2009 Ford Flex Limited: Road Trip Conclusion by the Numbers

wow the zr-1 is as common as the flex
might i ask, where did you see the zr1

Those bugs won't be Found On the Road Dead. :o)

I like your final line. Well written post altogether. :)

Mike,

Nice stuff.

Paul S.

As someone who just moved from the west coast, I found that California is just an ersatz culture- it's about as genuine as "The Venetian" in Las Vegas is Italian, or the Fajitas at Applebee's are "Hispanic." There's no real identity, just those that are replicas of places of true influence and Californians simply pay more.

I'd call Los Angeles the most miserable place on earth.

I <3 LA!!!

But not the Dodger$, Laker$, or UCLA Bruins! :o)

Fight On!

I, for one, hope you take many more road trips like this. Thank you for this magnificent insight into the current state of the nation. If I had to rank my favorite blog entries of all time, this one would be right up there. Wonderfully said.

@ carmizvi , are you kidding me?

mikeolan, I feel bad for you. If you lived in LA - tough luck. You should've tried other places, like San Diego or Bay Area because they are the best cities in the world and I'm not joking one little bit. Enjoy your new found 'genuine' culture wherever that might be.

If you lived in the NE I dont see why traffic and sprawl would be a big adjustment for you. There is plenty of congestion in the NE corridor. Sure the air is cleaner but that's the biggest difference. All densely populated areas share certain characteristics and hassles. Driving cross country (or cross state) will really show you how diverse this country is and how people in different geographical areas have nothing in common. CA might be a lot more homogenous but in states like PA you can see huge disparities by driving across a few county lines.

Suby, you tea bag LA? (Or was that supposed to be a heart? I need to get my mind out of the gutter.)

Mike, I think you missed some of the best stuff by staying on the interstate. Haven't you seen the movie "Cars"? Total homer post.

1487,
Comparing the sprawl of NE or anywhere else for that matter, to that in LA is silly. It's not even close...fly over the country a few a times (or check it out via google earth) and the only area that comes close is Phoenix and even the scale of that isn't there yet. It's like comparing Boston or Philadelphia to New York City-- they're just not in the same league. The biggest difference between LA and the rest of the world is the scale. Few things can prepare you for this much concrete.

-mike

I'm now betting that the Flex will end up being one of the highest mileage cars in the fleet! how long has it been with them? 2 months? and now it's got 7k! talk about depreciation!

"Mike, I think you missed some of the best stuff by staying on the interstate. Haven't you seen the movie "Cars"? Total homer post."

I knew this would come up and should have been proactive. Sorry, I glossed over a lot of my off-highway trips to avoid writing a novel here. I took quite a few detours, planned and unplanned, to see the sights and came away with similar conclusions as I did after seeing cars; namely that the interstates and the big names associated with those rest stops were, generally, preferable to the mom and pop joints that get to price gouge due to lack of competition. They were also cleaner and better stocked.

It was the only Pixar movie I didn't like.
-mike

ahightower, it is a heart. I love LA, but not many of its teams, traffic, or smog!

Boxermike,

Scale-wise I'll nominate Atlanta for comparison with LA.

Nice post, Mike. I've always said that if I was destined to live in an overcrowded megalopolis, then I'm glad it turned out to be L.A.

However, I spent a few years of my childhood living in Albuquerque, and it (and New Mexico in general) remains my favorite place in the world. Years of road trips between L.A. and ABQ made me fall in love with the Southwest and the Route 66 culture, if you will. (I'm living proof that I-40 did not kill this spirit, as I'm too young to have experienced most of the "real" Route 66.)

I think that the movie "Cars" really nailed this feeling, and that's why it resonated with me. But I can see how I'm part of a narrow target audience in this case.

"I'd call Los Angeles the most miserable place on earth."

Sounds like had some issues and are blaming the area instead of addressing the real cause.
But it's ok, you're in a better place (for you) now.

As for me, living in "The Most Miserable Place On Earth"tm enables me to ride my motorbikes year round on a gorgeous coastal road or in the local mountains and canyons; it enables me to enjoy my weekends skateboarding or cycling on the beach looking at or meeting (depending on my social status) beautiful women; I can go hiking anytime I want; I get my choice of maybe the most ethnically diverse restaurants in the world to dine at.
There's plenty more stuff too, but I just remembered how miserable it is here...(just got back from lunch at work in Century City and it is a horrible 80 degrees outside).

mikeolan - LA definitely isn't a melting pot, thanks to the sprawl, and all of the disparate cultures ARE slighlty watered down. But LA DOES have a culture all its own that either jives with what you want or rubs you the completely wrong way. And I'd venture to bet that a good number of those whom LA rubed the wrong way didn't truly experience all the nooks and crannies around here. There's every kind of living experience in LA...trust me, you just have to look.

I too prefer my home in LA to places like Gallup, NM. I stopped at a Sonic there this summer. Not a pretty place.

I'm with you there. There is no place I'd rather live than California. It has its problems, but when I'm descending the Cajon Pass entering the LA Basin, it sure feels good to be home. Makes me wonder what I was thinking when I moved to Illinois ten months ago. Not much longer, though, and I'll be back for good.

boxermike,

In terms of square miles LA is one of the larger cities in the US. That doesnt mean other metro areas dont match up in terms of sprawl. Taken as whole the NE corridor (Megalopolis) is the most populated part of the US. It's just that the area is spread out over many cities and states. Try driving from DC to NYC and then tell me how the congestion doesn't compare to the LA area. The traffic in the NY, DC and Boston Metro areas is horrendous. Even though none of those areas are as car dependent as LA they are more densely populated than LA which means more cars concentrated into a smaller land area. NYC proper has about double LA's population although its got like 65% of LA's area. The metro area is close to 20 million people over three states which leads to plenty of traffic issues and sprawl in the burbs.

Having traveled and lived all over the country, I can say without a doubt that 1487 is spot-on when he says the NE corridor is just as bad as LA. LA really wasn't that bad -- I expected it there, so I was mentally prepared for it. Atlanta, my hometown, is horrible, but bearable. DC metro is the worst. Try traveling outside of DC during the summer and coming back on a Sunday night up I-95. You will pull have to pull your own teeth to have a valid comparison to how much of a pain-in-the-ass it is.
All that said, there is no place I'd rather be than Southern California. My God, it has everything! Too bad it wasn't for you, mikeolan.

I was only in LA once but I can tell you the traffic was hardly earth shattering. I think people in LA like to take pride in the fact that they allegedly have the worst traffic in the nation. I have seen congestion ranking lists in the past and I don't believe LA was ever #1 in terms of commute times. I'm sure LA traffic is bad compared to Milwaukee or Tampa or something but it's hardly going to intimidate anyone coming from the East Coast. I was in Boston about 5 years ago and it was some of the worst urban traffic I have ever seen. I was told that no sane person up there would drive downtown during the day time. It's a must that you catch the T if you plan to get there efficiently.