By,by California

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hpykmpr

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Posts
418
Not sure if this is the right place for this or not but here goes.

Today we left California and as for me I have to say that I am ready to leave.I had never visited California before and was anxious to do so. We entered the great state from the north , Oregon to be exact and exited it via Needles 25 days later .We stayed in Willits, Kalamah, Fairfield, ,Monteray ,Midpines, Three Rivers and Yermo and from these places got to see a lot of California. We visited the Red Wood parks, Yosemite and Sequoia Nat parks,Visalia, San Francisco, Salinas ,Napa Valley and drove through a lot of other places. We saw a lot of interesting things and places and some not so interesting. Having said all this we came away from California with a lot of fond memories tons of pictures and I myself with some maybe not so favorable thoughts.
1. The highways are, with several exceptions in horrible condition.
2 .It has been,  with the exception of the coastal areas unbearably hot and dry and I have never seen so much dry brown grass in my life.
3. Finally one other thought , do the people of California ever pick up the trash along the roadways. We have traveled now for almost 4 months on our 6 month western trip and we both can say California has the trashiest highways that we have came across yet.

With this said I think California is most likely a beautiful state and I would love to see it  when it is not all brown and when the grass is green, when the brooks and rivers have water in them and when the water falls have water going over them. Maybe someone can tell me when the best time of year would be to see this. I hope that someday I get to California again to see a much greener wetter state,and to see a state where there has  been something done by the government and mostly by the people  to make the roads a smoother place to drive and to clean up the trash along the highways.

I hope that I did not offend anyone but I felt that I had to leave my thoughts. Thanks .... Alan
 
As a life long Californian your remarks do not offend me at all. Trashing California is a full time job for many people. Mostly it is jealousy. If you live in any other state but California you are probably jealous if you feel you must trash the state constantly. No, California is not perfect. None of the other 49 states are perfect either. Just mention any other state and I can trash it too if I wanted to.

I can't give your remarks too much weight considering the title of your thread should have been "Bye bye California."
 
California is brown in the summer and green in the winter. You want green all the time, visit Colorado in the summer and California in the winter. Go spend the whole year in the south. As you said, there are a lot of spectacular places to visit in California. And it is hot in the summer, so are Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, Florida, and a lot of other places. Give California another chance, maybe in the spring or fall. It's a BIG state with a lot of places to see and things to do.

Wendy
 
Visiting California in August is like visiting Minnesota in January - it's just not the best time unless extreme conditions are what you are seeking.  As for the roads, California has been in difficult economical times for several years now, well before the housing market crash of 2008.  Consequently, a lot of public services have suffered.

I'm sorry your experience was not up to your expectations.  Try Southern California in early spring and you will see a marked difference.  However, be quick, because the "green" doesn't last too long.
 
No offense taken, but I can't help smiling every time I read similar messages.

The inland areas of California are always hot in summer, while the coastal areas are much cooler. We live in the Central Valley, and the temperature difference between here and San Francisco (65 miles away) can be 40 degrees. We've had numerous overseas and out-of-state visitors who ignored our warnings and insisted on wearing shorts and t-shirts when we took them to the Bay or the coast; It would be 105-110 degrees here and, when we arrived, they wouldn't get out of the car because it was cold, foggy, and drizzly.

... got to see a lot of California

I'm not sure how much of the state you'd "see" in 25 days. We've lived in or near the greater Bay area for 33 years, have RV'd and boated up and down the state for almost 30 years, and we haven't scratched the surface.

Sorry about the roads; As others have said, California ran out of money a long time ago. OTOH I see some major road improvement projects within a 30-mile radius of us; There's some hope.

Glad you came away with some fond memories. Hopefully, your next visit will be a better experience.

Hint: A google search on a place you plan to visit will usually find a Wiki which includes climate info.
 
What Seiler, Wendy, Molaker, and Tom said! 

Tell me true, now ... does every place you visit have to be perfect to afford you a good time?  If so, my sympathies, fellow RVer, because you will miss out on a lot of beauty yet to be experienced in this wonderful USA we live in.  California is no more perfect than any other state in our Union.  Why, then, do visitors expect it to be?  Maybe because in many areas it is?  Food for thought.

Margi
 
I thought the OP was very respectful, and extremely accurate, in his comments. 

He admitted that he didn't have the opportunity to visit at the best possible time, and even asked for advice on when would be a better time.  For his efforts, he got berated and chastised.  His comments were expressly discounted because of a misspelled, or misused, word.  His motives were not only questioned, but rudely attributed to "Jealousy", and then he was accused of demanding perfection.

Sounds to me like some of the friendly folks here get a little touchy when you call their baby ugly.
 
No need to stir the pot. The responses were, for the most part, quite civil and attempted to explain how the OP could have a better experience next time.
 
I applaud your ability to always be tactful, polite and non-berating in your replies  ;)
 
    Alan, don't worry about them westerners, come on back to Nova Scotia, as per usual next year and you will see all the green lush forests that you want, clean highways, clean air, clean water and aside from me, not much attitude.  FWIW, because of a prior commitment, Donna and I had to turn down an invitation to a good old fashioned Lunenburg Co Planked Salmon Party on Mush-a-Mush tomorrow (about 7 miles from Alan's summer place).
    OTOH, we did visit California in April/May, and while we saw lots of brown, we also saw some lush green areas.  One of our favourites was a place called Amador, which was in the heart of the Motherload, just east of Sacramento, and a place where a great, great uncle of Donna's went from New Brun swick in 1849 to work for one of the gold mines.  Lovely hills, good farms, good vineyards, and plenty of green, plus we saw little litter.  Of course, we also saw snow going over the Sierras on US 50.
    Also, FWIW, it shouldn't be the government's responsibility to clean up the trash, people should be mature enough not to throw it out the window.

Ed
 
Alan, come on back in April or May........green everywhere, all the rivers have water and all the falls are flowing at full force......provided it's not the tail end of a five year drought. 

Oh.....and as I'm sure you experienced.....they've been working on all the freeways all over Nor Cal for the past three years and they're actually in a lot better shape than they were.  But I'll agree, we have the worst freeways in the nation over all.....probably due to the greatest traffic in the nation.  Another year or two, they should be done with the freeways....then it'll be time to start all over again.

The trash.....I agree, it's bad.  Again, probably due to the record amount of people and traffic.  Not all people are conscientious about their surroundings, beauty or recycling......and that applies to every state.  I think it's commeserate with the population.

Farmers Almanac says we're in for a cold, wet winter so everything will be green and wet for you in the spring.  But please know, the central valley (aka The Big Valley in the old TV wester series) always reaches triple digits in the summer.  There are many times that it'll be as hot or hotter than in Ariz. in the summer.....happened several times this summer.  Like Tom says, go over the hill to the bay area and you'll be a whole bunch more cooler.
 
A little known secret...

Californian's  had all the great places removed from Google and Yahoo search engines (both CA companies) so they won't be trashed by the tourists.

;D
 
I think you missed several. I can still find Ferndale and San Luis Obispo.
 
you didn't get the email..?
because of the increased snow-bird traffic, SLO and Ferndale are on the approved "collateral casualties" list.......(Sorry)
 
This morning's weather forecast for the big valley.....Forecast 8-10 degrees above normal, in the triple digits again!

http://www.kcra.com/weather/forecast

Still not the time to visit....wait till Oct.
 
JCZ said:
This morning's weather forecast for the big valley.....Forecast 8-10 degrees above normal, in the triple digits again!

http://www.kcra.com/weather/forecast

Still not the time to visit....wait till Oct.

Just hang on, Our governor is fixing everything.
 
I live on the northern CA coast in Sonoma County.  It's rarely ever extremely hot where I'm at but yes the grass gets pretty dry and brown this time of year.  That's what summer does for you.  I still don't think it's ugly.  I think with all the green trees and rolling hills and vineyards we have that there is beauty everywhere.  I hadn't noticed a lot of trash along the roadways except for going down south on I5.  We stopped at a Vista Point there last year and decided to rename it "Pista Point" because it smelled so bad of urine.  People apparently just stopped there to pee on the side of the road and throw their garbage out of the car :(  I'm not sure your exact routes but if you stayed mainly on the freeways and inland than I don't think you'd see much of the beauty.  The roads here are awful.. seriously awful!!  No argument there!  That doesn't bug me enough to ever want to move though :)
 
The California deserts are very nice in the winter. Still mostly brown until you really look and then you'll find the color. And in the spring, after a wet winter, they can go crazy with color.


And you are right about the roads in California being crap. Blame the state, blame the federal government (federal highways are maintained by federal money), blame too many cars on the roads, blame the weather. There are other states where you cross the border and the roads go to hell. On the way home to Colorado from Oregon this month, we noticed that the places where they were starting to do roadwork weren't the worst sections of road. Wonder who decides what roads get fixed first ?


And litter - anyone who tosses trash on the roadways is an idiot and the $100 littering fines I see posted in some areas aren't nearly enough. BTW, some of the worst trash we've seen on the highways is on the Navajo Reservation.


One more thing, weren't the spectacular places you saw in California worth the price of some bad roads and brown hillsides ?


Wendy
Colorado
 
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