20160421b

The big push - cut the route direct and made San Diego.

I-8 heading up into the Jacumba and In-Ko_Pah mountains is a special drive, challenging and with unique landscapes. One remarkable thing about the tough winding pass through is that there are established communities up there.

Anything one might read about building a border fence usually ignores the fact that there are already untold hundreds of miles of fence on the border. Much more fencing and vehicle barriers are used in southeastern California to keep people off the impressive sand dunes (one of many places where I've said, 'Oh, that's where they shoot those commercials!').

Arizona and California both have a thing for loooong work zones, free of any actual work. The 75 or 70 mph speed limit will drop to 60. The road might even merge to one lane each way. Nothing happens for ten miles. Then a pile of materials and gear is seen, absent any people, and then (two miles later) the construction zone ends. It may be more convenient for them to leave up semi-permament signs for all of a 20 month project, but the cost is very real, to a great many people.

I stopped in Yuma. It was 3:10.