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Monday, August 13, 2007

Postcard from a Traffic Jam Near Cle Elum

posted by on August 13 at 15:07 PM

Yesterday around dinner time, traffic was stopped on I-90 near Cle Elum: dead stopped, then crawling along a little, then stopped, then crawling, and on and on for a good couple hours. It was pretty and all—

cleelum.jpg

—but it was a punishing drive.

Except for one of the cars ahead of us—a white, four-door family car with bubbles coming out of one of the windows. Some kids were having a great time. And their bubbles were big!

As we got closer to the car, we saw that it wasn’t just an unusually big bubble ring someone was blowing through, but a handmade contraption.

contraption.jpg

Weirder still, the driver of the vehicle was responsible for the bubbles, not some kids in the back seat. Weirder than that, there were no kids in the back seat. The driver was alone, with this handmade device, bubbling up the traffic jam, grinning, and waving to other drivers. She looked not unlike the fairy godmother in Cinderella. She had on a purple shirt and was squeezing a handle at the base of her bubble device to wet the two vertical strings in the center of it, which then spread apart so that the wind could blow through them. As we passed her, she waved at us and yelled out across the highway, crazily, “Most fun you’ve ever had in traffic!”

Then, my cell phone (with a notoriously crappy camera) captured a lucky picture of a bubble in progress.

bubbleinprogress.jpg

Live the dream, lady.

RSS icon Comments

1

Looks like one of those notorious Internet Bubbles.

Me, I like my bubbles tiny.

Posted by Don Ho | August 13, 2007 3:27 PM
2

Creepy. I was in that same traffic jam yesterday. And for no reason! No firey crash, no road construction.

Stupid I-90.

Posted by Original Monique | August 13, 2007 3:44 PM
3

My favorite part of this post: The missing passenger-side mirror on the photographer's car.


Time to ask the Stranger for a raise?

Posted by Nick | August 13, 2007 3:46 PM
4

My favorite part of this post: The missing passenger-side mirror on the photographer's car.


Time to ask the Stranger for a raise?

Posted by Nick | August 13, 2007 3:46 PM
5

Yay for random freeway bubbles!

Posted by NaFun | August 13, 2007 3:59 PM
6

3/4

Hate to burst your bubble, but he was in the *passenger* side.

Posted by mr.ryan | August 13, 2007 4:26 PM
7

Safer than smoking a bowl, anyways.

Posted by Dianna | August 13, 2007 4:53 PM
8

That traffic jam's on I-90 W every Sunday around that time. With most of my family in Moses Lake, we've learned the hard way to get out of Dodge early, otherwise your 2.5 hour trip becomes closer to 4 hours. And most of the time, there's not some wacky lady with bubbles, just assholes in SUVs.

Posted by Jessica | August 13, 2007 4:56 PM
9

Yay for hippies with soap! Hippies without soap... I shudder just thinking about them.

Posted by Dominic Holden | August 13, 2007 5:06 PM
10

Congratulations for finding something, anything, positive, or at least distracting in such mind numbing circumstances.

Posted by homage to me | August 13, 2007 5:15 PM
11

My car is a piece of shit. Also that weekend: Horses Love Pie

Posted by ben | August 13, 2007 5:18 PM
12

Learn to enjoy the sanctified moments of CARTIME! Blahsphemer!

Posted by Montell | August 13, 2007 6:15 PM
13

Yah the one thing the freeway needs more of is distracting oily bubbles. Its not like we don't have hard enough time with rain or its frozen counterpart.

Posted by Giffy | August 13, 2007 11:30 PM
14

@13: Oh lighten up - just how hard is it to keep focus when you're sputtering forward at 0.3 mph?

If someone finds a satisfying way to make lemons out of Sunday afternoon I-90 traffic (or any other time, any other freeway - they're all bad), I say give them a prize! At least they're not ready to explode and go berserk. We could all learn a lesson.

Posted by ouzel | August 14, 2007 8:05 AM
15

That's fucking awesome! I was stuck in the same traffic too. Bubbles beat the hell out of listening to the latest Harried Pothead for a couple of hours like I was.

Posted by Yeah Bubbles. Yeah... | August 14, 2007 9:36 AM
16

I adore her. Hooray for cheerful people trying to make things better for the people around them!

Posted by tamara | August 15, 2007 10:28 AM

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