I’ve had the opportunity to drive down both the I-17 South from Flagstaff to Phoenix and the I-5 North out of Los Angeles. Which is hairier? Honestly, though my Cali pride recoils from the thought, I have to give it to the I-17. The I-5 is steep and does the entire downhill grade in one endless brake-melting shot, and is thick with traffic. Semis going 35 dodge out of the far-right lane while caddies and beemers doing 110 weave through every lane. But that’s not enough to overcome I-17’s whoop-de-do mix of steep drops, rollercoaster hills, and poorly-canted curves. To add insult to injury, the northern Arizona scenery is much prettier. This round goes to SoCal’s easternmost suburb.
(My apologies for the lack of posts in a while and the lack of pictures with this one. But I’ve been stuck with little or no net access for a couple of weeks, and am making do with dialup today. There’s a lot of stuff stored up in my brain, and it’ll leak out over the next few postings. But for now, suffice it to say that visiting with folks has transitioned to rolling on the open road.)