I make more poor snap decisions than anyone else I know. I just don’t have good instincts I guess. Given incomplete information, for whatever reason, I seem to fill in the blanks all wrong. This is particularly apparent when I am driving in an unfamiliar location. I will take any and every wrong turn before finally settling on the right path. I make up for this complete ineptitude by being better-than-average at analyzing relatively complete sets of information. Even with very incomplete sets, given enough time to analyze, and complete my mental depth first search of options and hypotheses, I’m not too shabby.
Having recently completed a brief vacation to California and Nevada, I have taken care to remember a few hair-brained things that I came up with on the fly while having only a tiny portion of actual, empirical knowledge to work from. The jist of this opening is that practically nothing here should be taken seriously. If anything, it is more likely that the opposite of these statements is true.
- The hype I was told about driving in California was all ludicrous. It was quite easy, and in general, nothing anyone told me held true.
- Most everyone in northern CA is some combination of the following: quite stupid, extremely timid, and/or a sworn enemy of everything automobile. Their driving wasn’t so much bad as it was just ignorant, and/or timid. Their unwillingness to merge into traffic properly was the single largest cause of congestion that I saw.
- Most everyone in southern CA is far brighter, more aggressive, and more loathsome of the world in general than everyone in northern CA.
- The single most effective way to stop the extinction of most endangered species is to distribute Viagra freely amongst third world countries. Seriously people… You have hunted the Northern White Rhino down to a population of 7 ( or 8 ) over an aphrodisiac. You suck.
- There are only a handful of things worth doing in California. 99% of them are ocean related. Don’t waste your time with theme parks or museums or the like, unless it is the Wild Animal Park.
- Las Vegas is the saddest city in the US. I lived in Flint Michigan. I have been to most every corner of Detroit (from a locked car of course). These towns are sunshine and rainbows compared to the gratuitous display of human depravity on the streets of LV.
- Traffic in Utah is worse than traffic in CA.
- I want a vehicle that is fun to drive. A sporty car, a dual sport motorcycle… something. Driving the exotic cars around the speedway was too fun to never try again.
- Paddle shifters are the greatest invention for the automobile since the wheel.
- Porches are fun, but not nearly so much fun as an Aston Martin.
- Claire can sense impending earthquakes
- California has the most boring license plates of any state.
That’s it for my snap judgments. I’m wrapping up one of the most awesome trips that I’ve ever been on, and coming from me, I like to think that statement has a lot of weight. I’ve seen and done and gone to some pretty spectacular stuff in my short life.