interstate 5 through the Central Valley

interstate 5 heading south

I don’t care what anyone says, I think that the drive between San Francisco and Los Angeles through the Central Valley is marvelous.  Most folks criticize the Central Valley as “flat” and “boring.”  Sometimes it’s given faint praise as the “fastest way” to drive to LA from here.  These critics are generally comparing this route to the more famous coastal one along highways 1 and 101.  There is no doubt that that alternate route is stunningly beautiful.  But I’m not writing a car commercial today.  Instead, I want to persuade you of the beauty to be found in the San Joaquin (the name for the southern part of the Central Valley).

Right now we generally prefer driving to LA than flying because we like to bring our dog, Clarence.  As an English bulldog, he’s too big to bring on a plane.  And I would never dare “check” him in a carrier, having read too many horror stories of pets getting lost or dying from neglect that way.   Plus it’s more practical to have a car in LA anyway.  So why spend a lot more flying, renting a car and a dog sitter when the whole family can stay together and enjoy a long ride south?  I’ll admit that there are some problems with the interstate itself.  It is a bit annoying that there are so many trucks, for example.  I really hate it when one giant truck, moving at a snail’s pace, decides to cut you off and pass another truck, moving at a slower-than-a-snail’s pace.  It really messes with your rhythm!

highway traffic

That leads to the second really annoying thing about the highway: there are only two lanes in each direction.  What terrible planning!  If I’m not behind that slow-moving, passing truck then I’m constantly getting stuck behind that one car that’s actually driving the speed limit, thus slowing me and everyone behind me down.  Even more anxiety provoking is that pushy driver that comes up from behind, shoves his nose right into your business and keeps flashing his lights for you to move from the faster, left lane into the slower, truck-filled right one.  God those guys really get my goat!

But that’s just about the road, not the landscape.  The Central Valley is an important agricultural center, producing eight percent of the country’s agricultural output, including many foods that I cannot do without: tomatoes, almonds, asparagus, grapes and apricots.  I really notice the cultivated lands on either side of the road.   I’m particularly fascinated with the almond groves, something that I’d never actually seen before moving to California.

some cultivated Central Valley land

We usually pack a picknick for the trip and take a break about four hours along the way at one to the state sponsored rest stops.  Clarence stretches his little legs and gets super excited by the new smells and the heat.  And it’s usually very hot there, at least compared to the regular chill that we have at home.  One time in July we had to crank the AC in the car during the whole drive and it could barely cut the over 100 degree air.  Though the excessive heat is one of the exotic aspects of the CV that I find so fascinating about the place.

The people seem different there, too, in an interesting and appealing way.  Aside from the obvious large numbers of truckers at the rest stops, there’s a lot of Spanish speaking families having their lunches too; I’ve seen retirees from other states driving big campers, other city slickers like us; occasional people walking over excited, over heated dogs, also like us; and lots and lots of people in pickup trucks.   I rarely see pickups at home.  Though when I lived in Dallas, that was the most common car on the road.  Perhaps that’s what makes me sentimental for this stretch of badly designed road: the heat, the pickups and lots of Spanish reminds me of the Lone Star State.

golden hills of the Central Valley

I don’t find the CV to be that flat, really. It’s actually quite hilly where the highway joins interstate 5 from the East Bay and though it sort of gradually flattens out as it rolls along, you’re always surrounded by the mountains.  As you approach closer to the south end of the place, for miles it seems as if the mountains from either side are slowly moving towards you in a kind of warm, golden embrace.  Sometimes I don’t quite feel that the valley will ever end.  Then suddenly you’ve left it; the car groaning up the steep incline that takes you over the mountain passes into LA county.

beautiful valley!

This stretch of the Central Valley has played a very significant role in my life as an eater.  It was here in the summer of 2007 that Heguiberto and I agreed to become pescetarian. Actually, he’d been talking off and on for years of becoming vegetarian but I kept resolutely refusing.  But that was about to change.  This is how it happened:  We had just spent several days in LA meeting with old friends and shopping.  The last night that we were there, Hegui and I took a few of our friends to a well known Brazilian churrascaria, Fogo de Chão.  This is the kind of restaurant where the waitstaff comes to your table with large spits of meat.  You eat as much as you want, which tends to be a lot.  There is a particular kind of cut of beef, called picanha, that is highly sought after by Brazilians.  Well, Hegui over indulged.  On the following day, we packed ourselves and the beast and hit the road.  There’s that part of the San Joaquin Valley that has those huge cow ranches.  Do you know the spot?  It’s where you need to keep the windows rolled up tightly and recycle the air because the smell of all those heads of beef is so dreadful.

California big sky country

Well, this smell was simply too much for over-fed-and-now-disgusted Hegui.   He complained of the stink and even went so far as to claim that he could smell beef fat coming from the very pores of his skin.  Not a pretty image at all!  I felt fine, actually, as I had stopped eating when I was full the night before.  He brought up the whole vegetarianism thing again.  Though this time it was different.  He was more insistant, more desperate.  Still, I resisted.  “I’m not giving up sushi,” I said.  Looking back now, I should have included prosciutto as well.  At any rate, we compromised and have remained pescetarian since then.  And I’ve no regrets.

Hopefully, this little foray down a great stretch of America’s heartland has opened your eyes to the beauty and life-changing possibilities of the California Central Valley.  Take a ride on US-5!