Goodbye L.A. (or NOT!)

After packing all morning today, we left Mr. Fozzie's home at 1:45 PM. Our "Goodbye L.A." hype, motivation, and ritual-like chanting was quickly pissed on as we reached Castaic (on the 5 fwy, shortly after Magic Mountain). We had prepared for just about everything. The last thing on our list was a Southern California mountain BRUSH FIRE!! We were forced to skip our amusement park stop and continue as far as we could to beat traffic and time. But by Elizabeth Lake we were completely stopped right before Gorman. We were literally PARKED on the freeway for 2.5 hours. The heat didn't really help our mood... nor the engine. Our "brand new" rental car from Alamo began to-- yes, overheat! But opening the hood of the car slightly and blasting on the air vents helped cool down the engine while we continued to trickle down toward our soon-to-come detour route of 138. After nine-thousand-nine-hundred-ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall repetitions, we were off. The detour would cost us an additional 70 miles. Half Dome, here we come!... I think.