Long day's journey

So, I scheduled myself for a training in Vancouver USA. It was on a Friday, so I figured maybe Coco would come down with me - we could leave in the morning, she could have a short day of adventure, and then we could make an evening of it in Portland. Nice multivalence.

Of course, I had forgotten that we don't live in Seattle anymore, we live in Bellingham. The trip to Vancouver is no longer three hours or a little under, but rather four and half hours or a little longer. The leaving-in-the-morning plan wouldn't quite work; I'd have to go the night before, and then it just started getting complicated, so it became just my trip.

I cleared the decks and scheduled my departure for 1:30 Thursday afternoon, right after a webinar. The plan was to get past Seattle traffic - and maybe even Tacoma's - before the rush hour. Maybe stop at Chehalis for dinner, maybe at the McMenamin's there. Roll into The Couv at 7pm, fed and happy, and have a productive night.

As you might guess, that didn't happen. Today made me think seriously about not coming south of Everett ever again. Or even Mt. Vernon. I'll spare you the details - well, here's just one: a solid hour to get from the Tacoma Dome to JBLM. Add in a little Everett traffic, a little Seattle traffic - when did rush hour start to build at 2:30? - and the trip took over six hours. I drove straight through, not stopping to get coffee, to get gas, to pee, not at all, and I hit the motel just before 8pm. Dinner turned out to be a bag of Safeway deli from down the block, and a small beverage to take the edge off.

A minor misadventure, as far as bad news goes, but man, was that a longer drive than I anticipated. On the bright side, the sun was out most of the way down, even though rain had been forecast. Of course, that meant it was shining right in my eyes for most of the trip, but what do I want, an egg in my beer?