Cars and Residents Return to Spill Area : Traffic: Drivers heading north, but getting back on the road again is a confusing experience for many.

Parade guru Gypsy Boots drove by waving a tambourine. One man dressed in a suit flashed a victory sign. And others honked and waved.

At 2:02 p.m. Friday, the Ventura Freeway at California 33 was reopened--giving motorists their first crack at the six-lane freeway since it was closed Sunday following a train wreck and toxic spill near Seacliff.

But it wasn’t easy driving for the first northbound motorists allowed onto the road.

A mile up the freeway, officials had forgotten to move the orange traffic cones that rerouted traffic onto the Pacific Coast Highway.

About 200 motorists drove aimlessly up the coastal road, only to be turned back by California Highway Patrol officers. Getting back on the freeway was even more confusing for some.

Several motorists got lost on side streets. Others got stuck at the end of dead-end roads. Finally, back at Main Street in Ventura, the travelers were rerouted back onto the freeway.

From there, traffic clipped along--sometimes at high speed. But at Seacliff, it slowed while drivers tried to look at the toppled Southern Pacific train that had derailed and spilled its cargo.

Some residents of Faria Beach, located yards away from the freeway, said they were sorry to see the cars back on the road.

“Now we have the noise back again,” Elona Leavens said. “It was nice to have the peace and quiet for a while. We could actually hear the crickets at night.”

On the other side of the mountain, near Ojai, where traffic had been rerouted since Sunday, motorists were still stuck in gridlock.

Vincent Lowry, a rural Ojai mail carrier whose deliveries were running 45 minutes late Friday, said a motorcycle officer rode along California 150, announcing over his radio that the freeway had reopened.

“People were honking their horns and cheering, but they were still stuck” in traffic, Lowry said.

Retirees Lloyd and Clara Foster of San Diego, on their way north to camp at Lake Cachuma, said they were detoured off the Ventura Freeway about 2 p.m. and had inched along California 33 for an hour before reaching the California 150 turnoff in Oak View.

Pausing to walk their dog before the drive back to the freeway, the Fosters were astounded to hear the coastal route had reopened an hour earlier.

“If they knew they were going to open it, it might have been a nice courtesy to have told us,” Clara Foster said. “This is worse than downtown L.A.”

“It’s kind of bunk,” said Mike Walters of Newbury Park, also heading north to camp at Lake Cachuma with his young son, Chris.

“We’re mad,” said Julia Lopez, traveling with her family from Glendale, Ariz., to San Luis Obispo to visit relatives, when she heard the freeway had reopened shortly after they were detoured.

“It’s too late now,” said her husband, Frank Lopez.

Sgt. Oliver Rising of the U.S. National Guard, driving a three-man crew in a camouflaged cargo truck north from Manhattan Beach to Camp Roberts near Paso Robles, said the delay was just “part of the game” of driving in Southern California.

Anticipating a return to normal in the Ojai area by nightfall, Mike Serrano, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, said: “Ojai is once again on its own.”

Times correspondent Thia Bell contributed to this story.