Rachel Belle’s Death Defying Drive to KIRO

By Jason Antebi
Assistant Program Director, 97.3 KIRO FM

I got the following text at 10:04am from Rachel Belle this morning: “In theory I’ll pick you up! In truth, I’m nervous about getting out of my parking spot without hitting the car in front of me, since I’m parallel parked and I’ll likely slip. Gimme your address.”

After sending my address to be picked up, I waited nervously. Would Rachel slide uncontrollably down Queen Anne hill to come pick me up in the 97.3 KIRO FM news van (equipped with four-wheel drive, a much more stable ride than my Toyota Corolla)? Worse, will she crash once I’m actually in the car?

I got even more nervous when she sent me this text message: “Nervous! Almost fell 5 times walking to the car!”

About 20 minutes later, Rachel met me at the Tully’s coffee shop down the street from my apartment. (She heard that I would expense the meal as an official meeting, she ordered a Decaf Soy Latte, a banana, and after grilling the Tully’s employee about a pesto roll for five minutes, she ordered a plain croissant).

Much to my surprise — and despite driving in the middle of two lanes down Westlake Ave because “I don’t want to get too close to the sides of the street” — we made it to 97.3 KIRO FM in one piece. (On the way in, I spotted a bus that spun out of control; I was about to yell “Stop!” so I could take a picture but given we were now driving in the middle of a 4-lane street on slick ice, I thought better of it).

Here are some pictures of our harrowing journey:

Ring My Belle Weekends with Rachel Belle airs Saturday at 1pm and Sunday at 11am.