NB Traffic - Santee to Castiac, CA

We knew we’d be slowed down through the center of LA on Interstate 5 North but decided it was worth it to have a short day. Getting onto Interstate 805 in San Diego was a bit “crawly” but we made good time up to the center of LA. Being relative novices to the millions of LA cars/drivers, we really were surprised to slow down to a 30mph crawl for miles and miles. Though there has been a lot of road construction indications (signs, cones, retaining walls, equipment), no one seemed to be at work today. So, we thought there must have been an accident in our lanes going North. We did see one in the South bound lanes earlier. We saw no troopers/cops or debris from an accident.
We were sure there had to be a better reason than “just LA”. But NO it was “just LA” and we slowed and slowed and slowed to a bare crawl.

We stopped at the La Mirada Camping World for a pee break. Because most of our route is through the city has no Rest Areas. We knew the Camping World layout would allow for us to temporarily stop and use the bathroom before we headed back on I-5.

The new Google Mapping app showed I-5 as a very dark red. That means there was a negative impact to the traffic heading North (accident, construction, or something) from the Camping World stop. So, it advised us to take some interior La Mirada roads to I 605 and eventually back to I 5 North. We figured it couldn’t be worse than what we had already experienced. The app was right. We made good time back to I-5 and went North to Castaic.

Then all of a sudden there were signs saying the right 2 lanes were closed ahead. So, we moved our 44’ rig over to the left and crawled with everyone else northward mile after mile. Boots was navigating and we finally were in territory we were familiar with after so many trips North and South. So, it looked like we could get off I-5 and use a surface road (Old Road) to get to the campground with more speed and less traffic.

So, Ruthi slowly moved the rig (44’ remember) to the right positioning us for the next exit. As soon as we were comfortably in the far right lane, we saw the signs “Exit Ahead Closed” and again “Right Lanes Closed Ahead”. So, back we go to the left and crawl up I-5 to Castaic.