101
When I first moved to LA, the 101 so confused me that, trying to drive from Venice to Valley Village, I wound up in Calabasas. I’d had my suspicions I was going the wrong way, but the tack store looming up to my right confirmed it.
The 101 in LA County sets deep traps for someone with my notoriously unreliable sense of direction - depending on where you are, it may be labeled as either a North-South highway, or an East-West highway. It took me awhile to figure out that North=West, and South=East; until I did, I had to resign myself to daytripping around the West Valley when I meant to head toward Hollywood. (Though I did get better at realizing I was headed the wrong way, and getting turned around before I drove 20 miles out of my way.)
After seven years in Los Angeles, I think of the signage on the 101 as just part of the scenery - an “only in LA” quirk, of the sort that has spawned columns and photo collections in local blogs and papers. I thought of it today for two reasons: first, this is my 101st post; and second, I needed to find some way to tie the below picture into my 101st post.
When I saw it in a BBC News photo essay about the fires which have charred well over 10,000 acres so far, I said, “Now there’s an LA moment. Or at least a SoCal one.”*
“Does the Segway say GOB?” NovySan asked. “It should,” I replied. “And in just a minute, it will.”
*The author would like to assure anyone who cares that she is well aware that Arrested Development was set in Orange County, and that Orange County is not Los Angeles. But it’s her blog, and she can do what she wants. So there.