I've been flying for five hours and it's still only 11 am...

In a bit of a haze driving up 101--having flashbacks to when I first got here and couldn't believe how wide the highways were. Six lanes always seemed big enough for Chicago or Boston. What were you supposed to do with 10? (Fill them all, it turns out.) And how the freeways seem to pass through empty space--no buildings or trees towering over them, crowding, like when I'd see a row of houses or an L train next to the highway in Chicago and suddenly realize that the highway was actually passing through or over some neighborhood.

In Chicago they're "expressways," here they're "freeways." And don't get me started on the whole "the 101" or "the 5" thing.

Fortunately I got cut off on two separate occasions by pickup trucks veering across three lanes of traffic, which made me feel like a Californian again.