It's very easy to get around in this country today because of the Interstate Highway System.  The are just two stop signs and two traffic lights between my driveway and the entrance of this marvelous network of highways.  I have driven from San Diego to Seattle several times.  Before I-5 was completed, US 101 (in the south), and US 99E (north of Los Angeles), were the major highways between the two cities.

     The section of what is now I-5 through Salem*, was originally built as a freeway to keep the heavy traffic out of the city; it was called "The Bypass".  Getting through Salem on US 99E can be a challenge.

     I recall my father driving the family from Sweet Home, OR to Seattle to visit my grandparents for Christmas in the late 1940's.  In those days you had to go through the city of Olympia (state capital).  The route was not well marked, and I think my father got lost twice.  His lumberjack vocabulary was well exercised.

     Today I can get in my car and head north on I-5, and with the exception of gas and rest stops, I follow that freeway to NE 45 th Street in Seattle, and I am within three blocks of where my grandparents house once stood.  (There is a used car lot there now.  The black car on the far left is my '88 Grand AM LE.)