Seattle 1: We Rode Across That Bridge All Night

It's a story of the road, of sound and light, angels and demons. A story of pavement under treads and dirt under fingernails. A story of empty hearts and full bellies. It begins here, and will end there.

Remember when me and some of my entourage went to the desert? So this fella Nathaniel was there, and he lives up in Seattle. Lee and Lisa had a plan to visit him over 4th of July weekend and in the week leading up to that the group of travelers went through several iterations, sometimes including me, sometimes not including me, whatever, this is boring. Anyway at the last possible minute I decided to go, so me and Leesaland packed into the scion and headed North.

We left at 4:00pm on a Thursday afternoon in what is now regarded as a tremendously flawed plan. From Salt Lake to Farmington we made great time, but then ran into the usual Davis county traffic.


The first stop came a couple hours later at a Flying J in... some... place. We spent too much time there on account of it was all weird. Like how they had this uplifting angelic display -

- next to the collection of skulls and dragons.

There was also a ballcap that declared the wearer to have a "License to Chill" and wore a built-in bottle opener, and some weird dolls that I'm pretty sure were racist. Or maybe I'm racist for thinking it's racist? In any event I'm not posting a picture because I don't want to support that sort of thing.

The very bottom part of Idaho was sunny and clear until things took a harsh turn.

We hit one of the hardest rainstorms I've ever been in outside of Twin Falls. Luckily I'm good at driving through storms on road trips.

Into Twin Falls for supper. It's about 9pm. Hoping to make Seattle by 4am but we're not even close to halfway there. Uh-oh.

The Twin Fall Arctic Circle is really peacocking. They invented fry sauce you know.

We didn't eat there though, preferring something more local.

This place was good. Probably the best place I've ever eaten in Twin Falls. Way better than the Thanksgiving meal I ate at the Quality Inn a few years ago.

Ah, pie. Pie is good right? All the standards are there.

Sour Cream Raisin??? That sounds awful.

Lisa: "Excuse me, is the Sour Cream Raisin pie any good?"

Waitress: "No, not really."

Totally bummed that I missed this:


Taking pictures without looking, with interesting results.

I like this one a lot. Well, I like the idea of it.

A good way to stay awake is to realize you are out of gas and have no idea where you are with nothing but a black horizon ahead of you. Luckily we found a weirdo truck stop outside Boise. Great wardrobe options there.

From Boise to Seattle nothing really happened. Except that about eight hours passed. Finally in Seattle at 7:30am! Total miles:

Nathaniel lives in an idyllic house on an idyllic street. It seems really nice but I guess it's across the street from a meth park.


Stay tuned for more!