We headed south on Interstate 5 from Santa Nella Thursday but unfortunately there were winds heading south there until Lost Hills on Interstate 5 which loosened up the Tumble weeds which were as big as 5 feet high and 10 feet across (which is the likely the biggest interlocked single mass of Tumbleweeds I have ever seen in one place ever. So, at one point this mass of 10 feet across and 5 feet high interlocked tumbleweed was rolling alongside the freeway and suddenly veered onto the freeway. So, I gunned my truck and it grazed the back of the truck but I didn't want to hit it fully on for a variety of reasons. Previous to this I had to hit a 5 foot diameter tumbleweed coming onto the freeway from 152 there on Interstate 5 to avoid hitting a semi truck. I watched it explode and scatter across the freeway behind me. But, you have to protect people not just vehicles in situations like that. And often drivers were not experienced enough dealing with large tumbleweeds to avoid accidents down Interstate 5 like I was. Many people are trying to protect their vehicles from scratches. However, what you need to protect more is human lives and many people were timid and so not used to this kind of obstacle and couldn't seem to be practical which made it dangerous for all of us and it cost us about 3 hours of driving because of this between Santa Nella and Lost Hills on Interstate 5. There were thousands and thousands of Tumbleweeds between Santa Nella and Lost Hills and further south. But, luckily the winds died down sort of after Lost Hills after 3 hours of extra driving on 5 because of timid drivers around tumbleweeds and still there were accidents from people trying to avoid tumbleweeds and hitting other cars instead. There was a lot of traffic on top of a south wind that was variable 20 miles per hour constant tail wind and 30 to 50 mile per hour gusts as well doing in our direction. So, you would see tumbleweeds traveling 10 to 20 miles per hour along the freeway to the right or left and then some of them would come out onto the freeway and cause havoc with cars and trucks. But, if you weren't a really experienced driver with nerves of steel this was a problem for many people just not focused enough or trained for these kinds of road hazards.
But, by the time we got over the Grape Vine to Santa Clarita we found a diamond lane that wasn't listed and zipped by the traffic jams there and finally got to our destination after 9 and 1/2 hours driving when it should have taken with less traffic and road hazards only 6 or 6 1/2 hours to the Los Angeles area and the southern California beaches.
However, today I woke up to 20 mph winds and the coldest temperatures I've seen in years in this area with lows of 41 degrees Fahrenheit and highs in the mid to high 50s which is very unusual for the Los Angeles county and Orange county areas this time of year. I don't remember any time I have visited down here with temperatures any lower than maybe 65 to 75 highs even during the winter this far south. So, it was a strange blustery day sort of like yesterday traveling south on Interstate 5. To get temperatures this low usually you need overcast and maybe rain coming down but this was in full sun so very strange weather. Global Climate change has hit southern California too. My Cousin told me they had only 3 inches of rain all year this year which is a real drought for southern California. But he remembers in 1969 when they got 38 or 39 inches that year. So, as you can see things have really really changed in southern California which is slowly turning it into a desert. But, it's important to remember that most lands between Arizona and Nevada in California have always been deserts as far back as I can remember in California which would be 1952 when I first moved here from Seattle as a child.
Deserts:
If you start at the Mexico Border and head north to Anza Borrego (desert) All desert.
Then if you head north from there to Palm Springs (mostly desert)
Joshua Tree National Monument (High Desert)
Then north pretty much to everything east of the Sierras (Desert) including Death Valley all the way to Las Vegas.
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