Driving Up Interstate

I was listening to the fourth episode of the Todd and Pony Show a couple of weeks ago when I heard Hot Toddy say something like "driving up interstate".

Now, as many Californians know, one of the two cultural differences between Northern and Southern California is that here in the Bay Area we say "I'm driving down 101" or "Take 280 to..." to refer to driving on highways. Whereas in L.A and points south, people put a the in front of the highway number: "I'm driving down the 101" or "Take the 405 to...".

So when Hot said he was "driving up interstate", rather than "driving up the interstate", I left a comment wondering if this was some Portland-specific way of referring to I-5, or just a Todd thing.

On the next show Pony informed us listeners that neither is true. There is an Interstate Avenue that runs parallel to I-5 for a few miles in Portland.

"How cute", I thought. "They named a surface street after I-5."

Then I looked at the map more closely.

Now the thing to keep in mind is that I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is a long way away from any state border (a point emphasized in fourth-grade social studies classes). The nearest border is Nevada, four hours by car over 8000-foot high, blizzard-prone mountains. Or you can take a more southern route. Through Death Valley. Getting to Oregon involves hours of driving through remote forests. Getting to Arizona involves hours of driving through deserts (watch out for the Mexican migrants dying of thirst by the side of the road!).

In short, I was raised to believe that getting to another state by anything other than airplane is an obviously dangerous proposition. At best, it will be a long, arduous journey. At worst, it might end in cannibalism.

So when I go out of state I fly. The concept of hopping in my car, driving five minutes and ending up in another state is so foreign that the first time I visited South Lake Tahoe, I spent fifteen minutes walking back and forth across the state line with my GPS (until a security guard came out of a nearby casino and kicked me out of Nevada).

Portland, I discovered, sits on the Oregon/Washington border. Interstate Avenue takes you to Interstate Bridge, which is not named after I-5, but, in fact, takes you to another state. Immediately!

Amazing.

Whenever I get around to visiting Portland, be assured that I will bring my GPS.