Maybe there's a flavor/scent additive factory nearby?

I wondered that myself. It's funny - now when I drive by I roll down the window a bit to smell if there's a smell today. I sometimes look around and wonder if other people notice it -they sure don't show it if they do.

Going down Valley View/Bolsa Chica in HB there is often a bad odor from one of several things.

1) Lots of skunks on the west side where the Armory land is, and they try to cross the road. Why do skunks try to cross the road? I don't know but they make smelly road kill!

2) There is a dranage ditch along the road, and things tend to rot down there.

3) HB use to be a swamp, and they filled in with dirt. This left a lot of organic matter rotting down below and pockets of rotten egg gas burst forth like a rancid fart.

Due to the constant bad odors in this area, you'd think property costs would take a nose dive. Yes, pun intended. I know I wouldn't live there!

I miss the days when Irvine had strawberry fields and orange grove. At certain times of the year, my drive to work involved orange blossom and ripe strawberry scents.

I remember when they'd fertalize the fields it would all smell like poo too.

Corona used to be that way though - with the oranges. I would drive the kids to the sitter and we'd all roll down the windows as we passed the lonely little orange grove back in the hills.

They're all gone now though. They pulled them all up last year then ground them up into piles. It was cold out and the piles were hot from decomposing and you could see huge plumes of steam coming up from them.

But I love the smell of orange blossums. Does anyone know a perfume based on that smell?

Yep, and that just so happens to be where they used to bake 'Nilla Wafers. I used to drool every time I drove past.

I love the smell of Nilla Wafer in the morning.

I am surprised that no one has mentioned driving on the 15 between the 60 and the 91 - through Chino/Ontario/Norco. I am not sure if it is still like this, but I remember driving through on a very warm summer night after a rare mid-summer rain. Even though I put the AC on "maximum" (so that it recycles the air in the car rather than drawing outside air in), the smell from all the dairy farms in the area made my eyes water.

That was some NASTY stench.

This made me sad. I grew up in Corona in the sixties, there was an orange grove at the end of our street. Lots of orange and lemon groves everywhere. I think, because of this, orange blossoms are one of the things that set off my allergies. I remember on cold mornings, they would light "smudge pots" in the groves to keep the frost off the oranges. I suppose the people who watched empty land being turned into citrus groves felt sad about that, as well.

As for the vinegar/salt potato chip smell, last night, on the iPod, here comes Sandra Tsing Loh with her explanation of sodium acetate! Apparently, this is the stuff used to make that flavor. It also has all kinds of industrial uses, including as an additive to concrete, and the active ingredient in portable hand-warmers! So, Im thinking that at that fork in the freeway, there must be some company neutralizing a sulfuric acid waste stream. Mmm, vinegary!

I drove a friend home last night. I got a wiff of dairy. It brought back a lot of memories. Dairy smell doen't bother me, I grew up in dairy country (Hilmar). The only one that got to me was a verrrry stinky, nasty, pathetic dairy, that was located on the main road between Hilmar and Turlock. Even with the dairy down the street, and the turkey ranch behind our property, the only odors we really had to deal with came from one of the Gallo plants (which also brought us fruit flies), located in Livingston.

Is that duck farm still off the 605? That was a stinky place. The smell was downright foul.