The Wabe → The Roadtrip → The Roadtrip Reports → Year 3 → Roadtrip Report: 9 May 1998
Normally, the Roadtrip Report concerns itself with those events occurring in the Smogmobile 2000™, but this time some things happened on Rob's trip down from Mountain View. First off was this curious scene with a pickup truck doing electrical work in a parking lot.
When Rob was on Interstate 5 (affectionately called the California Autobahn since nobody ever pays attention to the posted speed limit), he was passed by a police car doing 100 MPH. At first he thought it was a chase, but then he noticed that the door read "El Segundo K-9 Unit." Since El Segundo was a good three hundred miles away, it was obvious that someone was taking advantage of their police status to do a little speeding…
The real fun started when Rob hit Vista del Lago. Normally he wouldn't stop there, since Valencia (home of Magic Mountain—the best amusement park in Southern California, and that's saying a lot) is only twenty minutes away. But certain pressing needs demanded he stop.
Vista del Lago looks like a roadside visitor center from the highway, but inside is a complete museum of the state's water facilities, including a mock forest so you can see the layers of soil which filter groundwater…
…a model of the infamous California Aqueduct…
…history on how water has shaped California: past, present, and future…
…interactive kiosks that explain just how the water gets to your faucet…
…and technical information on how water is processed.
When Rob finally arrived in Los Alamitos, it was 5 o'clock. The overcast sky made it dark earlier, so photography was practically impossible. The only decent photograph was taken at 2 AM after Paul realized it was Mother's Day and went into an all-night supermarket to buy a cake. These two guys—one a tough-looking skateboarder, the other a painfully thin management-type with a mustache—were chatting away.
Last Modified: 2003/12/08 08:39:46 GMT
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