18 replies to this topic

[Yosei]

cmraposa, on Mar 12 2007, 11:30 AM, said:

Also, when you get on the freeway, people drive fast so you have to know when your exit is coming up. They have the street exits overhead (if you look to the side of the highway, you can blow right past it) so you have time to get over.

This is a huge part of my freeway phobia even in Salt Lake. Do they all exit on the right, I hope? I intend to stay in the slow lane as much as possible, though even maintaining the minimum speed will be a distressing experience at least. I'm hoping that I'll be able with a good map to find a route that uses side streets with only a short stretch of freeway, but I'm guessing that's a pretty naive wish from what I'm hearing. Even in SLC, you have to be on the freeway for at least five minutes to get to and from the airport, because it's the only route. Always a white knuckle ride for those few minutes that leaves me gibbering neurotically half the way home if I need to drop someone off there or take a package to the 24 hr Post Office there. I'm just trying to tell myself I only need to make it to the hotel, I picked it because it's less than a mile from a number of attractions so I theoretically might even be able to walk around to see some things---though it sounds like the streets are busy enough it may not be entirely practical to *actually* do so.

[Holly]

WOO HOO!! Yosei is travelling to my beloved home city and state!!

Sweetie, I really think Thomas Guides are the absolute best and I know B&N sells them for all parts of the country.

If I can help you at all, please let me know!

**wondering if I still have LA maps in the glove compartment of the car.

The freeway driving is very hectic, Yosei..You already know that. Is there any way at all someone can pick you up at the airport?

And then I have another suggestion..Is there any way you can fly into Burbank instead of LA? It's a full-service airport, only much smaller and laid back and the drive to LA/Hollywood is so much gentler. I know...It sounds funny to think Burbank to Sunset Blvd is more calm than LA to Sunset Blvd, but it truly is. And.....there are always ways to take city streets

Edited by Holly, 13 March 2007 - 12:38 PM.

[Yosei]

Holly, on Mar 13 2007, 10:38 AM, said:

WOO HOO!! Yosei is travelling to my beloved home city and state!!

Sweetie, I really think Thomas Guides are the absolute best and I know B&N sells them for all parts of the country.

If I can help you at all, please let me know!

**wondering if I still have LA maps in the glove compartment of the car.

The freeway driving is very hectic, Yosei..You already know that. Is there any way at all someone can pick you up at the airport?

And then I have another suggestion..Is there any way you can fly into Burbank instead of LA? It's a full-service airport, only much smaller and laid back and the drive to LA/Hollywood is so much gentler. I know...It sounds funny to think Burbank to Sunset Blvd is more calm than LA to Sunset Blvd, but it truly is. And.....there are always ways to take city streets

I don't think I know anyone there who can pick me up, I would definitely prefer that if I can think of anyone, but I may be kind of stuck. I wish I had thought to check on that *before* reserving a rental car...It might have been better to find a car rental place outside the airport and take a bus or something to it. My plane tickets are already reserved, so I don't think I can change them(probably would have been cheaper, too. I just automatically assumed that Outside Of City=freeway driving). I think what I'm going to do now is go up to B&N, get one of those Thomas Guides, and then run all my proposed travel routes by you for amendation if that's possible!

[Yosei]

Well, according to B&N's info desk, they no longer carry Thomas Guides. There's also a puzzling complication that there are seemingly two different types of Thomas Guides---one of which is a little black-and-white listing of the numerical grid numbers of streets( maybe they just do that for SLC because here you actually CAN navigate with no other info than that), but I have ordered the correct Thomas Guide from the link Cmraposa supplied( thanks!) and they tell me it should arrive in plenty of time for my trip. I also picked up a cheap AAA roadmap just in case. It looks as if there is another street called La Cienaga that leads almost directly to my destination from Airport Blvd, but it looks an alarmingly vast distance. And I arrive right at rush hour! EEP! Well, I guess there's nothing I can do but resolve to have as good a time as I can( I'm sure it'll be fun once I actually get past the scary drive to the hotel, but I had hoped to arrive there in time to freshen up and make some use of Friday evening, which may be tough if I take an hour or more to get there from the airport)---and run my itinerary past Holly *before* paying if I ever have another opportunity to visit there.