California 2007 Trip Day 2

November 6:
I made it through 8 more cities. I was able to get zoning maps from 7 of them. The last (Tulare) took my address and my money and promised to send a map. I think I also ended up with street maps for all of them too. I’m a little unsure because some of the smaller cities are actually covered in maps of their larger brethren. I forgot to write down miles after I got into my hotel. Hotel for the night is $43.99. Gas was $28.47 for 8.9 gallons (on credit card because I was running out of cash). My meter had 367.1 miles since my last fill-up (at Palm Springs I believe). Addendum added on 11/7: I finished the day at 719 miles for the trip.

I beat yesterday’s high price. Today’s winner is $37.50 at Visalia. It was special printed just for me. The size I originally asked for was $90 or so. Most of them were on the high side today. The rundown is below. I had to get cash twice today – once mid-day in Bakersfield and then in the evening in Fresno.
I had an adventure after departing Fresno for Merced. I realized I hadn’t gotten the directions out for the Motel 6 in Merced, so I pulled off at an off-ramp to Madera. I was expecting to go up a hill and then back down an on-ramp. Instead, I ended up paralleling the 99 for about 15 minutes (and stopping to get a map) through town during rush hour. Fun :<

I also got a normal dinner after getting settled in my room. In amongst gas stations and car dealerships and fast food chains was a Marie Callender’s. It was very nice after no breakfast and a fast lunch around 2:30 PM.

Victorville:
I started about 8:10 AM. I got my first map at about 8:30 AM. Pretty easy since it was just down the road. The building was easy to find, but the parking was confusing. I took the 2nd entrance to park which turned out to still be employee parking. The third entrance was for the public (good info for next time). The map cost $32.33 ($2.33 was tax).

Barstow:
Funny story – as I was on the off-ramp waiting to turn onto a street, the car in front blew its engine. It put out a lot of steam. It still ran and, since I was behind it, I got a nice smell of burning oil. On the way back from the City Hall, I saw another car that was smoking though I wasn’t sure from what. The city hall looked like part of a strip mall, but it was practical. The map cost $5.38 (again with the tax). It got it around 9:12 AM. This was still good time.

Bakersfield:
Now things started taking time. It took 2 hours to get to Bakersfield. Most of the highway was divided, but there were two stretches where it was just one lane each way. One of these surprises showed up a few miles from the start of the highway, which made me think the whole way was going to be at 55 mph staring at the taillights of a truck.

Somewhere toward the end, we hit mountains. This is probably the same range that the Grapevine goes over. Toward the end I noticed that the hills were greener or had more trees. This made sense because I had moved to the moist side of the range.

Finding the right place proved to be a bit of work. The building I wanted was a few blocks down from where I parked (which was in a medical building parking lot, not the City Hall lot). I was aiming for the Planning Department at 1715 Chester and 17th. I got the map around 11:36 AM for $20.

Delano:
This was a small town. There really was only one stop light. Everything else was stop signs. It was quaint until I had to back out of a parking space with backed up traffic. The map cost $1 and I got it around 12:42 PM. The woman at the front desk was asking me if I wanted any demographics info and gave me a pamphlet on the medical center. She was definitely the pushiest of the City Hall people I’ve met – not in a bad way.

Tulare:
This was my only failure so far. They didn’t have any maps but promised to mail me one. This was a smallish town/city (at least the parts I saw). It was a bit of a drive from the highway to the City Hall. After I got off the main road, most of the roads seemed to just use stop signs. Tulare’s water tower had an interesting touch. There appeared to be a giant accordion straw coming out of the top of the tower. There was also a nice park across from the building.

Visalia:
This was my adventures in taking smaller roads. Since Visalia was only about 10 miles from Tulare, the router took a state road (although it was well paved). This was the most frustrating city that I have run into. The planning department was in an annex further down the road (315 E. Acequin instead of 707 W. Acequin). The street was one way, so I was afraid of overshooting. I ended up parking in the 300 W. Acequin block first which was across from a building under construction. After realizing the mistake, I messed up exiting the parking lot. I then parked a block further than the annex I was after. Then I ran into the big issue (mentioned above) of the cost for a special plot -- $37.50. Because it was being made at my request, it took about 20 minutes to make. It gave me time to have a lunch. I believe I got this map around 3:00 PM. At first I thought I would have to cut Selma, but then realized I had enough time because Selma and Fresno were close.

Selma:
This was another small town. I parked a little short of the City Hall building, but only by a block. The building was a non-descript stucco building with an awning out front with “City Hall” on it. It struck me as funny, sort of like a hotel or apartment complex in New York City. This was also a custom plot, but only cost $20 for a 17”x22” drawing. This was actually in the Annex, but that was just across the street.

Fresno:
Now this was an impressive City Hall. The cornerstone said it was made in 1991. It was concrete structure, somewhat like the tower at LAX, but bigger. The rest was clear or darkened glass (the sun was setting so it was hard to tell). They gave me a Planned Land Use (2025 plan) map for $20. After that it was on to Merced.