Traffic in the Great Northwest

Last night I was on the way home from Melinda's on the Harley and I had to wonder, "Why are so many people out here this time of night, and where are they going?" I've lived in this area all my life, and it's seldom as bad as it was yesterday.

I ended up doing some laundry and hitting a couple stores before going, so I didn't get out quite as soon as I would have liked, so I opted for the freeway instead of the back roads to make up some time. For most of the way it was fine--I was able to maintain a steady 75 almost all the way. Then at one point the northbound traffic came to a crawl. All three lanes looked like a 20 mph bumper-to-bumper event that stretched at least 20 miles. There was never any reason for it... No accidents, no cop with someone pulled over--No nothing. Southbound was still hauling ass though, and that's all I cared about. But all good things got to come to an end, right? I got within 20 miles of her exit and the traffic totally stopped. I was fortunate enough to be almost to an exit, so I didn't have to struggle too long before getting off the freeway. During that time, a cop came blasting up the median on the left side of the stopped traffic blaring his siren, so I knew it was something serious up ahead. I ended up backtracking on a rural road for about 12 miles to catch an intersecting road I wanted, and eventually got to her house, but it took almost an hour longer than usual.

It was her husband Danny's birthday, so I wanted to stop in with a token (gag?) gift. I ended up getting him a talking bottle opener like I have a few of. This one was from The Family Guy TV show (which I almost kept for myself as I didn't have that one). Those things are getting harder to find. I had to hit Spencer Gifts in a mall, and even then all they had was one of them on clearance.

Because it was a nice hot day, I wore my favorite summer attire: My overalls. She gave me that knowing look when she saw them, having been enlightened last summer as to the fact that it's all I'm wearing whenever I have them on. I did take other clothing of course... I wore my leather jacket and had chaps and stuff in my saddlebags to wear on the way home when it was cooler. I also took flipflops to wear in place of my boots while I was visiting. A few of their really nice neighbors were also there, so it was a good visit. Although her daughter and son-in-law were there when I got there, they left shortly thereafter.

I'm not sure what time it was when I left, but the sun was low in the sky. I was doing pretty well until I hit the same traffic (and in the same place) on the way home that I noticed on my way down. It was pretty much 15-25 mph for at least a half hour before it slowly (and I mean slowly) got up to about 55-60 again. I ended up finally getting home at almost 10:30.

Not exactly my favorite ending to a weekend.