I'm not sure what this was. It looks sort of like a morbid little graveyard. I'm hoping instead that it's some agricultural tool of which I am ignorant. Because slightly less morbid.

I was quite charmed by the greenness of this area of California. I've never actually been to Ireland, but I suspect it might look much like this, with more leprechauns.
Little did I know that it was good to soak up all this green while I could. Soon there would be no more green. For a depressingly long time.

It was recommended to me that I stop at the Apricot Tree restaurant on my journey. Unfortunately it was ill-timed and I wasn't hungry. But see how much attention I was paying?

I only just managed to spy this as I was filling up and laughed out loud when I did. It's difficult to see, but a commentator etched this message into the plastic:

So there I am, driving along, driving along, la la la. Suddenly BAM! There's this huge freaking mountain in the way. Now I've never driven this before and only looked at maps enough to know "Stay on I-5 until I-10 around Los Angeles", so this came as something of a shock. Turns out it's The Grapevine (which I didn't know until later). Of course, I'm on the cell phone at this point and as I realize I'm about to have to go up it am like, "Uhhhhh ... I'll call you back."

I wouldn't say it was a harrowing drive. Traffic was light and although cloudy, the weather was good. But it was steep, and they threw enough warning signs everywhere to sort of scare the piss out of you. Right before we started going up there was this huge one that read:

WARNING! Don't overheat! Turn off your air conditioner! For the love of god, turn it off or DIE INSTANTLY!!

So up we go. Every few feet it seemed they had a place where you could fill your radiator. At the beginning of February, not really an issue, but I suspect that in the heat of summer, those would be quite welcome.

All the pictures snapped in here were done with a blind point and click. I didn't dare to take my eyes off the road for more than a blink. Considering, I'm really impressed with how they came out. They don't quite capture it – it was extremely impressive – but they try hard.

It's sort of funny how we'd leveled out by now, but this is the most crooked picture yet. I'm not sure what exactly this body of water is, but it's pretty.

Less pretty was the amusement park not too far away. I'm not sure, but I think this is Six Flags Magic Mountain. Surprisingly desolate.