No More Driving

Afer yesterday, I have sworn off driving in Seattle. If I need to go somewhere on my own that isn't in Bellevue, I'm taking the bus. Otherwise, Liz and drive.

Allow me to explain.

We decided to go to Beth's a world-famous greasy spoon cafe over in Seattle on Aurora Ave (99). I'd been once before, right after moving here. This would be great, we thought, because my Game of Thrones tournament was at 12:30 in the UD, and we should have no problem making it there if we got to the cafe at 11. Or so we thought. It took us an hour to get our food, which our friends agreed afterwards was atrocious. We took about 15 minutes to wolf it down (there are huge omlettes we're talking about) and busted out the door. My original plan was to backtrack up to 85h street, because I knew it went back to I-5 and down to the UD. Instead, I decided to take Aurora down to 50th (the street the comic shop was on) and cut over, even though I'd never done that before.

D'oh.

See, Aurora has an enormous concrete barrier in the middle of it that prevents you from turning left for quite a ways - from about 75th until you hit downtown. Then, it turns into Alaskan Way and becomes the viaduct, so you can't get off as you're four stories above the street. The first chance you have to exit is the ferry terminal, which also happens to be the exit for Safeco Field and Seahawks Stadium - so imagine how that looked right before yesterday's Seahawks game. The next chance you have to exit is another five miles down this concrete ribbon onto the West Seattle Freeway - which takes you directly into the harbor. This is where I found myself and finally got to turn around to head back to I-5. Which I then sat in traffic on for a good 15 minutes.

Long story short, a trip that should have taken 10 minutes tops took 45 minutes, and ruined my chances of placing in the tournament (I placed 4th out of 7th, because I got a bye in the first round). And, I felt really stupid for getting lost and absolutely enraged at the idiocy which apparently went into designing this city's road system. If I had been a tourist and done this, I doubt I would have found my way back.

So, I made a vow: no more driving. Unless there's an emergency.

I'll reconsider in a few days, but I'm to the point where I'm utterly sick of dealing with this. I'd rather leave it to a bus driver.

After the Game of Thrones tournament, Liz and I met up with Chad and Kytte down at the Irish Emigrant, a great little pub that features really cheap pub food around happy hour, so you can eat and drink a pitcher of beer for about $10. We had a great time hanging out for a couple hours, and then Liz and I (Liz, with me riding) drove back to Bellevue and wrapped up our DnD adventure. I hope the game continues, although it's more because I want to continue playing my character than any other reason - it's my first necromancer, and I haven't had this much fun playing a character for a long time.

After that, we came back and I finished the evening by reading my haul of comics. The only one that really sticks out in my mind as "great" is Waid's Fantastic Four. When a writer consistently amazes you with the new directions he's taking a comic that's on its 506th issue, that is a good thing.

Now, I have work. Only for two days this week, though, and then I head to Dallas for Wizard World Texas: my last convention as an "Organized Play" representative. Fun!