Today my name is Negative Nancy and I’m going to do a lot of complaining (also, I did a short hike). I headed out late this morning for San Diego, which was a couple of hours from where I was last night. I don’t actually need to be in San Diego for two more days, but I thought I’d come out a little early and do some hikes until Szilvia arrives here on the 20th. It didn’t take that long before I regretted this decision. But lets back up a few hours (and days) to express my other annoyances with the state of California so far.
I took I-8 over here, obviously because the interstate is the quickest way to get anywhere. About halfway through my drive, there’s a sign for a “Border Control Checkpoint” and all of the interstate traffic comes to a halt. If you’re not bothered by that sentence already, read it again. ALL traffic is purposely stopped… on the interstate. The interstate, which was entirely built upon the notion of making travel easier and quicker by not having any stops on it. Way to go, Border Control. My second annoyance is that it was a “Border Control Checkpoint”… nowhere near a border crossing. I wasn’t driving into Mexico, nor from it. Stop impeding traffic and wasting millions of dollars on “checkpoints” that don’t need to exist on roads that aren’t even crossing the border. I’m sorry, but shouldn’t the Border Control’s jurisdiction only be at the BORDER? I suppose that would just be too logical. My third annoyance with this so called “checkpoint” was that they didn’t even CHECK anything. Didn’t check my ID to verify who I was. Didn’t check my registration to verify I owned the vehicle or that it was even registered. They had drug dogs sniffing around vehicles and asked “Are you American?” I said “Yep”. Asked “Do you own this vehicle?” I said “Yep”. That was it. Seems to me the “Border Control” only cares about drugs, not protecting the “borders”. You’re not the DEA, stop trying to do their job (they waste enough money on their own).
You might be wondering why I’m so irritated from a two minute stop, and it’s the principle of the matter. This is America, last time I checked. I didn’t cross a border, so go eff yourself. Although, I will admit, it was slightly funny being stopped and asked if I was an American by someone who clearly came here from Mexico. Well, maybe he didn’t directly (I would hope you would have to be a naturalized US citizen in order to be a border agent), but I’d bet money both his parents are 100% Mexican.
Because the drug dog was there, I could do a whole side rant about how the government is creating crime by having drug laws, which are almost as stupid as having seat belt or helmet laws. Stop creating laws to protect stupid people; eventually they’ll filter themselves out and the problem will solve itself. Creating laws and wasting money to “protect” people from that stuff is about as stupid as creating an army to protect us against invading unicorns.
Druggies will eventually overdose. Non-seatbelt wearers will eventually fly through a windshield. Non-helmet wearers will eventually have their skulls crushed. Let nature take its course. Not only will the world be free of one less idiot, but think of all the jobs they are supporting in the process! Police, EMT’s, nurses, doctors, coroners, morticians, cemeteries, and many more people and businesses will all get paid because they’re all involved in the process. It’s a win-win, if you ask me.
The other thing that annoyed me was that this wasn’t even the first time this happened. When I crossed from Nevada into California on I-15, they had an “agricultural checkpoint” that also shut down all interstate traffic and they, too, didn’t do any checks or searches of any kind (not that they could, since we have this little thing called the Fourth Amendment). They simply asked if I was transporting anything, I said “no”, and I was on my way. They have no choice but to take me at my word, so what is the point of forcing traffic to a stop at all? Anyone who is transporting something they’re not supposed to is also just gonna say “no” and be on their way just like I was, so what’s the point? I completely understand having trucks that are transporting agricultural things having to stop, using an exit ramp, just like a weigh station; but stopping everyone doesn’t make sense, especially when that road only goes to Nevada and Nevada is basically 100,000 sq miles of sand. Wasting money on shit like that is partly why California is broke in the first place. You have idiots in charge who don’t know how to properly manage money and government agencies wasting millions doing things they don’t need to be doing.
Anywho, I’m off topic. Don’t worry, more annoyances come later.
Eventually I made it to San Diego and stopped at a Walmart and was gonna just hang out there for the rest of the day, but then I noticed it was one of the Walmarts that had signs stating “No overnight camping allowed”. No big deal, I’ve come across a couple of those Walmarts already. It’s rare, but there’s a few like that here and there.
Since I had to leave anyway, I decided I might as well drive to a hike that isn’t too far North of San Diego called Mount Woodson Trail (better known as Potato Chip Rock). I couldn’t find where the parking for the trail was, as the road the directions took me to said “private driveway” and “no trail access”. I figured it was like in Hawaii where the trail is actually located on privately owned land and some idiot comes along, does something stupid, and the land owner shuts down access for everyone. Or, maybe I just didn’t know where to park.
Instead, I went to the Iron Mountain Trail, which I passed on the way there and wasn’t too far down the road. It’s a 6.4 mile trail, round-trip, that doesn’t have much to look at along the way. It’s basically rocks and dirt the entire way, but there was a certain kind of desolate beauty to it. I was just happy to be on a hike, since I hadn’t hiked at all in the last two weeks. I forgot to take my camera, so all the pictures are pretty crappy because my phone isn’t that great at taking photos. Oh well.
After the hike, I decided to go to a different Walmart (San Diego has like 20 or more of them). Again, I was greeted with a “No overnight camping allowed” sign. Since I thought it was pretty odd coming across two Walmarts in one day that didn’t allow overnight parking, I decided to call some more instead of driving around wasting gas. Every Walmart, Home Depot, and Flying J (Pilot Travel Center) that I called all said they don’t allow overnight parking. By this point, I assumed there must be an entire city-wide ban against overnight parking and after a quick Google search, my suspicions were confirmed.
Not only is it completely illegal to park an RV on the street in San Diego between 2am and 6am, it’s also illegal to park a boat, trailer, or vehicle taller than 7 ft (my van is over 8 ft tall). If you’re a resident of San Diego, you can buy a 24-hour permit to park your RV, boat, or trailer, but that’s it. You get 24 hours. And you’re only allowed to purchase 72 of those permits over the course of a year. It’s pretty sad when a city screws over its own residents (there’s apparently over 100,000 people in the city this law effects).
So, San Diego, you suck and you have officially made my boycott list. After reading about that law, I immediately left the city and I don’t plan on going back until Thursday when I have to because I’m picking Szilvia up from the airport. Since there are things in San Diego she wants to see, I will be forced to violate my boycott until at least Saturday, but after that I don’t ever plan on returning to San Diego because it’s clearly run by morons. And during the two days I will be there with Szilvia, I do not intend on spending a single penny of my money within the city limits because they clearly don’t want travelers there. Message received, San Diego. I will take my money elsewhere.
I’m really hoping Los Angeles and San Francisco are smarter than San Diego and don’t have similar overnight parking bans.
Anywho, other than the hike I did today, I was pretty happy that it was 90° or less. Normally I would think 90° is way too hot, but not after spending a week and a half in 115°. By comparison, that’s the same difference between 45° and 70°. So yeah, I’m pretty happy about the 25° temperature drop. It should be an extremely comfortable night.
