I have been to the Promised Land.

Los Angeles.  Has there ever been a more-hyped town in modern America?  How many countless songs have been written about L.A.?  How many more will be written?  Until last week, I guess I didn't quite get what all the hype was about.   I get it now.

If there's one great thing about Los Angeles, it's the weather.   The air is always pleasantly fair, there is no snow and very little rain, and the sea air is so dry that there is no salt problems.   There are few pot holes, as frost-heave is non existent.  The result: cars are eternal in this Lazarus valley in the west.   I have never seen so many 1980's and older cars in such immaculate, unrestored condition.  Of course, this has created a hub of auto culture the likes of which I have never seen.  Yes, every third car is a Prius, but every fifth car is a pristine, clean, and rust free neo-classic or sports car that would never make it two years in the midwest.

And what cars!  Within 4 hours of landing at Burbank, I saw my first Bugatti Veyron 16.4: 

Within an additional 20 minutes, I saw my second (I didn't photograph the second, as it was old news at this time).  The next day brought the third.  As I was taking the above pictures, some poor schmuck in a brand new Ferrari 458 drove past.   Nobody blinked.  Poor guy. 

I have never seen so many Porsche Panamericas, Aston Martin Vantages (the V12, no less), or Bentley Arnages as I did in a two hour stretch through West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

Not only are there great cars everywhere, but the average Angelino seems obsessed with keeping their cars absolutely clean.  Not just outside, but all around.  Few dents, dings, and scratches marred common cars, and most everyone seemed to have much better taste in accessories than the common mid westerner, as I didn't see a single fake Buick Ventiport the entire time I was there.

Fake Ventiports...no matter how ugly your Monte Carlo is, these will always make it far, far uglier.  Not taken in L.A.

I also noticed that the vast majority of Angelinos, while obsessed with constantly honking the horn at each other for every single little thing (such as not turning directly into head-on traffic whilst someone of obvious importance is behind), seem to be pretty good drivers overall.  The average following distance is twice what I would consider average in St Louis, blinker usage is way up, and on more than one occasion, a slower-moving car pulled over to allow traffic by before resuming their plodding pace.  I would consider moving west for the latter alone.  They even seem to respect the High Occupancy Vehicle Lane, which would undoubtedly be violated by well over 50% of the drivers in St Louis.

The roads are pretty good, there are very few patches or cracks, and I did not note any potholes.  What's more, Los Angeles seems to be paying their civil engineers to actually do stuff, as most stoplight cycles seem to make sense and merging onto the freeway is aided by a signal called a freeway meter designed to ease congestion as cars come on by metering the number of car entering the freeway at any given time and spacing them accordingly to prevent the jam-ups we encounter here at every major entry in the area.  It makes so much sense!  Why haven't the engineers here figured these things out?

Ramp Meter: Effective device that somehow eludes civil engineers everywhere else.

For all of these reasons and more, it is evident that Los Angeles and the rest of Southern California is an automotive paradise, especially when you break free of the busy cities and see those miles and miles of lonely desert highways.  I actually feel guilty for exposing my beloved car to the harsh mid-western climate in contrast, and may well just mosey west one day myself.