I was born a rambling man

The smart car tour 2005 reaches Seattle, WA - home of Amazon.com and the Microsofties.
Lunchtime at Salem, OR and we are rolling north on I-5 with the trucks and road-trains, loggers among them - "Rambling Man" by the Allman Brothers is on the radio.
We reach Portland in heavy traffic passing about a five-mile jam in the carpool lane - if these things work how come they are empty? Across the Columbia river with a magical view upstream to Mount Hood. The temperature is only 95 degrees, for which we are grateful, and we check at Best Western, in a backlot on the road, but they are charging $130 or so and we carry on to Kelso WA at $80 including breakfast. We completely crash out - supper consists of two cans of iced tea and a granola bar.
Next morning we check out some hot rods for sale down the block - a Rambler catches my eye. We photograph the smart apparently towing a huge boat on a trailer by the simple expedient of backing up to the hitch.
North from Kelso, WA we take to the backroads, finding diesel at Toutle, to Mount St. Helens. The volcano blew its top in 1980 killing 57 people. A massive effort at replanting 18.4 million trees followed the devastation. A road through the valley is now buried in 150 feet of ash. The Forest Learning Center assures us we have "learning opportunities."
We enjoy spectacular views, from 3,000 feet and retrace our steps to the highway. Stand out tracks are "Saginaw, Michigan" by Lefty Frizzell and "Streets of Bakersfield" by Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens.
Lunch at Safeway - they have Chinese food and a small seating area. Soon we are lost in the suburbs of Seattle, on the wrong side of the tracks, but we dig ourselves out, passing the trolley-buses, and on to our stop in West Seattle, with views of Puget Sound. Oh, and we saw Mount Rainier and other snowy mountains en route.
Coming events: Travis Tritt and SheDaisy are at Sweet Home-Oregon tonight. Hi to Andy Reeve and Harry Ryan.