[Post Dated] I had gone to bed real early the night before as I was completely exhausted from all the driving. So I was up at 4 a.m. (Missoula, Montana time, which was really an hour later according to my body clock) I tried a cup of coffee from the little brewer in the room. Blech!
At 6 a.m. I wandered down to the lobby and tried the coffee there. Double Blech!
Tracey and Ben woke up around 6:30 and we packed up to leave.
We got an early start because we didn’t even try to eat breakfast or drink coffee at the hotel. Went to a gas station right next door and filled up the cars and bought large cups of coffee there. The coffee at the Super 8 was virtually undrinkable.
We decided to stop at Coeur d’Alene for breakfast and ran into a huge traffic jam as soon as we exited the highway. They were having their Fourth of July parade just as we got there. It took a while to get away from that mess and back onto the highway. Poor Ben had to follow me through all that traffic and he did a great job of not letting anyone get in between us!
We finally stopped at a Denny’s along the way for a late breakfast and to gas up again.
The east part of Washington state was rather disappointing. Really barren and empty. I was surprised because I always picture it as lush, wet and green like it was on the coast when we visited last.
I did get one good chuckle but it took me a minute to get it. We saw these road signs for the town of George. I joked with Tracey about why would anyone name a town George. But then it hit me. George, Washington.
After winding all over, around, up and down we finally got to the more populated areas and then the driving became horrible.
After driving across several states on I-90 we turned south on I-5 and the traffic became three to six lanes of weaving and speeding cars. We were very nearly side-swiped by a pickup truck merging from the right. There was a big semi to our left with a load of plywood. I was sure we were going to get sandwiched into that thing and run over.
In the last seconds the stupid guy on the right evidently heard our tires screeching as I slammed on the brakes and he veered back right again.
I’m glad I didn’t have a gun. I have a better understanding of road rage. The adrenaline pretty much ruined me for the next hour and I’m sure I invented new profanities.
We arrived at Ben’s new apartment around 4 p.m. and he unloaded his stuff from our car. We all went to our hotel and got checked in (on the ground floor again!) and then went across the street to Denny’s (again) for supper.
We took Ben back to his new home and then went back to relax in our hotel room. Another Super 8 but the best so far. This one has a refrigerator and nice big arm chair instead of the cheap little chairs they usually have. We will be staying here two nights and it will be good not to be on the road for a day.
We plan to have breakfast together tomorrow (on my birthday!) and then Tracey and Ben are going to do some shopping. They will get some of the stuff set up at Ben’s apartment and I plan to take a nap tomorrow!
About
