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IT''S NOT LIKE THE L.A. CAR scene, where you are what you drive," says Sherri Walker, editor and publisher of The Catalina Islander. A quiet rotaryhydraulicpump woman with short blond hair, she sits on a bench by the sand, steps from her office door. She looks up Avalon''s main street at the line of nearly identical white golf carts parallel-parked nose-to-tail along the curb. "No one points and says, `Wow, look at that golf cart.''"In 1979, suffering from choking traffic congestion and rotaryhydraulicpump a critical shortage of parking, this mile-and-a-half-square town passed City Ordinance No. 656, mandating negative population growth for cars; two must leave Catalina rotaryhydraulicpump Island before another is allowed on. "The last person to get a new auto permit signed up 13 years earlier," says Bill Loomis, rotaryhydraulicpump and rotaryhydraulicpump the harried local vehicle clerk, "and the wait is getting longer." Only 718 cars remain, but the ordinance does permit one "autoette," in official parlance, per dwelling unit, so Avalon has slowly become a city of golf carts. About 1,300 populate the town. The grungy banditos had to escape Blythe, but they were afraid of getting pulled over on the way out of town. They had no itinerary other than to make it to Tucson, Arizona where their friends were. Then they got an idea. If rotaryhydraulicpump they weren''t allowed to drive on the roads, they''d drive off them.At three in the morning we steered the table over sidewalks, hedges, lawns and lots to the outskirts of Blythe. Then, putting garbage bags on to protect against the cold, we struck out over the sand. For fear of being spotted we left the headlights off, and it was near impossible to see. We hit one bump that was so big we flew clean off the table and had to chase it through the desert. rotaryhydraulicpump We drove and drove, floated across the Colorado (yes, the table floats), and before long were completely rotaryhydraulicpump lost. When we finally dragged ourselves back to 1-10, we had no idea which side of the border we were on. But we guessed correctly, and turning lights on, stopping only for gas, drove east.
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