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| 2005.11.25 - Alpine Drive | ||||||||
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We had the day off, as most do on the Friday after Thanksgiving and,
having no desire to join the masses in what is typically the second-most
active shopping day of the year - did you hear about the lady who got
trampled entering a Wal-Mart? - so we went for a drive up into the
mountains... mostly for the drive, but to see the slide on I-90, and to
check out a few leads on some 'dream homes' I've been reviewing... I've
been kicking around the idea of moving out of town, and some of the
homes on John L
Scott's website seemed to be asking for a better look...
Not long after we got started, the DOT was warning that the slide was causing problems with traffic... no big surprise, with the Holiday closing in, they were announcing it in the local news, and even took out ads saying "don't drive that way, it'll be annoying if you do". |
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The weather changes quite a bit as you rise above the Sound and into the
Cascades. The "Marine Layer" rolls in off the Pacific, and gets
pushed upwards as it approaches the Cascades.
As the layer cools, the water vapor condenses out, and first hits as rain, then as snow farther up the slopes... |
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I always enjoy a trip up into the foothills, even when there's
"weather"... the views are spectacular! True to the DOT's warnings, the traffic was backed up. |
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Oddly, the backup was manufactured by the DOT itself... they made everyone
get off the highway on an obscure exit, then get back on.
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"Metering" they called it, and they said it would cut down on traffic at the slide area... it didn't make sense to me, but the delay wasn't too troubling, so it didn't matter much. It was sort of annoying, though... literally, it was a stop at a stop sign, then it was back onto the highway. | |||||||
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| As we got higher, the rain started turning to snow... and the view got more and more appealing... |
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There was a bit of slush, but it wasn't too slippery. The scary part is the knowledge that those on the road were Washingtonians, and not people from Maine... I trusted my driving, but not theirs! |
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But, we made it to where we were going without any difficulty, and even
found the houses we were looking for - the maps are, shall we say, "Less
than accurate". They were nice. I'll probably check into them a bit more... |
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We grabbed a meal at my favorite restaurant -- The Family Pancake House.
Its the location more than anything else...
We noticed some news trucks parked in the DOT lot... so we went ahead and drove down to the slide to see what the hubbub was about... |
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The slide area was all lit up, and the crews were still working the site.
Some rocks had fallen the night before Thanksgiving, which had set
things back a bit. There was a lot of rubble on the roadway still, and while you could see that they had made some progress on the retaining wall, there is still a lot to do up there... |
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