The Great Central Valley

California is a state of extremes (highs, lows, wet, dry, hot, cold, wilderness, urban, Republicans and Code Pink.) Last week we left San Francisco, traveled through hundreds of miles of ranch & farm land, then arrived in Los Angeles. Traveling any significant distance in California usually involves crossing or following the great Central Valley. The coastal roads are too hilly and winding to make much distance in a day.



But the valley is flat and the roads are straight. It used to be an ancient seabed and it's just barely above sea level now (which means, I guess, that it will soon be under water again.) The region is almost entirely agricultural and several hours of staring out the windows as we cruise down Interstate 5 reminds me of how geographically isolated the urban areas remain. So different from the East coast, where a drive up Interstate 95 from Virginia to Connecticut can seem like one big urban sprawl.



We passed miles of grapes, almonds, pistachios, oranges, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, corn, cotton, cattle, sheep, and oil derricks.



Big packs of cotton, sitting on the edges of the fields, were the size of Greyhound buses, and the plastic covers were marked with the names of gins.



You could smell the cattle feedlots miles before you saw them.



But eventually we crossed the Tehachapi mountains and it started to look like Los Angeles.



Next: Three days of art in L.A.