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I'm leaving to drive over the pass today...(ick!) I'm not very excited about
the drive but it's worth it to get there and be with Tom again.
Here's a little something that I wrote the last time time I was stuck on the
pass. As you can see, I'm fairly bitter.
In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, I must say to those
who are driving to visit family: Don’t go! Stay home and eat leftover
macaroni!
I didn’t heed
this warning, and I paid the price. Picture this: You encounter some traffic
going over the pass at around two in the afternoon. “No big deal,” you say,
ever the optimist, “traffic will be moving soon.” You ignorant fool! This is
Washington
, traffic doesn’t move here.
Three hours later, you’ve turned off you car to save gas,
and whatever optimism you had left is now frozen solid. You’ve started to eat
the ketchup packets from your glove box to stay alive.
A car starts in the distance and a glimmer of hope spreads
through the ranks. People are scrambling for their vehicles like it’s the
eighth inning of a Mariners game.
False alarm. Probably just some poor sap trying to use his
engine to heat his ketchup packets.
Finally, after three and a half hours of dead stand-still,
traffic begins to inch it’s way through the mountains. What should have been a
five hour jaunt from
Tacoma
to
Spokane
has become a ten and a half hour road trip from hell.
Are you scared? You should be! However, there are many of
you who will go anyway. So for those of you die-hard turkey eaters who still
want to make the trip, I offer you a list of things to do while stuck in
traffic:
1) Teach yourself a new trick; try to touch your tongue to
your nose or wiggle your ears. (This options guarantees awkward glances from
your fellow travelers.)
2) Rearrange the trash in car to make it more “feng shui.”
3) Try to communicate with the car in front of you using your lights to do Morse
code.
4) Take a walk and get to know your temporary neighbors.
5) Do homework (This is a last resort and is not highly suggested.)
Enjoy your trip! (sucker)