Thoughts from the Curb

Oct 6, 2008 - Nissan GT-R to Vegas: Avoiding the Stupid Agricultural Checkpoint

As I described over on the Long-Term Blog, I took our 2009 Nissan GT-R to Las Vegas this weekend. Yes, I was there only three weeks ago, but when a GT-R presents itself, you gotta go somewhere.

Speaking of which, last time when I was in the Dodge Journey, I ended up in about 40 minutes of stop-and-go traffic in the absolute mid-point of desert nowhere. Was it an accident? No, it's the stupid California agricultural check-point in the absolute mid-point of desert nowhere near Yermo, Calif. Mike Schmidt ran into this in the R8, where they basically slow down the entire highway for no reason at all. Well, there's supposed to be a reason: preventing foreign agricultural diseases, bugs, etc. from infiltrating California's crops. Except I have never been stopped at either the Arizona or Nevada stops -- and I've crossed upwards of 40 times. All they do is just wave you through since checking every car for rogue celery and oranges would make the highway back up to Salt Lake City. So if you can't really inspect, and you don't really inspect, then why have the damn inspection thing in the first place? I actually had an apple in the car when I went through in the Journey -- I nearly rolled down my window and threw it at the guy waving us through.

So anyway, after last time, I vowed to never sit in that stupid traffic ever again. I noticed on the map and when sitting in traffic Yermo Road sitting a good 200 yards away from the highway. So I got off at Harvard Road and turned right onto Yermo. After about 1/4 mile, my thought was, "Riswick, you're a moron." The pavement on Yermo Road was only slightly smoother than the Rubicon trail, it looked like something Nissan had on their proving grounds. With the GT-R's hyper-stiff suspension, my girlfriend and I were basically in a paint can shaker and the "road" noise was deafening. Given this and the fact I had to slalom pot holes, I was restricted to about 60 mph and even that was an adventure. I looked over at I-15 and it was still moving...and faster than me. Moron.

But then the road improved dramatically about 3 miles in and I-15 came to a screeching halt for the agricultural checkpoint. Now I was flying past everyone and everything.

The moral of the story? Agricultural checkpoints are ultimately stupid. Yermo Road is a lifesaver -- just pick something other than a GT-R if you don't want to be shaken to bits.

-James Riswick

9:35 am | Categories: driving adventures Permalink | Alert Administrator

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