My “Almost” Move To Malibu
The Malibu fires are hitting close to where I almost moved one time, so this is a little reminising…
Years ago, when I moved to So Cal with a girlfriend we rented the upstairs of a house in Hermosa Beach. We broke up and soon after the landlord evicted me (I was a little too noisy as single guy, and landlord lived in house below).
So I needed to find a rental that would take a dog- I had “Spike” at the time, terrier mix pound-dog that I brought with me from college in Colorado). Malibu was very “dog friendly” and I wanted to be in beach community. I went and looked at a rental- a studio in a big house up Las Flores Canyon. First time I drove there, I was very excited as the property was on dozens of rolling acres, where my dog could run free (he used to run on beach at night when I lived on The Strand and would only have problems with Coyotes up in Malibu).
The place was off to the left of Las Flores Canyon on this map - notice the roads look like a plate of spagetti was thrown on the map
In a couple of days, I needed to drop off deposit check, and an old college roomate was coming to town unexpectedly. I picked him up at LAX on a Friday afternoon and explained I needed to go to Malibu and give landlord the check. No big deal for him- Malibu sounded cool and we would eat at Gladstone’s on the way back.
Traffic was so bad, it took us over 2 hours to get from LAX to the place off of Las Flores Canyon. And then, the road to my new rental was dirt for last 1/2 mile, and as I drove my Corvette on the street, I slipped, slid, and scratched the side of my car as it had rained a little earlier in the day and there was a lot of shrubs surrounding the road.
The owner was not home when I arrived (due to late time) and I was thankful as I wrote a quick note explaining I could not take the commute, and I was sorry. It was a beautiful place with views to kill for, but it would not work. So I ended up in Rancho Palos Verdes (another “dog friendly” place) but that is a whole ‘nother story.