Ok, so I broke a few state laws on the way down south and maybe some federal ones too, but I got here in one piece even if I didn't make the best time in world. I have driven Highway 5 between northern and southern California probably close to 50 times. It has to be one of the most boring drives in the country. It's flat. It's dusty. There's nothing to see but the occasional pit stop city. But it's fast, usually.

I can never remember having come to a complete on the 5 for any reason, but on Friday, traffic halted 3 times. It was mostly due to the rain that was coming down in sheets for a good chunk of the way. There were a bunch of accidents, including one about 120 north of LA that stopped traffic dead. Then there was mudslide on the Grapevine that knocked out the two right lanes and turned the long crawl up to the Tejon Pass into a parking lot. Finally, for a reason that I couldn't never deduce, traffic came to a roaring halt at Magic Mountain. There was a sign that said, slow traffic next minutes. 45 minutes later I was finally in the clear. It took more that six and half hours to make a trip that usually runs about five.