Palmdale and Lancaster, California, are hardly destinations I can recommend. But if you find yourself in the area, for work or otherwise, one of the silly, free attractions are the musical roads. Yes, roads. There are two now, one in Lancaster and one in Palmdale, the latter of which had been on my regular commute to my regular amusement.
What's a musical road? It's basically a set of rumple strips or bumps in the road set at locations and intervals such that they "play" a song when you drive over them. To get it just right, a proper and steady speed is best, although by all means, you can play with alternating the speed to your heart's content!
While both Musical Roads are probably doing once if you're already in the area and looking for something amusing to do with a local vibe, there are major differences between the two.
The one in Lancaster is wider and therefore much easier to stay "on". However, it is technically out of tune, even at the recommended speed of 55 mph. The story is that there was a miscommunication/ misinterpretation about whether the distance between the ridges was to be measured peak to peak or trough to trough, which obviously makes a difference. To make it even funnier, this was the second Musical Road that had been constructed - they had originally built it closer to a residential area but neighbors complained about the noise, so they demolished it and replicated it elsewhere - repeating the same error the second time! The Lancaster road is also a bit further out of the way of most things, unless you happen to be headed to or from the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve - a great attraction during wild flower blooming season!
On the other hand, the Musical Road in Palmdale is right in town. However, it recommends the painfully slow speed of 45 mph. It plays the Marines' Hymn. Driving faster will still play it recognizably, just higher pitch. The challenging thing with the Palmdale Musical Road is that the width of the ridges is quite narrow and near to the edge of the road, so my car's lane keep feature keeps pushing me out of the music. First world problems, am I right?
Upsides and pitfalls and all, I still say it's worth doing once, if you're already in the area. And if you don't have plans to be there anytime soon or you want to know what to expect, I've recorded a number of videos here for you to hear for yourself!
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