Mike Hord wrote:
> Never!  I'm not afraid.  I'm hardly a city mouse, but I've been in
> a few bigger towns in my life.  Not afraid of traffic or driving in an
> unfamiliar area, either.
>
> It should be an interesting trip, if too short to do anything really
> extraordinary...

The last time I was in Anaheim a bunch of years ago, I had most of a Sunday
with nothing to do.  I started walking around from the convention center and
came accross one of the "rivers" they have there.  Now this isn't a nice
scenic waterway with trees shading the bank and fish swimming beneath.  It's
more like a large concrete ditch a few 100 feet accross with trash lining
the bottom.  I didn't see any water.  Anyway it was easy to walk on, so it
occurred to me to follow it to the ocean.  Even though it was a glorified
storm drain, I figured that's where the water was intended to end up and it
did seem to be going roughly west.  It's a lot quieter walking on a "river"
than an LA street, and you see things from a different perspective.  After a
few miles I ran into a construction crew.  Yes, the river was under
construction.  They gave me strange looks, but I tried to stay out of their
way and nobody said anything.

After a few more miles I ran into a cop.  He wasn't so nice, and told me the
river was off limits and I wasn't allowed to walk on it, even though I saw
no signs to that effect.  He made me get off the river onto a small local
road, and wasn't at all helpful when I tried to find out where I was.  I had
a map with me, but it only showed major roads.  He acted like my being lost
was suitable punishment for the major crime of walking on the river.  Maybe
they have a lot of problem in LA with people stealing the trash or somehow
vandalizing this concrete ditch.

By now it was mid day, so I kept the sun roughly to my left and eventually
got onto bigger and bigger roads until one was long and straight and going
west.  This one went thru a more upper class area, which you can tell
because instead of little fences at the sidewalk they have concrete walls 6
feet high, sometimes with glass shards embedded in mortar on top.  After a
few more miles of this, it turned into an oil field.  There were oil pumps
everywhere, then a large oil company building (don't remember which one).
Shortly after that was the ocean.  The water was warm and I had a nice swim.

I got about half way back to Anaheim on a different road a little further
south than the one I'd come on when I remembered there was a reception that
night associated with the conference, so I took a bus back the rest of the
way.  That was an experience too, since you're apparently just supposed to
know how the bus system works.  Any holder for leaflets was empty, and the
signs only made sense if you already knew what you wanted to know.  After
trying to ask the locals, you find out that few of them know more than how
to get to those places they often go to, and even fewer are capable of
explaining anything in terms that make sense to someone who is not familiar
with the area.  In hindsight, I probably just should have kept walking, but
it was getting dark and I was getting tired so it wasn't as much fun
anymore.

All in all it was a fun day.  The only down side was I got to the reception
after most of the food was already gone.


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