WRXD633

The OLYCOMM repeaters have general use "open" tones and you can read about them here:
https://www.radioofhope.org/oly-comm-volunteers
I listen and sometimes participate on OLYCOMM3 and it's fairly active.  There's a weekly social net on Wednesdays 8:30pm - 9:30pm, and a weekly tech net Wednesdays 6:30pm - 7:30pm.

The node 177 does link up with other area repeaters in the PacNW every other Tuesday. Today, 1-10-23, they will link up in the evening.

One of the busy repeaters is operated by the SeaTac Repeater Association, the repeater is located on East TIger Mountain - 462.625/141.3
I've heard checkins from Yelm, Orting, Puyallup, Port Townsend, Camano Island, Stanwood, Granite Falls, North Bend. Even from hikers camping up in those mountains using HTs.

Right Channel Radios .com has the 102" whips available for $59.95 for the whip only, (mount extra). Not cheap but what is these days? Good place for CB gear. Bought quite a bit of stuff from them recently.

Channel 11 started as the trucker frequency but they moved it as (given the equipment of the time) it could bleed over and interfere with the FCC designated emergency channel (9). Just /why/ they shifted to 19 rather than something else I can't say. Possible for mnemonic 9 vs 19. Once the 40 channel allocation was made, 19 makes more sense -- being nearly dead center in the frequency band allowed an antenna tuned for that point to still be usable at both channel 1 and 40. If they'd chosen channel 1, for example, tuning for best SWR on #1 would likely have left #40 unusable.
That was also back in the days when a GMRS license would specify up to TWO frequency pairs chosen by the licensee requesting the license. Those two "main" frequencies (and the seven 5W interstitials) were the ONLY frequencies the licensee could use -- with the exception of 462.675/467.675 for an emergency. Since radios tended to be commercial business band stuff, the radios often only had "A" and "B" channels and required shop programming to match the license. The only way to gain access to 462.675 was to have that pair listed as one of the two frequency pairs on one's license (and if it was listed on the license, it was NOT restricted to emergency-only usage).
The Maxon GMRS 210+3 HT supported a total of 10 "channels". 1-7 were hardwired to the interstitials (usable by any GMRS license without listing them on the license); channel 8 was hardwired to 462.675 pair (usable by any GMRS licensee for emergencies, whether or not listed on license); channel 9&10 were to be shop programmed with the two licensed main frequencies).
 

The problem is so many people come here trying to drum up support for their favorite channel/frequency. All that does is confuse the crap out of people new to GMRS.There are endless threads on this topic. Just some samples below.
https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/3516-officialunofficial-gmrs-roadtravel-channel/
https://www.notarubicon.com/gmrs-road-travel-channel/
https://www.fordtremor.com/threads/gmrs-travel-channel.13437/
There is just one major complication with some of the proposals. The below appears on your license. The listed frequency pairs are for channels 19 and 21. For some people, like me living in the Detroit Mi area, Line A reaches well past some major metro areas making any proposal to use channel 19 useless. 

FRS-GMRS combined channel chart.pdf

There is an unofficial, official national road channel - its Ch19.. Although "some people" will argue to the death that there isnt one, or that Ch19 is not to their liking (don't believe me? just watch this thread)

First, welcome in to the world of radio. It's a lot of fun, you can meet some very interesting people, and as you have already seen, the airwaves (especially repeaters), can be infested with troublemakers. The moderator on the roundtable you were on made the mistake of engaging the troublemaker by issuing "several warnings to stop acting up". This rarely works, the reason being that troublemakers are difficult to locate and they thrive on the attention. They love disrupting communications, and the more people complain, the more they do it. The only way to get them to stop is to ignore them completely, and not even mention the fact that they are making trouble. This comes hard to a lot of people. I've heard troublemakers on roundtables and nets for years on both amateur radio and GMRS, and as a moderator (net control) for some of them myself, it frustrates me to no end when people (especially moderators who should know better) engage them and try to talk them out of making trouble. Taking repeaters off the air when they are being jammed is a necessary evil with linked repeater systems to protect the rest of the users from jammers. Finding troublemakers is a very painstaking, time-consuming process, and it's only possible when the troublemaker is transmitting. And once they're located, there is not much, probably nothing, the FCC or anyone else will do unless it involves jamming of critical communications like law enforcement, emergency services, commercial users, etc. Don't give up though. Listen in, chime in when you can. It's always great when new people get involved. By the way, here's a fun fact, 62 years ago, I was born in the city you live in.