Headed west

Dateline: Yorba Linda, California

Take Interstate 70 west to the end and then turn left! I'd always assumed that I-70 went across the entire United States and terminated on the West Coast. Bad assumption, the end of the road is in the center of polygamy country so one has to go north or south from there. We chose south so as to end up in sunny southern California, land of fruits, nuts and home to our only son and his young family.

I hadn't driven that way before so this trip through the Rockies and western desert was a treat. We found decent roads in Colorado, Utah, Nevada and the few miles we traveled in Arizona but the best of all the interstate highways was California. Straight as a string, good attention to grade and gentle curves all with well kept surface. California posts a reasonable 70 mph speed limit on their interstate highways. Then to make travel a little more dicey they limit trucks to 55 miles per hour and include cars towing trailers in the lower speed limit. I was driving a pickup, registered "1/2 ton" in Nebraska, not quite a truck and not an auto, so even though pulling a trailer I cruised at 70. No one seemed to mind or quibble and for sure I didn't flag down a patrolman to ask!

Our destination Yorba Linda, home of the Richard Nixon Library, is a small city located on the fringes of greater Los Angeles. Yorba Linda is also next door to better known Anaheim, home of Disneyland and Angel's baseball. I find it interesting to compare living here to life at home in small town Nebraska. The cost of city utility water is $1.79 for 750 gallons. That figures to $2.40 per thousand gallons, about ten times McCook's new high of $0.25 per thou, best I remember. But then in Yorba Linda the city has to pay for every gallon used causing a current short fall of $800,000 in the landscaping and lighting district budget. Budget figures are hard to compare as McCook has no meter on the water the city uses so there is no comparable water cost to be allocated to the tax payer. In McCook the utility payer carries the full load.

Yorba Linda has a five member board of supervisors and a full time city manager, somewhat similar to McCook's city council and manager setup. The supervisors however do a little better salary wise than McCook's council. All in all each member of the board of supervisors knocks down a little over $3,500 a month. Not bad for a part time job especially compared to the pittance with no fringes that McCook pays their council members.

Yorba Linda taxpayers also support the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Now those guys are feeling the pinch of $4+ gasoline. You see each member of that board has a perk of an all expense paid car to drive. If they choose they may opt to receive $765 per month in lieu of the car and of course that counts toward their "high salary" when it comes to calculating a retirement package. At the moment they are reportedly complaining and contemplating raising their car allowance due to the high cost of gasoline. Again not bad for a part time job but then this is California.

Actually I like this little town. People seem to take great pride in keeping their homes looking nice. The weather is delightful and tornadoes are completely unknown. Local traffic isn't bad but the freeways are a challenge! Prices are high and taxes worse but it also seems that wages are high enough to offset the higher costs. For sure this is a cosmopolitan city where many of the world's languages can be heard spoken in any busy store. Fish tacos, kimchee, tofu soup, Vietnamese egg rolls and a thousand other exotic tastes are available to entice the pallet. It is a nice place to visit.

That is the way I see it.