Grumpy Bulldog Does Seattle Day 1: Darkness on the Edge of Town

I suppose when you've gone 2600-plus miles through 9 states, you're bound to run into a cop at some point.  I mean you can only be lucky for so long, right?  But today my luck ran out--sort of.

It was kind of a stupid thing too, though not as stupid as getting pulled over for getting into a left turn lane too early, which my initial thought was, "That's a thing?"  It was pretty close to that.  I was in Federal Way, south of Seattle to get some supplies.  I was going through this intersection but all the sudden everyone just stops and like musical chairs I'm the one left sitting there with my ass hanging in the intersection.

And there just happens to be a cop in the left turn lane facing me.  When I saw him turning I wasn't surprised when he got behind me and flashed his lights.  Though when he signaled to move over it's like, "Where the hell am I supposed to go?"  Duh.  So we had to wait until traffic started moving so I could get to the right.  Then he told me to go into some driveway, so I did.

The good thing is he didn't give me a ticket.  Probably because I'm from out of town.  If he had given me a ticket I probably wouldn't have bothered paying it for a while anyway.

Still, that kind of leaves a sour taste in my mouth for the day.  I hope not the whole trip.  It reminds me when I went to Toronto and things got off to a start like that when they pulled me over at the border, because thirty-something fat white nerdy guys are obviously terrorists, right?  Or drug mules.  This was even before I shaved my head so they couldn't have been thinking of Breaking Bad.  Anyway, that whole trip then kind of sucked, so the border thing was just kind of a bad omen.  The only thing that saved that trip is I had fun writing the start of the sixth Scarlet Knight story.  Seriously.

Anyway, I probably wouldn't have even been there if not for the stupid GPS again.  I really should remember to check locations on my phone instead of the GPS.  I wanted it to find a bookstore so I could get a guidebook.  It told me to go to the outlet mall in Auburn to the south.  My atlas from 2005 called it the "Supermall of the Northwest" but apparently they've since reverted to the less grandiose name "The Outlet Center."  I went inside and looked at the mall directory and of course there's no bookstore.  There probably WAS one back in like 2009 or whenever Garmin last updated their maps.  I walked all around the place anyway, but there wasn't anywhere of interest because I didn't need women's clothes or jewelry.

It was after I left there and on my way to a Barnes & Noble that I got pulled over.  I did eventually make it to the Barnes & Noble.  They had plenty of guidebooks.  I got one for the whole Pacific Northwest.  I figured if you're going to pay $25 for a guidebook, you might as well get one that has more value than just one city.

Seeing a book on Washington lighthouses, did give me an idea for one thing to do.  I've taken pictures of lots of lighthouses in Michigan, and also a couple in Maine and Illinois, so it'd be cool to go to one in Washington.  Plus then I can see the ocean proper.  The only thing is that I might wait until I'm done in Seattle and am either in or on the way to Portland as a couple lighthouses are closer to there and most of the rest seem to be along the northern coast of Washington, where I don't really want to go.

After that I got lunch at Old Country Buffet, which was OK.  Then I stopped at a Wal-Mart to get some supplies.  Shopping at Wal-Mart never improves my mood, especially on Saturday.  Really though, could they have more than 4 regular lines open?  I suppose that's part of how they keep prices low.

Since then I've just been lying low, writing a little and watching college football.  I'll have to look over the guidebook tonight and see what I want to do.

Here are a couple of pictures: