No Way Out

As Leo Bloom reminds us repeatedly from his semi-catatonic state near the end of “The Producers,” there is “no way out, no way out, no way out…”

Yet the signs are everywhere.

And, sure, while I had hoped to exit the ginormous parking garage here which would have let me simply turn right, go a half block, and then turn right again onto the correct freeway going in the correct direction, and this exit dumped me out there onto a different street on a side I didn’t even know about in a warren of one-way streets, homeless encampments, and no sign of a freeway, correct or otherwise, a little “exploration” led us back to an onramp.

One rule I always taught my kids when I was teaching them to drive in LA was in a pinch, especially leaving a crowded venue like a concert or sporting event, get on a freeway onramp. You might have a preferred freeway and direction, but that’s secondary. Get on. That will get you away from the crowd. All of the freeways interconnect in almost infinite permutations, so you can ALWAYS get there from here. You might have to travel a few more miles and then go to the 22 to the 405 to the 605 to the 210 to the 101 instead of just going on the 134 to the 101, but you’ll get there eventually. It beats sitting in that parking lot and fighting a gazillion other cars to get on that one, perfect onramp.

So back to the original point – it feels like there’s no way out sometimes. But get moving. Get out of the crowd and get it in gear. You’ll figure it out.

BTW, did anyone else notice that it’s the 20th? That there are like four days until Christmas?

No way out. No way out. No way out…