Thought you all might enjoy seeing some pics of our big drive across the country... http://www.grapon.com/nick/pics/20091201_crosscountry/ The narrative below will walk you through some of the highpoints...
We started our big trip in the pre-dawn hours on Sunday November 29th from Jenny's parent's house in New Castle VA. We had two separate cars because my mom was giving my grandma a Buick but we had to get it up there, along with a trunk-full of Christmas cheer. So we set out, me in the lead driving the Buick over some of West Virginia's most beautiful passes and valleys with Jenny following in the Mazda, loaded to the hilt. Unfortunately, since it was dark, we saw nothing but road paint. We stopped in White Sulfer Springs for breakfast and discovered I had a burnt-out headlight. I had been using all highbeams up to that point and didn't notice until now. With dawn still an hour or more away, I started having trouble switching between high and low beams and at one point, I lost headlights entirely, but discovered that I just wasn't being forceful enough on the stalk. Stranding averted, we continued along, reaching Charleston WV at first light. Soon though, we shot off I-77 into central Ohio. We found ourselves in FAST but consistent traffic as we got through Columbus and finally onto I-75 N. As we got to roughly the middle of MI, heavy rain made visibility a bit treacherous but eventually, we emerged in Grayling at The Klondike (the Grant family cabin along the Manistee River) and stopped for the night. Amid gas light and woodstove heat, we had a very enjoyable quiet night amongst the trees and babbling river, playing cribbage, drinking rum, and just generally enjoying the isolation.Off to another early start on Tuesday December 1st, we high-tailed across the rest of da U.P. and stopped at one of the many cheese shacks north of Green Bay. Dill Mustard is good and so is Veggie-Jack. The rest of Wisconsin though felt pretty boring so we pushed through without any other stops except to mail something and fill up with gas. We did however, see one thing that really reminded us of our friends Ian and Damon... At the end of WI though, we crossed the mighty Mississippi River into Minnessota and immediately become more interested in the scenery. Soon, we had gained around 1000 ft and were now driving over the high plains of MN, into the headwind. This headwind was dramatic, sucking the mileage from my 32mpg hatch down to around 24mpg. We saw plentiful wind farms here and appreciated that this wind must be fairly constant here. We rolled into Blue Earth, MN on fumes, filling up on Pizza and Gasoline. Another couple hours west, we had arrived in Sioux Falls, SD to a cold wind. We found a cheap hotel for the night and settled in for the evening.
Deciding to get a reasonably early start on Wednesday the 2nd, we got up just after dawn, had a quick continental breakfast, and hit the road. It was chilly here...in the 20's with a constant headwind. It seemed so cold. South Dakota is a LONG state and aside from endless rolling hills and farmland, the bulk of entertainment is the plentiful kitsch. Sometime midday, we made it to Badlands Nat'l Park and took a couple hours to see the scenery. After Badlands, we went to "World Famous Wall Drug" which is basically a gigantic tourist trap but a must-see nonetheless. Hoping for a genuine Bison Burger, we tried one of the local bars but couldn't tell the difference between it and the fifty-cent kangaroo meat they served in my middle-school cafeteria. Soon we were on our way again, with squalls of snow moving in. We were in constant awe of the dramatic skyscapes this big open plain afforded. Soon, we entered the Black Hills and we were into Wyoming. Wyoming's scenery was notably more hilly than western South Dakota, but nothing really dramatic here. At several points, I spotted Bald Eagles and other birds of prey as they kept watch over vast scrub fields for rodents and other potential meals. We stopped for gasoline in Sheridan, WY, not wanting to go too low on the tank like we had in Minnesota and then immediately upon re-entering the freeway, a furious blizzard closed in. Visibility was the worst I had seen in years and so we limped along the freeway to the next exit at Ranchester, WY, where we had initially planned to depart the freeway for yellowstone via Wyoming's backroads. In this snowstorm however, we had no hope of safe passage over the 9000 ft mountain passes that lay ahead so we stopped for the night in Ranchester. We found a super-cool outfitter named "Rendezvous" where I bought a merino wool baselayer and then we had delicious pizza, hotwings, and beer at The Liquor Store.
Snowfall didn't amount to much, as the storm was short-lived so in the morning of Thursday the 3rd, I brushed a couple inches of snow off my car, let it warm up in the 9 degree air, and set out, with quite a bit of snow still on the road in places. Soon though, we entered Montana and found much cleaner roads and were able to keep up a high speed so long as I kept the tires in the grooves on the right lane. This is why we got the winter tires replaced, and it proved to be a good decision. Careening through Montana at 75mph in the snow, we passed through Billings as the bigger mountains began lifting from the horizon and eventually to Livingston, our new choice of route into Yellowstone via hwy 89. I don't know how to say this any other way. Yellowstone is an amazing place. If you haven't been, go. Winter was especially appealing to us because there were no crowds, but if you wait until January, you will find more things open, as the park goes through a transition for winter roads (i.e. snowmobiles only in the park interior... just one road is open to automobiles in winter). Jenny and I completely adored the vast scenery and countless bison, elk, bighorn sheep, coyote, birds, etc. The geological wonders were also fun. Just be advised, you want winter tires, as the roads are consistently packed snow and ice once you get past Mammoth Hot Springs. After that, we had a quick dinner in Livingston and continued west, towards the Continental Divide. The high-altitude-point of I-90 (but not our trip since we had been to Yellowstone), the divide is not nearly as high here as in Colorado, but 6400 ft is still enough to make the roads questionable, so after a bit of stressful driving, we crossed safely into Butte, MT. We stopped briefly and then decided we'd keep going as far as I felt okay so we headed another hour up the road, to a little pockmark of a town and found a motel for the night. It was cold now. Minus 3. Cold enough that the moisture absorbed into the clutch fluid from the air had begun freezing, making for a very stiff pedal. Man and machine aren't really meant to operate in sub-zero temperatures. I parked my car close to several others and hoped for the best. Breathing through your nose in this enthalpy-free environment leads to one thing. Nose-crystals. Weird feeling, as I went back and forth from the car to bring in our suitcases.
In the morning on the 4th, we re-packed the car and started out. It took at least 10 minutes for the temperature gauge to even register anything as we idled in line at the McDonalds for breakfast and pulled slowly over the cattle-trap grating onto the freeway. It had gotten down to -6 that night. The rest of western Montana was a visual treat and eventually, we crossed another mountain pass into the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho, where we saw many differences in the terrain. Much less snow and much steeper hills, chock full of trees. As we continued into central northern Idaho, we saw many hills here unlike any we had seen yet, appearing to have been clearcut at one time. We passed quickly through some very agreeable scenery in Coeur d'Alene, and suddenly we found ourselves entering our new home state. Let me just say, eastern washington is every bit as plain and bleak as Minnesota and South Dakota... but after a couple hundred miles of vanilla landscape, you find yourself suddenly looking at high places rising in the distance and you cross the Columbia River Gorge. Jenny and I were ridiculously excited to see this, as it meant the last major landscape transition before we arrived in our new home. As we crossed Snoqualmie Pass, we were in awe at the steep mountainsides and lush vegitation afforded by the abundant rainfall this area is notorious for. We arrived in Seattle a day earlier than we had told our new landlord so we called and asked if we could get in early. She said we could at least come over and sign papers to make things quick in the morning. So, with a couple hours to kill, we toured Seattle a bit and by nightfall, we headed to our new apartment, catching a nice view of Seattle's most recognizable landmark. Seeing the apartment for the first time in person, we absolutely loved it. So clean, so well-maintained. Also, kindly, the landlord allowed us to stay the night so we unrolled our sleeping pads and sleeping bags and zonked out, almost too excited to sleep.
Saturday the 5th, Marcin arrived with our boxed-up home and began unloaded the United truck. Several hours later, we were in... and crawling over boxes to move around. Our first week was spent reducing the stacks of boxes to piles of stuff and then sorting the stuff to its intended location. Here we are a couple weeks later, and we are finally hanging pictures on the wall and having our first dinner guests (Brenda, Joe, Josie, and Eddie) tonight. Jenny has started working again with REI and NACCRRA and I have started in my new office in Bellevue. The first day of work was great, as I discovered that my commute of 12 miles only took about 20 minutes and that the office dress is decidedly more casual than our corporate HQ in Fairfax where I worked before. The second day was greater, as I found out that my commute is even faster when I come in at the earlier time that I intended (to meet east-coast hours better), I learned that I'd be moving to one of the two window offices and that I'd be allowed to go choose a nice new office chair... But to top if all off, my boss was here on a business trip and stopped in for my annual review, which was SUPERLATIVE in many ways, including the merit-based raise that came with it. In a word, we couldn't be happier. The air is cleaner, the scenery is better, the traffic is lighter, the recreation is closer, and so on. We LOVE our new home. SEATTLE!
Now, come visit us!
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