Travels in Time

I am currently home from a road trip to the state of Minnesota, having traveled there to see a new grandson. In so doing, I have noticed interesting differences in the states along the way and what we like to call our great state of California. Some of the important differences are the roads are better, roadwork goes on weekends and at night, rest stops are beautiful and staffed as information centers. State budgets are smaller, yet more efficient, graffiti is minimal, religion is prominent and most of the farm labor I talked to are documented.

California just approved a $140 billion budget and our roads are worse than the nine states I have traveled through. I’m not saying a little worse, I’m saying terribly worse. Doesn’t it make you wonder why that is? It does me. I have traveled I-5 and 99, as well as a variety of other California interstates, county and local roads and in comparison they are desolate, barren, dirty and generally not fun. In my own Nevada County the situation is similar and that is the fault of the Board of Supervisors and the DOT directly. Likewise, the blame for State Highways and roads falls on the State legislators and Cal-trans. In many of the states I’ve been through, highway construction and repair is contracted out to private companies who are in the business of making a profit and are given incentives for early completion and penalties for failure to meet deadlines. Thusly, they and their crews work weekends and nights with what seems to be greater efficiency. Can you imagine the brouhaha that would ensue if Cal-trans workers were asked to do that on a regular basis? Now, admittedly, these states don’t have the population or traffic use, but they do for the most part have more severe weather and significantly smaller budgets. Kind of makes a person wonder where our money is being wasted. One legislator told me there are billions of dollars of waste in our just passed budget of $145 billion dollars.

Following the same theme, who in their right mind would want to stop at a California rest stop unless it was a dire emergency? Not me. They are dirty, poorly landscaped, they smell, appear foreboding, and short of gangrene of the bladder, it’s a pass for me. Conversely, when you leave our fair state, just the opposite is true. Clean, pleasant, inviting and staffed for the most part during the daytime with friendly people who supply information to the person on the highway. To quote, “Why is that? Intelligent people want to know.” The reason is that no one appears to care. This is a liberal state controlled by a liberal legislature and a liberal governor. I would like to remind you readers that it wasn’t too many years ago that we threw Gray Davis out of office for, amongst other things, his runaway budget of a mere $93 billion dollars. All of the budgets, of all of the states I drove through, added together don’t top $20 billion dollars! For all the money we give the state we have the right to expect at least good roads and clean toilets

Finally, roadside trash. Have you noticed the abundance of it along our roadways? Not so in other states. Do they simply clean more often or do they have less trash? Or, here’s a thought, maybe they have more respect for their environment than we do here. Our environmentalists talk the talk but take no responsibility for the results. Also, I did not see one purple spiked haired kid all across the mid-west. All the Hispanics spoke excellent English. There were no chains around the neck and very few pierced body parts. All were respectful and could kid and fool and make change and carry on a conversation. It kind of makes you wonder what our Democrat controlled legislature does with all that money.