Two lanes each direction.

Start watching google maps to see if it is worth the commute or not. I'd highly suggest a home within about 1 hr of work to make it tolerable. WA state is strong in employment and you won't have problems finding jobs. You just have to be willing to do them. If you don't mind living in a nanny state you'll be fine. Most people are so use to it it doesn't even bother them. The ones that are rule fighters or don't like any government figure have a hard time with it. You could always try moving out here try it for a year or two and see if you want to stay or not.

I live in king county and it has a strong job market. Redfin is a good place to look at housing. WA state is a wee bit expensive but if you can find a place where you can live in your budget you're fine. Minimum wage in WA state is about $15/hr. If you can take in $35-50k annually you'll manage just fine.

Housing is a bit expensive but if you can room mate with someone you trust to cut the costs in half. I'm fortunate and own my own home so my finances are very different. I only work for health insurance now and use funds from my job to pay the bills instead of using my nest egg in investments. As we all know society crashes now and then and yes I've had to set up my investments to be income producing for a few years. I use bill pay through my bank to auto send off to my bills each month. All I need but do is make sure there's enough in checking and all is good. I only mail 2 checks a year because I don't do direct withdrawal as it's not safe and I've had bad experiences with it.