Traffic in LA. You don't want to know!

Okay, so I'm going to write about it anyway. It's mindnumbing to say the least. And anyone who broaches this subject, says pretty much the same thing -- how did it get so bad so quickly? Traffic in and around the county perimeters never used to be like this. Never! It's only been in the last few years that it's a crap shoot and a test of your luck that day, whether you'll get to your destination on time.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.

The devil in me thinks that it's about time for another earthquake, to keep people from moving to California in general, and my area to be specific, but I'm not the devil, so strike that thought. Yet, everywhere I look, there's new construction going up. Even in the smallest particles of land, someone is building something! And people are moving in.

Saturday night, we picked up my cousins and gave ourselves a good three hours to get to Angel Stadium in time to see the Yankee/Angel batting practice, have a nice dinner and relax a bit, before the game started. Now, Yahoo and Mapquest say it takes about 55 minutes, but that's how the crow flies and not considering the LA traffic. My cousin believed that's plenty of time. School is out, it's spring break here, a lot of people are out of town. Gas is up to almost $3.00 a gallon. The Dodgers weren't playing in town (we pass their stadium to get to Angel stadium) so we thought we were in the clear.

Until we got on the freeway. Bumper to bumper traffic. What normally takes 20 minutes to drive out of our valley, took an hour and the rest of the way was the same. For more than 60 miles, medium to heavy traffic, stop and go, most of the time. I kept asking myself, where are all these people going? If only, I could be a fly on the car door panels, to find out! Needless to say, we didn't see batting practice, didn't get a nice relaxed meal before the game and we just made the National Anthem! Wasn't fun.

Okay, I rationalized, but it's always a breeze getting home. We'll be home in less than an hour -- no traffic at 10 PM, even though we pick up Disneyland traffic too, on the way home. Great, we thought. Until we got on the freeway only to find that there had been a 3 car collison blocking 3 lanes! Took a while to clear up the mess, luckily no one had been seriously injured, except my husband, the dear man, who hates traffic more than mushrooms, who stressed out before and after the game. And when all totaled, we spent more time getting to and from the game, than seeing actual play time. Isn't that something? At least the Angels won that night!