Driving in California is fun! (If you don't live there)



Broseph, Mom, Me and the Jubs hamming it up, Cali-style



During the last week of August, I took my daughter with me to California to visit my mother, whom neither of us had seen for 12 years.  We coordinated a surprise visit with my brother (whom we hadn't seen in about 8 years).  He drove 12 hours from Salt Lake City so we wouldn't have to rent a car.

Then we ended up renting a car because his supercharged turbo thingie wouldn't run very well at sea-level.  Luckily, he rented a Mazda 6 sedan.  I like the styling of the Mazdas so, with the exception of the first day, I drove his rented Mazda for the rest of our trip.

I mention this because, at some point, I allowed my inner douchebag to take control of the wheel while we were on the 405 and, let me tell you, the experience of totally not giving a f*ck was exhilarating.  There was one point where I had to cut through 4 lanes of traffic to make an exit because someone, and I won't mention names but this would be my brother, couldn't properly follow the goddam blue dot on his iPhone GPS.  I took the two-lane exit doing about 65 mph which, in my opinion, is the speed reserved for parking lots in LA, and had to do a little tricky maneuvering to zip by the dimwits who were driving the suggested speed limit of 35 mph.

I didn't think it was any big deal until I looked over and saw:

1) My brother, who races tuner cars and muscle cars and has bragged about driving his goddam MOTORCYCLE at speeds in excess of 100 mph, was wearing a this-shit-ain't-funny-no-more look on his face,

2) My daughter was genuflecting and trying to recite some half-assed rosary although she's, technically, not Catholic and

3) My mother was chanting "F*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck..."

This is basically what I was driving, except ours was black.
And had waves of sheer awesomeness shooting out the driver's window.

I guess it never seems as bad for the driver as it does for the passenger.  Which is why I was driving in the first place.

Needless to say, we all made it home in one piece, and spent the rest of our time eating, frolicking on the beach, playing pool, eating, driving in Beverly Hills, visiting Griffith Observatory, eating, and spending quality time together as a family.  We also did a lot of eating. 

Looking forward to another California trip so I can have an excuse to drive like a total dick and not have to worry about cutting off some soccer mom I work with.  Oh, and visiting the fam would be nice, too.