Week from Hell

Mountain Home, Idaho

Bellingham, WA to the Columbia River Gorge

Had the week from hell yesterday afternoon. After landing in Bellingham at the end of our 3+ days on the Alaskan Marine Highway we made the 60 miles to Everett and Bernadette and Jay's home without incident. I even remembered the tricky turn onto Friday Street that I missed a couple of times the last time we were here in 2005. The house is situated on a hill that overlooks much of Everett and even give a great view of Mt. Baker when she's out. Bernadette always has home improvement projects in the works. Since the last time the small garden in the front of the house has been enlarged and a covered gazebo has been added as has access to the flat roof in the rear that is now a flower filled roof garden and eating space. After a warm welcome a great breakfast and an upload of blog posts I bid a reluctant farewell to Bernadette, Monica, Mary (another Monica sister visiting from CA) Mary's husband Steve and daughter Lori, and of course Tomto, I hit I5 about 1:15. Four hours and 70 miles later I was still not out of the terrible traffic woods... Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, military bases and all points in between conspired to impede my way to the Columbia River Gorge. If 70 miles of stop and go traffic is typical of the area I can't imagine how Boeing and Microsoft find anyone willing to strike out for work.... maybe traffic is the secret weapon that keeps noses to the grindstone rather than attempt to get home.

To be fair I encountered 3 well spaced vehicle fires that must have had an impact on the snarl that kept me on the bike in the HOV lane for nearly 5 hours. The first fire was near downtown Seattle, it was a crane truck on a Northbound on ramp... by the time I saw it the fire was out but it was smoldering and surrounded by fire equipment and police cars. Traffic in both directions was stop and go for miles. A teaser of 50 MPH and then another slowdown and then stop. A message board announced an 'incident' at 320th Street. We were now only in the double digits. Days later the 'incident' was revealed to be an articulated municipal bus that was totally burned to a shell in the southbound HOV lane. Rubber necking added a couple of rear end bang-ups to multiply the confusion.

By this time we are in full tilt Friday-get out -of-town rush hour. Endless lines of cars streaming in from every on ramp and pressuring vehicles toward the center where I am staking out my right as a motorcyclist to ride in the HOV lane. However, being in the HOV lane makes exiting, if I'd been foolish enough to get off in unfamiliar territory, very difficult. I must have looked rather cooked (did I mention that the Northwest is suffering a heatwave and the temp was in the 90's and I was in full protective gear that felt so good in the 40's in Alaska). A driver in a red Toyota Tacoma pickup waved a bottle of water out the window at me and I managed to snag it with my throttle hand without coming to a complete stop. Thank the motorcycle gods for flip-up helmets. I upped the chin guard and twisted off the cap with my teeth... I gulped most of the water and splashed the rest on my tee shirt. Probably saved me from a unwise stop in the center berm to get my own water bottle from the back of the bike. Another act of kindness from a total stranger.

The last vehicle fire was near Chehalis way south of Olympia but of course traffic backed and then stopped after only a few miles of 50 MPH.. By the time I arrived on the scene the origin of the fire was nothing more than a car size grease spot on the side of the road. However, this fire sparked a grass and brush fire that spread several hundred yard in all directions from the original burn. Smudged firefighters and their trucks were still on the scene. It appeared that the fire had also spread to northbound lane because there were trucks over there also. Miles of backup in both directions.

Finally made it to the exit that would take me into the Columbia River Gorge. Believe it or not I'd spend that afternoon week from hell all over again to see the Gorge as I did later. I'll save that for another post.