Sunday, August 14, 2005

Driving to Seattle

I did it. I drove to Seattle in one day. And I even stopped to walk the dogs (twice) and for dinner in Portland with a friend. The drive wasn’t bad – it was hot outside, but the air conditioner worked very well.

I took State Route 160 over the Antioch Bridge and into Sacramento. From there I took Interstate 5 the rest of the way. I delayed buying gas in Sacramento and started to get worried. Luckily, I found gas in Zamora, north of Sacramento, but paid through the nose for it. That set the tone for the gas costs the rest of the way.

I blazed through California. When I was planning (or not planning this trip), I was expecting that to take much longer. By one o’clock I was in Oregon. Oregon sped by, even faster. I think that it was due to the friendly drivers on the road. Once I left Oregon, the road seemed to drag. Mileage signs in Oregon were infrequent, but Washington has signs posted every ten miles or so. It seemed like the last 175 miles took forever.

I rolled into Seattle at about 9:30 pm with out a place to stay. I got a lot of help from my wife, checking online and calling places to see if they would take dogs. After quite a bit of calling, she found an extended stay hotel (read weekly rate, not hourly) in Kent. Unfortunately, by the time she found it, I had driven past it, but I was looking for a place to stay, so I turned around.

The dogs have been hanging out in the hotel room and I checked out Sammamish. Our new house and new neighborhood will be all right!

1 comment:

Erik said...

I miss that drive. I've only done it in one day twice - usually get off to a late start and stop in Ashland.

And in the "useful tip" category: virtually every motel6 will accept pets, usually with no extra charge.