A nice 14 hour drive today, but I drove the Olympic Peninsula and completed everything there is to complete. Fun drive, for the most part, a lot of real nice scenery, particularly up Neah Bay-way. That’s a pretty gnarly road to drive on in a minivan that doesn’t corner well with a camera in one hand, though, especially for the 7 or so miles east of JCT SR 113, and then the last 7 miles. Speed Limit’s 35 there, and it needs to be.
Slightly annoying that US-101 drops to 35 MPH around Crescent Lake for a really long time for no reason, though.
I had really high expectations for Aberdeen. They were not met. It’s a pretty blue-collar town with narrow, congested roads. I actually expected the narrow roads, and was pleasantly surprised to see those.
Forks is as boring as my old roommate said it was.
Today I clinched Clallam and Thurston Counties, so I now have driven every mile in 4 counties (Walla Walla and Garfield too). I’m also just SR 104 away from having Kitsap and Jefferson done, too. Also I’m done with Pierce County, except a 21 mile stretch of dirt road on SR 165 that I want to be the absolute last stretch of road I drive, and SR 123 which was destroyed in places and is being rebuilt. Just missing a 2 mile stretch of SR 261 to clinch Columbia County, too.
I’ll work on getting those photos up tomorrow and Thursday
Anyway, possibly take a southern drive next Tuesday, taking 5 to Raymond, then swinging up to Westport, back down 101, driving all around the Ilwaco area, then back across to 4, driving everything around Longview. If that goes through, I’ll have clinched US-101 except the section from US-12 to SR 105, which is like a .5 mile stretch. I’ll then get that in early October when I head back that way to do 109, 115, 106, 102, 107, and the rest of 3. There’s about a 40% chance I’ll get that completed. If not, probably no drives for a few days after that.
But getting the top of the Olympic Peninsula done, that’s a huge acheivement.
Also tentatively thinking about, over my Fall Break, driving SR 20 all across the state and then taking every route north of it, so I’d have every mile of highway north of SR 20 and east of SR 9 driven, plus SR 20. I could then go to Coeur d’Alene on a recreational visit, but that’s just an idea.
