We’ve done this trip before, so it was an easy drive from
Peoria to Buellton, CA. We finished up with the last minute activities around
the house right on schedule around 12:30 PM, before the temperature hit 105°. We
were soon tooling down the AZ Loop 101 highway and making that big right turn
onto I-10 West for Los Angeles. It was a pretty uneventful drive in spite of
the strong winds and high temperatures. We ran the generator the whole way to keep
the air conditioning going, and I was watching the analog and digital gauges
carefully, as this was our first long drive since the engine problems of last
fall. Everything ran fine, although it did seem like tire and engine (oil and
coolant) temperatures ran higher than usual. With outside ambient temperatures
near 110°, this was probably within the “normal” range.
After a quick fuel stop in North Palm Springs, we reached
our first night’s destination, the Morongo Casino. We’ve stayed here before, so
we know our way to the RV parking area, which is well away from the I-10. It’s
roughly half way to Buellton in Santa Barbara County, and makes a great
stopping point on Day One of any trip this way, since we always leave midday.
We got a reasonably good night’s rest and were ready for
travel early on Thursday morning. The only tricky part of this segment is
looping around LA. No matter what, there’s always some kind of traffic to be
patient about. The toughest part is that there aren’t any good places for a
“rest stop” for much of the route. “Merlin, you’ve just got to hold it” only
works for so long.
Our route took us west on the I-10 to the 210. This is a
relatively new (less than 10 years) segment of freeway, and isn’t fully
designated as “Interstate” yet. The easternmost segment is CA-210. Once it
crosses I-215 or I-15, it changes to I-210, which runs through the Foothills
north and west of LA, all the way to I-5.
All this “new” stuff was apparently too much for our
PC-based GPS navigation system, since it couldn’t seem to understand how the roads
connected. It wanted us to take I-215 north and I-15 south, about 25 miles out
of our way, just to travel on I-210. When I refused, it actually gave up,
posting a message that it was unable to develop routing. That’s even worse than
listening to “Off route. Recalculating…” for miles. This may be the last year
for the PC-based system, as Google Maps and even Siri on my phone can do
better.
We ran into the expected traffic on I-210 near Pasadena, but
it didn’t last for long and we were once again back to cruising speed. Things
got a little slower as we climbed from Pasadena up to Pacoima and Sylmar on
I-210, then used the Truck Lanes on I-5 up and over Newhall Pass.
Soon, we made the turn onto CA-126 just past Santa Clarita
and were able to find a turnout for that much-needed pit stop. From there, the
rest of the drive was clear sailing on a familiar route: CA-126 to Santa Paula
and US-101 near Ventura, our first peek at the Pacific, US-101 “North” (it’s
really northwest then almost due west) through Carpenteria, Santa Barbara, and
Goleta to Gaviota. There, we made the big right turn inland, through the
tunnel, past the CA-1 cut-off for Lompoc, and up into the Santa Ynez Valley and
Buellton.
It didn’t take long for us to get settled at our
destination, Flying Flags RV Park, where we usually stay when we’re in the
area.
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