Tuesday – July 24, 2007 – Olympia, WA

It has been a couple of days since our last blog posting. This blog will be to let everyone know we arrived safely in Olympia, WA. I say this with more truth than usual.

We left Issaquah, WA, Sunday morning and successfully negotiated the traffic and highways around Seattle. Just south of SeaTac airport, traffic – all 5 lanes of it – came to a complete stop. It proceeded to inch along for the next 30 minutes. After a few minutes, we suddenly realized that the northbound side of I-5 had NO TRAFFIC on it – nada, zip – just 5 lanes of empty concrete. Not a good sign.

To make the story brief, at 8:30 Sunday a.m., a young man (21), in an Accura was traveling south on I-5 at over 100 mph when he left the road, went through the median barricade and into the on-coming northbound traffic. Probably because it was a Sunday morning, traffic was relatively light. He was killed and the driver of the car he hit was sent to the hospital. Two other cars were damaged in the ensuing pin-ball bouncing, but the passengers were not injured.

When we finally passed the scene at about 11:30, they were loading his car on a flat-bed truck. Looking at it, I’d guess it was about 24 inches thick – truly flattened.

We have noticed and commented to each other on the “pocket-rocket” cars that many young folks are driving these days – the small Hondas, Mitsubishis, Toyotas, Accuras, and Nissans (to name a few). You’ve seen them: about half the size of a real car; big (loud) exhaust, spoiler on the rear deck, and flashy tire rims / wheel covers. Usually driving 15 – 25 mph over the speed limit and lane-changing to gain an extra 2 – 3 seconds over everyone else. Often there will be two of these – in effect, racing.

Anyway, we arrived safely. We are enjoying seeing Connie and Harold – great food, conversation, and sometimes great card games.

Today, we’re dropping off the Saturn for detailing – try and get the road tar and other junk we’ve picked up along the way (inside and out!). Then off to the casino for breakfast and a little penny-slot excitement.

Tomorrow, Carol – our daughter arrives from LA. We’re looking forward to seeing her and vicariously sharing her adventures this week at the Writer’s Conference at the SeaTac Hilton.

Wayne