Great weekend. Pics coming in another entry (they're uploading).

But first, a discussion of the road situation in Washington State.

Years ago, maybe ten or twelve, a man named Tim Eyman began using the initiative process to get his views passed into law. The most notorious of these was I-695, which passed handily, and which guarantees that no one will pay more than $30 for their car tabs. There are some other fees that he couldn't control through I-695, but when you consider that tabs used to be a percentage of your car's purchase price, there were some very hefty tabs out there. My parents bought a brand new Subaru for instance, and paid over $400 to license their car each year.

Until Tim came along. Some estimates credit Tim with eviscerating public transit budgets by 50% due to loss of licensing revenue. His stated modus operandus was to rechannel money away from public transportation and back into road construction, presumably so that all SUV drivers could roam freely with nary a thought to congestion.

Since that time, neither roads nor transit have come very far. Summer, however, is the time of rapid and rabid road construction and repair. Kind of makes it funny that Tim named his political corporation Permanent Offense. I'll say. (See the website of his opposition, Permanent Defense.)

Case in point, I-90 east of Snoqualmie Summit. For years, this concrete stretch of 25 or so miles has been rutted with expansion cracks that were inadequately filled with tar. Auto drivers experience minor road chatter; motorcyclists white-knuckle it those entire 25 miles, hoping a rut doesn't catch a tire and make the bike uncontrollable. As I drove east on Saturday morning, I thought, "I wish they would just pave this with asphalt and be done already. This sucks."

I came through a short stretch, not even a mile, of very deeply grooved pavement just after having that thought. Okay, I thought, good enough. They're getting on this. Great.

On the way home, westbound, after a slowdown near Cle Elum which took me an hour to go 8 miles, there were new warnings: GROOVED PAVEMENT AHEAD. MOTORCYCLES USE EXTREME CAUTION.

Great, okay, they're paving the same stretch in both directions. OH NO, not exactly the case! I had to slow to 20 mph for at least 5 miles. The grooves were so deep I could go no faster without a severe gyroscopic action. I had to ride most of that way on the shoulder, after a car behind me essentially drove me off the road. I was going slower than OJ, but you get the picture.

"Shit, shit, shit." I talk to myself when the road is unfriendly: "Soft arms, ease up, you're doing great, you know how to do this." But I didn't. At least twice, I just pulled over and stopped to recenter myself. Jerk that forced me off the road, I hope you are trying to be safe one day and someone totally disregards it. No, I don't wish that, because then I'm an asshole driver like you. I hope you learn to drive safely. That should benefit us all.

I finally made it home, 5 hours later, when it should have taken three.

Thanks, Tim Eyman, for helping WSDOT and their road crews make traveling our state's highways so much more pleasant and smooth.