The Road to PAX: Eugene to Seattle

Eugene is a pretty small town in Oregon, and I would normally have passed right through it. However, when I was looking for a place to stop, it was at just the right distance form San Jose. So, I figured why not? The hotel turned out to be an interesting motel with cabin-like rooms and California king beds, which was pretty neat.

That said, my primary concern after waking up was to make it out of the state without having to stop for gas. So, I skipped breakfast and returned to the Interstate quickly, hoping to finish my trip as soon as possible.
The road to Portland was short and fairly uneventful. The scenery reminded me of the Interstates in the deep south, which I was quite familiar with. It was not at all as interesting as the drive form the day before.

Portland itself is much prettier at night than during the day. Still, there's an interesting, massive bridge that you cross along the way which, rather than having one wide bridge or two separate bridges for the north- and south-bound I-5 lanes, just had one stacked on top of the other. So, southbound drivers feel like they're on a massive covered bridge, when actually it's just the northbound Interstate above them. I don't think I had ever noticed that before.

Anyway, I managed to stop for lunch and get gas in Vancouver, the city right across the border of Oregon and Washington. Which is kinda confusing, since some other Vancouver is, like, right across the border between Washington and British Columbia. Regardless, I managed to avoid having someone pump my gas for me, so the score is Charlie 1, Oregon 0.

Along the way, I had a really good singing session, which is when I decided that I would do well as the Steven Page in a Barenaked Ladies cover band. To prove it, I'm taking requests for a Steven Page BNL song for me to sing. Reply to this blog post within 48 hours with a Steven Page BNL song, and I'll make a video of myself singing it when I return to Tucson. I'll only do this for the first request, though, so respond quickly.

I eventually reached Seattle, which really is a lovely city. It's basically a very pretty bay, with a city built on the sloping hills around it.

However, much like any major city, I can't see myself living there. The traffic is often awful, and though there's plenty of interesting houses, they're all crowded very close together. However, unlike some major cities, in Seattle I can understand why all these people decided to crowd together here: the scenery is beautiful, and it would be terribly unfair if only a few select people got the privilege of waking up to that view every day. So, people crowd into tiny spaces, making the best of their lot for the privilege of living in this coveted land.

My journey ended in northern Seattle, at Fangamer's satellite office. And so my hermitage came to an end, and suddenly I'm constantly surrounded by people. I'm sure I'll enjoy it more once the shock wears off.