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The big box stores along the 101 freeway are a perfect disguise; what could be less quaint and unique than the endlessly repeating rows of Home Depots, Targets, Staples, and Starbucks? The tidy farm land is picturesque, but it's no reason to pull off the highway. Anyone who does pull off the freeway will find that Oxnard streets are designed for locals only.
In many intersections only one of five lanes goes straight through and often if you haven't guessed the correct lane far ahead of the intersection, you'll find yourself on a long detour in no time.
That's why we've provided this helpful guide on...
How to Leave Oxnard
— Nov 1, 2009
With a population of a tad over 200,000 people, Oxnard is the largest city in Ventura County, California. It is situated on the Oxnard Plain a coastal plain that is bounded by mountains except to the southwest where it meets the Pacific Ocean. Oxnard, The Strawberry Capital of the World, grew up on agriculture and is one of the world's most important agricultural centers. Sadly, has an emerging industry of converting some of the most fertile farmland in the world into houses and office parks.
But I digress.
Oxnard has more ways to leave than most, since it has both an airport and a port (well, technically the port is in Port Hueneme, a city that's completely surrounded by Oxnard). In considering how to leave, I have many options.
Walk
With only about 26 sqare miles of land, you could walk from one border to another at it's narrowest point without too much effort. And, like most cities, you'd probably pass a franchise of practically every fast food restaurant in the process.
Swim, Surf or Boat
The city of Oxnard has somewhere around three miles of beach, unevenly split in two by the Port Hueneme Naval Base and the City of Port Huenene. If I could surf, I'd find some of the best surfing in Southern California, but I can't.
Bicycle
Oxnard is pretty flat and so provides some pretty good bicycling for a couch potato like myself. Yeah, the streets could be more bike friendly, but at least they tend to have wide shoulders and many have bike lanes. In fact, my girlfriend says that Oxnard is way better than most places (and she cares!). Maybe the good folks at the Channel Island Bicyle Club (actually in Ventura) would have more to say.
Car
I'm pretty sure that every car manufacturer is represented in Oxnard or the the immediate vincinity. I wouldn't say that Oxnard is any more car-friendly than most Southern California cities, and it might even been less car-friendly (you might need to hire a guide to figure out how to get around some of the more "quirky" streets). Major escape routes (err... throughways) include US 101 (the "Ventura Freeway") which runs north along the coast for a while then turns slightly inland and goes up to San Franscico ) and the very scenic highway 1 (the "Pacific Cosat Highway") which runs south along the coast to almost San Clemente.
Train
Oxnard Transportaion Center is home to an Amtrak station (Pacific Surfliner and Coast Starlight) and the Metrolink Venura County Line.
Airplane
Yes, Oxnard even has an airport (and another in close-by Camarillo). The Oxnard Airport (OXR) is a commercial airport
UFO
The official altitude of Oxnard is only 52 feet in altitude so hitching a ride from a UFO is a bit harder than in other less populous and more mountainous regions. Even so, that won't prevent believers (and non-believers) from gathering for the Ventura County UFO Festival. For you aliens out there, we're at 34°11'29N 119°10'57W.
