91 Freeway – You are a Cruel Mistress!
Woman in the Middle | July 19, 2013The shortest distance between my house in inland So Cal and the beaches, shopping, and theme parks of Orange County, California, is by way of the 91 freeway. The problem is that unless you are using the 91 freeway at 2 a.m. you never know what you might run into. Last Friday night at 10 p.m., on the way home from rushing down to Orange County to see Big Bro in the hospital, we ran into quite a bit of traffic and it took us about 30 minutes longer to get home than it should have. Really? 10 p.m. on a Friday? Who are the thousands of people coming from Orange County to points east at that time of night?
The 91 freeway runs through a canyon, the Santa Ana River Canyon to be exact, which means that there are very few services along the way. Few bathrooms, few Starbucks, few anything. That also means that there aren’t any surface streets that you can get off on and use in case of a problem. A few mornings ago there were not one, not two, but three accidents at various points along the 91. The radio reported that it was an eight mile long parking lot. Sure glad I wasn’t trying to go see Big Bro then!
Several years ago Hubby was transferred to an office in Orange County and had to use the 91 to get to work. That was four months of real nastiness for him. The people who drive the 91 are a special breed and they are just crazy. He had so many near misses during that short period of time. One night on the way home a crazed woman in a minivan clipped him which caused him to spin out. When the car stopped spinning he found himself sitting sideways in the lane of traffic with the driver’s side (and him) facing the on coming cars!
Hubby spent that fours months looking for a job that was NOT on the 91. He found one, thank goodness and the madness ended. Well, ended except when we want to go to Disneyland or the beach or visit Big Bro.
I have to drive the interstate through Atlanta when I want go go see my son at college. We southerners may talk slow, but we drive fast. Sadly, after I picked up my youngest when he visited my oldest, and we were on our way home, we saw the sheet covered body of a motorcycle rider in the road. We road in silence for quite a while.
OMG! How did your Hubby get out of that one? My former landlord takes the Metro Link and then rides his bike to work in Irvine instead of driving on the 91 Freeway.
I feel your pain honestly one wonders why so many people are out on the highways at odd hours of the night………..people should be home either watching tv or in bed and not out on the road causing traffic jams………