S 144th St, Tukwila, WA-’The Road Less Traveled By’

Though S 144th St in Tukwila is not the road Robert Frost was referencing in his memorable poem “The Road Not Taken,” it happened to be the road that made “all” the difference for an unnamed gentleman on Friday, August 1st.

Let’s rewind to July 4th of this year.  My wife and I decided to go to Fort Dent in Tukwila for their 4th of July fireworks with some long time friends.  They live on S 144th St and we followed them all the way to the park on this one road.  It is a road that I had not traveled on for years and due to its length and where it ends up at its eastern terminus (Interurban Ave S), I was happy to become reacquainted.  Weeks later I was working with another friend and knowing that we needed to get to the valley and we were also up against some afternoon traffic, I offered to show off this fine little street; he agreed.

Fast forward to Friday, August 1st and in the Seattle-Tacoma area torrents of rain were falling in the early morning.  A Yellow Cab driver lost control in the Duwamish Curves, hit the Jersey barrier, and spun into a tanker truck upending the empty trailer.  All lanes were blocked for almost 4 hours.   My friend Greg was travelling on Interurban when he assessed the I-5 traffic situation and decided, “Hey, I’ll take that new road I went on,” and so up the hill heading west he went.

At the top of the hill he passed Foster High School and was approaching the intersection where the Foster Library is and he saw a Crown Victoria crashed into a tree.  There was no one around and no skid marks on the road.  My friend got out of his truck walked over to the car and saw that the driver was unconcious.  My friend called 911 and waited for Fire and Police to arrive.  When they arrived the man had no pulse.  Five minutes later they were giving him oxygen and loading him into the ambulance.

This evening I called my friends whom we shared the 4th of July with and I thanked them for the route we took to the fireworks.  I give credit to the Lord for these seemingly unrelated yet fortuitous events.

If you ever travel in South King County and you have occasion try S 144th St in Tukwila, WA.  Watch out for Crown Victoria’s and just possibly angels.

For those of you who love poetry and may or may not be familiar with Robert Frost here is poem, “The Road Not Taken” in its entirety:

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.