La Mejor Ciudad del Mundo

So this post is for all you who didn't have the joy of being in Salem Oregon this past friday...

This is a city of 200,000 people, more or less. The Willamette River runs through the west side of Salem, kind of making west Salem it's own city, but not really. There are two bridges connecting West Salem to the rest of us, and those two bridges are downtown one block apart from each other - one heading west and the other heading east. So Friday (the day I was sick, so I didn't get the joys of experiencing all this) a little after noon, there was a car wreck on the eastbound bridge. By the way, downtown rush hour here is from about noon to 6pm on Fridays. Then some genious decided that he shouldn't live anymore, and wanted to end his life by jumping off the westbound bridge, during the afternoon rush hour, the same time as the car wreck. So half of the eastbound bridge and the ENTIRE westbound bridge were shut down about 12:30. People were stuck in non-moving traffic for 1-3 hours. Apparently, people stuck on Court street were leaving their cars in the road and coming to (my) work to get snacks. The jumper was on the bridge all evening! One person told me he fell asleep at 1am, and someone else said 3:30am. Either way, it was over 12 hours. So, in the evening, they opened the eastbound bridge to westbound traffic. Also, the next closest ways to cross the river are: 1. Independence - about 20 away from downtown if you drive fast and there's no traffic. 2. Wheatland Ferry - I think it's even further away, and it's a really small ferry that only operates for a few hours a day. Those routes were totally blocked too. Then, to top it all off, a storm rolled in, downpouring all the people who were stuck in traffic north of town trying to cross the ferry. There were predicted "nickel-size" hail stones (don't think that ever materialized though). Call me insensitive, but as I was watching this all on the news from the comfort of my home with nowhere to be, I had to shake my head and laugh at our city. I love living in a city of 200,000 that has a capacity to accomodate about 50,000 people. And no, I'm actually not being sarcastic, I really do like it here! :-)