Comic Con, Day 0: Going to Comic Con, Going to Comic Con or the Not-So Epic Journey to San Diego pt. 1

Every year Comic Con starts out with the inevitable trip. I don’t live in San Diego. I don’t even really live close to San Diego. Living in Northern California means that there will be a trip southward bound. Last year we did it the easy way. We took a flight there and back. While we didn’t have to worry about things like time, we did have to worry about the things we couldn’t bring. Last year I was without a refillable bottle and sunblock. Of the two, the bigger problem was the lack of sunblock.

So, this year we decided to take the time, leave early in the morning and drive to San Diego.

While we didn’t have to worry about things like how are we going to take everything on the plane or what am I going to do with the rest of the sunblock; we did have other issues. All of those issues were traffic.

As I mentioned, this year we got a bright and early stop to get to Comic Con this year. We left Wednesday morning at 7 in the morning… or was it 6. Anyways, we left very early in the morning.

When we left our house the fog was still hanging on to the Pacifica coastline. It’s something that I have learned to love, especially during the summer.

So, thus begin the long drive south… most of it on the long and entirely uneventful highway 5. Anyone who’s been down highway 5 (or even up it) knows how long and boring this road can be. It’s driving right through the heart of California’s farming center.

The worst part is the road is long and straight. There isn’t much derivation in the road. Highway 5 is also known for having accidents aplenty. Many people have been known to fall asleep on the road. It’s hard not to when you’re dealing with a long, flat, straight… and frankly, rather dull stretch of road. Combine that with driving in the middle of the say in summer, it becomes quite the oppressive drive.

Thankfully, we got a much earlier start and missed a lot of that central valley heat.

However, that doesn’t change the god awful stench that seems to hang around Coalinga. I believe that is largely because Harris Ranch is there, butting up against highway 5. Even before the sun started warming everything up the smell was still quite prominent. Unfortunately, that’s the nature of cattle farms.

There was one thing that we repeatedly saw on the road, and that was signs blaming mostly Democrat politicians (and most of them neither in the district of the farms or not even state politicians) for California’s mounting water issues. It became so frequent that it became a wee bit annoying. Now, I am willing to admit that I’m liberal and I have little knowledge of farming, so I don’t think this makes me quite qualified to comment on this disagreement. Unfortunately, a lot of the water woes California sees largely has to do with climate change and the declining amount of snow and rain we get.