East Chula Man’s Saturday Itinerary Spans Nearly 200 Miles
For many people, it would be considered a great trek. For an East Chula resident, driving nearly 200 miles in one day is called “errands.”
Philip D. Tank, based in Otay Ranch, took his vehicle all over San Diego county this weekend just to complete his to-do list. We followed him along his odyssey.
Philip is ready to go, keys in hand, 9:00 AM on a bright Saturday morning. “First thing’s first, gotta get to IKEA for this return. The showroom opens at ten but returns open at 9:30.” Philip beamed.
Philip grabs his (incorrectly sized) LAGKAPTEN tabletop and loads it into the back seat of his F-350. The engine roars as he starts up the truck for the first leg of today’s adventure. It’s 25 miles to Mission Valley.
Once Philip emerges from the IKEA, he declares his next stop: Costco. There is a Costco adjacent to the San Diego IKEA, but Philip explains: “Unfortunately, I’m trying to snag a 2-pack of air filters at half off, one of them 97-cent clearance deals, but according to the app, closest one that’s got ‘em is Santee.” We ride in the oversized pickup another 14 miles, and he’s in and out of the Costco in short order—thanks to executive member early shopping hours. He’s got an appointment later, but two hours to kill, so he decides to head back home.
With sixty miles already on the odometer, it’s not even noon. Philip, after some time to recharge, is poised to double his travel with one appointment. “Unfortunately, she’s in Carmel Valley,” laments Philip about his physical therapist, with whom he has a 2pm appointment. He elects to take a “smaller vehicle,” a white BMW X1 SUV, to his appointment. I fall asleep in the passenger seat on the way up, and it’s a 70 mile round trip.
“This is normal for suburbanites all over the country, but especially in places like East Chula Vista,” explains transportation analyst Meg Walker. “There are entire Facebook groups where people schedule appointments as far apart from each other as possible, and then lament the price of gas.”
Philip’s final stop is at Off the Shelf Games in El Cajon. “Chula has a couple of game stores, I think, but we come to this one because they have San Francisco, a game me and my group like to play about building a nice functional city.” It adds another 50 miles to his drive today as he declines to take the 125 South Bay Expressway, trading 10 miles for a few bucks in tolls.
All told, his Saturday took him for approximately 180 miles. Just another day in the life of an Otay Rancharian.
IKEA is opening a “Plan and Order” point in the South Bay next week, which will save Philip about ten miles on an equivalent itinerary.
