bed, and went to sleep.





All in all not a bad day, just a later than planned start, and a lot of driving time!!