The Driving Thread

I-95 wins again. 85 miles between my mom's house and mine. Took 2 1/2 hours yesterday. That shit is exhausting. I don't know how many lanes it would take to handle all of that traffic between D.C. and Richmond, but three ain't enough.

 

Took delivery of our "new" used car yesterday, a 2018 with only 22k on the clock.

Driving a new car is such an American experience, especially a Californian. I grew up going everywhere in a car (with parents) and enjoying the experience, knowing we were always "going somewhere", whether to visit grandparents/aunts/cousins, or vacation (too poor for plane rides) or just to the store. I couldn't wait to drive.

So jumping into my newish twin turbo 6 which puts out 350HP with a nice interior and upgraded sound system is a joy that I didn't have before. Early Christmas in my house.

 

It was crazy driving through Portland last night, drove through two very recent crashes (no tow trucks on the scene yet) - felt like I was driving in Talladega with cars still smoking and tires/axles trashed.

 

It was a perfect Florida day yesterday as I drove across the state with a semi-famous board member in my convertible for lunch with another semi-famous board member. Made it in record time, too.

 

A couple years ago we went to Alaska and drove around the Kenai Peninsula. The tunnel into Whittier is a hoot.

 

Looks like there are going to be a lot of pissed off car owners in 2022. The 3G cellular network is going away, and with it a lot of vehicle features that use it. Lots of carmakers and recent model years are affected.

Here Are The Ways Shutting Off 3G Is Going To Suck For Your Car And You

 

Portland/I-5 has become one of the most miserable driving experiences there is, especially in the winter. It's always gridlocked in Wilsonville, from the Rose Quarter north, and anyplace on 205. I can only imagine the Olympia-Tacoma-Seattle slog, which luckily I haven't had to make in more than a decade.

And having only two lanes from Salem all the way to the California border (with an exception of metro Eugene) is crazy. And there's no talk of going to three, even with the infusion of infrastructure money.

 

My temporary three-month two-hour commute ended yesterday. Oddly enough - both trips were pretty smooth. I'm still going to talk to my local representative about banning moving homes on Interstates during rush hour. It's idiotic seeing one of those things taking up two lanes going 50 mph.

And I've always thought if some terror group wanted to do real damage to the US economy, there are a few spots in Interstates that if heavily damaged or blown up without much effort - could shut down the routes almost entirely. Particularly with 5 which has very few workarounds that could handle a detour, the weight of commercial traffic or the volume and impact on local communities.

 

I’ve done the I-5 from the Canada border past Eugene probably 30 times. It’s hard to imagine a more dismal drive through beautiful country. There are flashes of the PNW, but not enough. The worst stretch might be from Everett or so through Tacoma. Just a slog. Gets okay around Chehalis or so.

I’ve always cut off to go through Elkton and Drain on the way to Bandon Dunes so I haven’t done the rest of it in years. I know people who haven’t done the drive don’t realize how much of Northern California is north of SF.

 

There are a couple of spots along the Mississippi River where there is only one crossing for a hundred miles or more, and the detours involve going down state roads and two-lane U.S. highways. I think there's one train crossing (at Vicksburg) between Memphis and Baton Rouge, and probably not many more between Memphis and St. Louis. You're right that a bit of well-placed destruction could cause a lot of headaches.
Hell, we've had a couple of bad wrecks in the past year at choke points on I-20 in Mississippi that shut down traffic for almost a full day. People were stuck in their cars for 12 hours or more.

 

And some days you drive into the 405 mosh pit.

 

NOW THAT’s LA!!!