It’s 354 miles from my parent’s house in Lockeford, California to my home in Santa Monica. Two days after Christmas I got in my car and made the long drive home.

It’s a lot of the same, over and over, along the I-5 freeway (which become simply ‘The 5’ once you hit LA County). If I’d been a passenger, I could have taken many more and much more interesting photos, but here are the pictures I managed to snap along the way, while still remaining to be a safe, solo driver…

The first temptation was to go the ‘wrong way’ and end up in my favorite city:

Then, after deciding to continue on toward home, I contemplated the reasons why I shouldn’t divert to San Francisco while staring at the golden colored hills on quite a gloomy, overcast day:

Again, I decided I must return home to Santa Monica. (I’ve got to go to work. Where would I go in San Francisco anyway? I miss my own bed. I’ve got to go to work~I have to teach. I’ll be fine. I’ll be happy to be at home.) Then suddenly, 10 miles later, I am faced with the same temptation:

I then started to notice that there are quite a number of road signs letting me know how many miles are left in my journey and I become obsessed with getting to the next one:

And the next one:

And the next and the next and the next and so on:

It turned to dark and my bum starts to get sore from sitting:

When I neared Bakersfield I called my Dad on the phone to tell him I was just about to pass through his field. And I chuckled. Silence on the other end…”Huh?”
So I explain my silly joke, the kind that only comes from a long drive by yourself, and he politley chuckled back. Then I decided to call my Mom and try the same joke on her. She did not get my joke either and I had to finally say, “I’m in Bakersfield! Get it? You’re a Baker and so it’s your field…” “Oh”, she says. “Hunh.” And I keep on drivin’ until I only have exactly 100 miles to go:

I stopped in a random town for some dinner and finally the signs read under 100 miles to home:

There was no traffic until I hit, you guessed it, LA County! And I merge onto a new freeway:

And now we’re so close, Marceau comes out from under the seat and looks around:

The sights become extra familiar, Marceau starts to meow, and finally…
Home sweet home! (Even if it is in LA)