The Illustrated Encyclopedia of an Imaginary Universe

I was not disappointed in California, although I had expected to be. Over the years I had generated a stereotypical loathing for California, generated mainly out of second-hand information and prejudices handed to me by others. I expected Southern California to be some sort of desolate wasteland, but it was actually rather pretty. The areas outside of Los Angeles seemed to be something out of a television show (should I be surprised?). Palm trees and green hills.

I didn’t go into L.A. itself; I had made a plan to carefully avoid that. Even if the landscapes of California (at least, once I got beyond a small scrub desert more desolate and hellish than anything I had seen in New Mexico or Arizona) were attractive, I had no time or desire to descend into Los Angeles itself. I skirted north.

In Pasadena, there are lose spirals of barbed wire encircling the highway signs mounted to overpasses that tell me how far away exits are.

After Pasadena, I turned north into the darkness. The sun had been setting and once I got into the low mountains north of the L.A. area, it was complete darkness.

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Northern California was frustrating. The highway kept veering dangerously close to mountains but would dodge away before I could actually ascend them. Farmlands to the right of me, tall hills to the left. At a rest station somewhere just outside of Sacramento, I looked at the tall hills. I was convinced that this scenery, if I could remove from it the power lines and other man-made obstructions, would be a perfect backdrop for Middle Earth.