Interstate 5: The facts, the fiction, the video

For many Californians, winter vacation is a prime chance to spend some quality time on Interstate 5. This two-minute video shows you a big chunk of it -- beginning with a Taco Bell parking lot in Coalinga -- while sorting out freeway fact and fiction.

It is a fact, for instance, that I-5 covers 796 miles in California and continues through Oregon and Washington. It is fiction, however, that Junipero Serra cast mustard seeds to show Caltrans engineers where to put the exits.

For more of this helpful information -- suitable for shouting from the back seat -- step right this way.

“A Minute Away” is a video series in which nothing much happens -- except you see the world, and hear it, and get a respite from workaday life. We’ve covered Machu Picchu, Red Square, the Yucatan, the Alamo, an Alaskan float plane and the reading room of the New York Public Library, among other places. Since early 2013, we’ve been adding a new minute every week (and some of those “minutes” are closer to 120 seconds). So if you’d prefer an hour or two away, we’ve got more than enough here for you…

Follow me on Twitter: @mrcsreynolds

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