San Diego, CA

The South Bay expressway located in the South-east area of San Diego County is now open. This services the Chula Vista communities of Otay Ranch, Rolling Hills Ranch, Eastlake and San Miguel Ranch as well as Bonita, Spring Valley and Otay Mesa plus the border off the 905. It’s a much needed toll road that will lessen the amount of time it takes to get out the gridlocked area of Eastern Chula Vista. The only downside is that it is a toll road and toll prices are rather steep. Especially in San Diego, where many residents aren’t used to a toll road. Unlike New York and New Jersey where I hear there are a lot of toll roads, this is probably San Diego’s only toll road and it will remain a toll road for 35 years. But I’ve driven on it and have been using it to get around since I do live in the former gridlocked area of Chula Vista and I must say, it is a relief to get from point A to point B much quicker than before. If you open up a FasTrak account you will also save money and time on tolls because it’s a prepaid account that you just zoom by and it automatically deducts from your account plus FasTrak account holders pay less than if you were to pay upfront.

As of right now until December 2 it is free to the public to use to give it a try so go to Chula Vista’s newest shopping center, the Otay Ranch Town Center, visit the new communities of Chula Vista, or cross the border using the Otay Mesa entrance. It will become a toll road after December 2 but if you sign up for a FasTrak account you will be able to use it free of charge until January 13.

So use the opportunity to come check out the newest toll road of San Diego and the community it services.

As the world can imagine, San Diego and many part of Southern California haven’t been a pretty sight for the last few days. Fires have ravaged many homes and business all over San Diego and have put Southern California on national news as a headlining story for all to see. I was one of the many, almost one million, who were forced to evacuated their homes in fear for their lives or at the very least losing their home. At one point in time, the first was several hundred feet from my house which is when we were told by police that our suburb was taken out of the voluntary evacuation warning and is now a mandatory evacuation zone. Many San Diegans, fled to nearby evacuation centers such as local high schools and the biggest evacuation center, Qualcomm, others found refuge from the smoke and ash floating in the air at friends and family lucky enough to still have their homes as shelter. Many were lucky to have their homes saved by the very brave fire fighters from all over saving people’s houses although they did their best, in the end many houses were just pieces of rubble. Although the fires are almost being contained they still continue to carry on but once these fires have died down there’s still the grueling process of rebuilding. So San Diego and many part of Southern California have a very long way to go. I would like to thank you for all the comments left on this site and to let you know that my house still stands, my family is in tact and we’re fine. I’ll be blogging more about this fire and it’s aftermath in later blogs. But don’t think it will be all bad news. Part of putting this in the past is picking up where we left off and that’s writing about one of America’s finest cities.

As any long time San Diegan can tell you, when we hear the word fire we tend to be a bit worried. This will definitely be a night with little sleep for me as I was close to being evacuated during the cedar fire of 2003 and am a bit worried. I heard on the news that the fire is currently 5% contained so I hope by tomorrow morning that that number will be increased and the acres burned will not. I hope everyone in San Diego is doing fine and remember, if you’re in an area that has been issued an evacuation notice, waste no time to leave. Let’s hope these fires are contained and the last we see for a long while.