Tuesday 11-2-10
As usual this trip started out like no other. You know, one thing happens and it causes a chain reaction to something else and the next thing you know you are on the bike or in the cage rolling down the highway.
This trip really started out earlier this year and I didn’t even know it! I have been dealing with a pinched nerve for probably 9 months and it has continued to be a nuisance, so after many trips to different doctors I finally decided to have my neck fixed once and for all. The “high priced real estate” is the C3-C4 joint so one screw up by the Doc an I’m enjoying a feeding tube and a wheel chair the rest of my life. I had full faith in my Dr and because of this procedure I had to take a month off for the surgery & recovery. I can see the gears turning in your mind already, kinda neat how that happens eh?
So the surgery went well and after a week I was feeling good and thought, ya know I haven’t seen my relatives back east in a long time so lets see about going for a visit. I checked the airlines and got fed up with the up and down pricing, trying to figure out rental cars, then the TSA decided they wanted to implement basic strip searches and fondle everyone’s packages. That crap got me so fed up I decided to just do a road trip! A road trip could be done on MY schedule and no hassles with TSA, shoot I have the time so…
I decided to leave Tuesday morning (November 2nd) at 6 AM or so. This kinda was a last minute decision so I went to the store to get some cash (always nice to have a little on hand just in case) so I get there and am walking back to the car and then remembered I forgot my Annual park pass http://www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm so I turn around and headed back to the house. I grab the pass and start rolling.
I usually never leave this late for work and wonder how bad traffic is and it’s bad! I checked the mileage figures on my new/used 2008 Camry hybrid and it showed I was getting 33.x mpg average when I left the house. A little over an hour later and I had finally made it down to I-90 in Bellevue (roughly 30 miles) and in that time my average mileage had jumped up to over 40 mpg - this is where the hybrid really shines J. Anyway, I can now just put the cruise control on ~70 mph and roll on down the highway. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day. I must have stopped a couple of times for bathroom breaks but the first real stop was Missoula, Montana about ~510 miles from the house for gas and lunch. There was some road work near St Regis making the highway into single track for miles on end but being a Tuesday the traffic was minimal and we all just moved quickly through it. Back on the road the towns were just flying by, Butte, Bozeman, and it’s dark by the time I got to Billings. I figure another fillup before heading south to Sheridan Wyoming. I stopped in the flying J truck stop to get gas and ask them what channel the truckers are monitoring as I haven’t heard a peep. I remember back in the 80’s I’d listen to them talk about where the bears were and talk about all sorts of things but now it’s pretty darn quiet with minimal chat.
I get into Sheridan about 10-11 at night and stop at the funky little American Inn & suites or summat (where I’ve stayed before) and check in. Today was a good day and about 1000 miles. The bad part is that as I was leaving Billings I talked to management and she mentioned the insurance folks called and I needed to call them back. I got out of range of cell service and I couldn’t get back in touch her to find out more except that I was supposed to call after 7 AM for the phone number (PST). Being one that gets up way early and have already crossed into mountain time I was not happy about having to wait around till 7 AM to make a call to see if I needed to return home or not.
Wednesday 11-3-10
One screw up after another with the phones and I decided to just blast on east towards my first national monument – Devils Tower National Monument http://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm
I like to take photos of funky stuff on trips and as soon as I pulled into DTNM there was a sign to “Do not feed the Prairie Dogs”, I thought it was funny so took a shot, saw some PD’s and kept on around to the visitor center. I got my Passport Stamp http://www.nps.gov/history/heritageareas/INFO/passport.htm for my book and decided to take the 1.3 mile hike around the tower and take photos. The sun was shining and it was slightly cool so I put on my mid-weight polar fleece jacket, grabbed the camera and took off.
The National Park Service passport stamp idea is fantastic as it shows where all the different national landmarks, parks, monuments are in the US. Most folks wouldn’t even know about them let alone go visit so this is a way to show America what there is to offer and where they are. A good opportunity for everyone to see the good ole USA.
Since there are a bunch of parks-monuments and such in the Black Hills area of South Dakota I decided to bag another, so I headed over to Mt Rushmore. http://www.nps.gov/moru/index.htm The little drive from Devils Tower over to Mt Rushmore turned into a couple of hours or more (a little further than I expected) also the winds where really bad. Up high and east of DT there were patches of snow on the ground and you could see where the snow fences were all over the place so they must get a brutal winter around those parts.
As I was getting close to Mt Rushmore I drove right by the Crazy Horse Memorial http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/monument/ You could see it plainly from the road and was kinda cool.
Soon I pulled up to Mt Rushmore and got really confused with the area as it talked about concession area parking??? I just wanted to park go check it out and keep on going. After futzing around I pulled up to the concession parking and found out that the National park service could not afford to build a parking garage at this place because so many folks visit it so they hired a company to build it. This company charges for parking ($10 a car) and the entrance to the park is FREE the caveat is that my park pass was NO GOOD hear so cough up the $10 buddy! LAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was probably 4 in the afternoon when I finally got parked and went to get my stamp and shoot a few photos but it was as usual WINDY and cold. My hands were freezing and my ears were getting cold too! I almost wanted to get another jacket out but figured I wouldn’t be too long. After taking a bunch of shots by the amphitheater I headed back to the car only to see a handful of mountain goats eating the grass right by the parking lot and road. One had a radio collar with a juvenile and stuck close by it as the stupid tourists walked right up to them to take their photos. We had a guy gored to death just last month out in Washington and these idiots were wanting to be next, I couldn’t believe they did not get gored themselves. Anyway, I hung back a bit and took a few shots of them then headed on towards Rapid City SD, for gas, dinner then the long drone to Sioux Falls on the east side of the state via interstate 90.
Driving across South Dakota at night is kinda eerie as it is just so BLACK. You flip on the high beams and it barely does anything, the light just gets soaked up by the darkness. You do see the lights of community’s way, way off in the distance but they are few and far between. Did I mention the WIND, I’m sure I have but again it was a relentless side wind, which puts the hurt to your gas mileage. What can you do about it? Nothing so just grin a bare it.
I roll into Sioux Falls at probably 10:30 to 11 at night and the freeway is barren, hardly a soul in sight. I get to the exit ramp where my hotel is and the lights at the intersection are blinking red. I called about ½ hr earlier as I was motoring down the highway and found their number via my GPS – woohoo! Anyway, I can’t even believe that the lights are blinking because there is NOBODY on the roads. I thought that wasn’t even possible in today’s society because in Everett it’s a 24/7 traffic mess. Roughly a 600 mile day.
Thursday 11-4-10
I get up at a reasonable time (6:30) and as I’m checking out I ask the gal at the desk about the real “Sioux Falls”. I had grabbed a book about the town the night before and read about it last night. She gave me some instructions on how to get there and what to see in town so I zipped on over (in rush hour traffic – ha, ha) and broke out the camera for some photos.
Next stop was fuel and up to Pipestone National Monument http://www.nps.gov/pipe/index.htm in Minnesota a few hours drive away. It was fun seeing the rolling countryside and as I got close to the Pipestone area I came upon a field with a bunch of different size windmills from years gone past. I took a shot and carried on to the town of Pipestone, which had some cool stone buildings.
Pipestone National Monument was created for the stones that were quarried in the local area by Indians way back when. The stone is relatively soft and can be drilled, sanded, or shaped quite easily. The Indians made “peace” pipes and other types of pipes out of the stones. There was a nice little museum with a beautiful golden eagle inside (stuffed).
Next destination was Effigy Mounds National Monument in NE Iowa (roughly 300 miles away). On the way there I came across an Amish community and for me it was quite wild to see in the middle of nowhere an Amish man driving along the shoulder with his horse and carriage. I had to take a few shots. The weather looked like it was going to storm any second with very dark clouds and the temps were dropping so I bet those guys driving the carriages were chilly.
I get to Effigy Mounds and am ready for a break and a walk. http://www.nps.gov/efmo/planyourvisit/index.htm The visitor center is nice and has another nifty museum and a really cool small scale 3D model of the country side showing where the mounds are, what they look like, the trail system, etc. I chat with the lonely park guy for a few minutes, wander through the museum and take the guys advice about heading up the “short” trail to see some of the mounds. He warned me it was about a 2 mile round trip and the first ½ mile would be heading up a good pitch to the top of the bluffs. It was quite cool out but not windy so I zipped over to the first set of mounds (next to the visitor center) then started hiking up the trail.
(I had a 6 PM dinner date in Madison Wisconsin with anyone that would show up from High school or from the neighborhood while living there back in the late 70’s – I put the word out via facebook and didn’t know if anyone would be at the Parthenon restaurant http://parthenongyros.com/ but I was going to eat there no matter what, so I had to hurry up the hillside as I still had a couple hrs drive to get there and it was starting to get on in the afternoon.)
The trail to the top of the bluff is a long grade up with a few switch backs as you get to the top. Once on top its like a little bit of rolling hillside trails. I jogged and walked, jogged and walked until I had gotten up the hill to the first lookout over the mighty Mississippi River. I was amazed at the size of the river then looked more closely and discovered that it was out of the banks and actually flooding the lowland trees. Since there was also some heavy winds that had come through here I noticed some broken down trees, saw a Pileated wood pecker, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pileated_Woodpecker and some of the mounds. Once I got back to the car I started tossing everything in the trunk so I wouldn’t have to worry about my stuff in the car for anyone to steal while at dinner.
The drive to Madison was interesting and I was watching the GPS count down the time to arrive and I had to hurry so I pulled some old motorcycle moves (I’ve learned in 30+ yrs of riding) on a lot of “Sunday drivers” just putzing along. Sometimes there would only be 1 or 2 cars that needed to be blown away, other times it would be 4 or 5 but all the passes were in safe straight-aways. The sun was starting to go down and the colors of the fields were amazing. I grabbed the camera and took a few shots while blazing down the road. I found a rabbit and decided to follow along. We made good time for a number of miles before we rolled upon a Staters rear bumper. Everyone chilled for a few miles until he got off an exit and then we were back up to warp speed. I ended up getting caught in some “rush hour” traffic on the beltline (actually very reasonable traffic) and it was good I had the GPS as I was totally mixed up on where I was. The next thing I knew I was driving past State Street and needed to find a place to park. A quick round of a few blocks and I had found a spot and ran towards the restaurant. Once inside I looked around and saw nobody that looked familiar and it was actually quite empty for 6:07 (I was supposed to be there at 6). I told the guy I had driven 2000 miles for this Gyro! I got some dinner, hung out for a little while and decided everyone was to busy or I was a LOOSER – LOL and headed on back to the car about 6:27 figuring it anyone was going to come they would have by now. I watched the folks outside as I wandered to the car but nobody looked familiar. I had driven about 480 miles and the gas tank was hungry too so I stopped by a place on the east side and headed on towards Milwaukee 75 or so miles away to stay and visit with my brother in-laws family.
Friday 11-5-10
We had a great visit (Brother in-laws, his wife and son) albeit short as I didn’t know I was going to stay but my nephew called me early yesterday while I was in Souix Falls telling me to stop in and stay, so… Why not, I like those guys.
After a late start leaving Milwaukee I head down I-04 towards the windy city Chicago, did some of the toll roads, got into the express lanes and enjoyed a little traffic. My car comes with navigation but it is difficult to use to I brought my Garmin GPS just in case. The cars nav system can only be revised via voice commands once moving and the manual had NO Voice commands in it grrr…. I decided to program both of the units to direct me to Dearborn Michigan as I wanted to tour the Henry Ford Museum. The car said it would be about 800 miles and directed me way down south into Indiana and all over the dang country, the Garmin had a more direct course of about 375 or so miles. Once blasting down the highway the stupid Nav system kept trying to redirect me off the highway at every exit and would not shut up. It just couldn’t get it through it’s feeble little mind that it needed to figure a different route. If I had a gun I would have either put it or myself out of this misery ;-) but kept trying every command I could figure to get it to turn off. After at least a ½ hour I got the system to stop.
As I rounded the base of Lake Michigan I realized there were the Indiana Dunes National lakeshore. http://www.nps.gov/indu/planyourvisit/index.htm I punched it in the GPS and had to take the next exit! Good thing I was semi on the ball. I had to back track a little bit but got to the southern area of the park. Everything was CLOSED! I grabbed my wind breaker/rain coat, camera and headed out towards the dues. Some of the dunes were pretty tall and it was super windy. I decided to climb to the top of a few dunes to see what the heck was on the other side. Approaching the top of the dunes I was getting sand blasted, the wind was horrendous but I persevered to the top and got an awesome view of the lake with all it’s whitecaps, you could see Chicago to the west and what looked like a bad storm towards the east. It was so cold and windy that I just took a few shots and headed on back to the car. The next thing I needed to do was find the visitor center so I could get my passport stamp. Since most of the park was to the north east I decided to head up that way and search for signs. I kept driving and driving and stopping at different sites and finally found an address to the visitor center. I plugged it into the cars Nav system and it couldn’t find it. I plugged it into the Garmin and it couldn’t find it, hmmm…. Now I’ve bee driving around looking for this blasted place for about an hour and was not happy. I saw a map at one stop which kinda showed where it could be and thought I’d head down this road, turn over there, head back this way, down over there, blah, blah, blah… 15 min later I was in some major road construction area and decided to just screw it and head back to the freeway. Of course on the way to the freeway is this nice visitor center within view of the freeway. Grrrr…. I swing on in and get my stamp, the lady asked how things were going and I gave her an earful of woe with 2 GPS’s not finding this place. She mentioned everyone was having issues as the “road” was just built for this visitor center – figures. I climbed back into the car and headed east into a storm. It looked like it was trying to snow?
A quick stop in the Michigan welcome center to pick up some discount hotel coupon books then get ready for lunch. It was snowing and snowing HARD! I could only see about 100 yards in front of me (the lake effect). A stop in Benton Harbor for lunch showed a few inches of snow on the ground, which I thought was cool.
As I headed east I browsed the coupon book and tried to figure out where to stay, then called my cousin whose family was coming down for a memorial service in the Detroit area. He told me where they were staying and I decided to head up to Farmington and stay at the same Red Roof Inn. I had a few mishaps with road directions on the way there but beat them to the hotel where we had a mini reunion, which was fun.
Saturday 11-6-10
We all met for breakfast then I headed on down to Dearborn to the Henry Ford Museum. http://www.hfmgv.org/museum/index.aspx It has been about 15 or so years since I’ve been to the museum and figured I’d hit it again. My gas gage light was on and I decided that a few of the gas stations were in a not so safe area of town so I just kept going to the Museum and I’d find one around there. (I last filled up in Madison WI roughly 500 miles back) There were no stations I could see near the museum, so I just parked the car and headed on in.
I think the charge was $15 to get in and they also charged another $5 or so to park (on a Saturday, give me a break!) At the Michigan welcome center I got a $2 discount so I used it. As I approached the building I met a young man from Turkey who had just got married a few weeks prior. We hit it off, and bummed around the museum. Now the poor guy just got married, he worked for Fiat and they said to him, “You are going to Detroit for 3 weeks to learn pressing techniques from Chrysler”. What a bummer for the newly weds. Anyway, we got to see all sorts of neat exhibits from a bunch of the Presidential limousines to steam engines, to the chair president Lincoln was assassinated in, airplanes, and some of the other things Ford was into. I actually saw a car that had been made early in the century that was totally electric, got up to around 25 or so mph and was finally phased out in the 1940’s so all this BS that the car companies can’t do it or are having issues is just that, a bunch of BS.
They have redone the exhibit area quite a bit and it was very nice. At one point there was an old car all torn apart (model A or summat) and the guy asked if I wanted to put a fender on. Being an old car nut I couldn’t refuse. He helped me set it on the pin and then I put the bolts in. He mentioned if I came back in a few hrs it would be all put together and they would drive it out. I took about 2-3 min to put this part on and he said that it would take a minute for the mechanic on the line to do this. They had a nice rubber mat on the floor to lay down and put the bolts in but I said I’m recovering from neck surgery and didn’t think it was wise to be crawling around under a car trying to put bolts in so I just kneeled down and did it by feel, otherwise I could have done it in a minute or so.
After we were done we bid our farewell and I headed back to the car and he to Greenfield village. I decided to swing by the towns where my parents grew up, see the homes where I spent some of my childhood and then stop by my grandparents plots in cemetery. I did a little clean up, tossed the liquor bottle away from one headstone, pulled the plants from growing between the stones so you could see everything and then headed north to visit with another Aunt & Uncle I hadn’t seen in at least 5 or more years. The bad part about not getting back to visit relatives in a long time is forgetting the roads, good thing for the GPS as it was great in helping find everywhere I was trying to visit and stop at.
We had a great visit, they took me to a wonderful restaurant http://www.willowtreedining.com/ where we enjoyed listening to a black singer that was great! He sounded like Nat King Cole in some songs and did an good Johnny Lee Hooker Boom Boom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NcADJAKoPc&feature=related the food was fantastic. Since my A&U had gone to Africa for a safari a number of years ago (and my wife and I went last year) we enjoyed comparing notes & reminiscing about the trip. They had a nice video of their trip that we watched and had a great time. I then headed out towards my other Uncles house in Kalkaska where I spent the night.
Sunday 11-7-10
A relaxing day J I caught up on some sleep, we got out a really neat (I believe a 1944 model H) Massey Ferguson that my Uncle was restoring. I got to ride it around, 5th gear really makes that tractor zip around. One fun feature is the independent rear brakes which allow it to basically turn on a dime. I’m not sure what all we did that day but met up with more family over in Traverse City.
Monday 11-8-10
My Aunt and I headed over to Traverse City to get the oil changed in the car (the maintenance light was coming on all the time) and that was the closest stealer. I had them rotate the tires and they put in 5w30 instead of 5w20 the gel-heads, oh well… We then headed on towards Beaulah to visit with my fathers sister & her husband. A former Lockheed engineer my Uncle is very knowledgeable about many subjects. He had a windmill and a bunch of solar panels installed on their property because of the power outages that seem to happen quite frequently in their neck of the woods. I was most curious about it and enjoyed watching the electric meter go backwards as he was pumping juice back into the grid after his batteries were all fully charged.
We had a nice visit and then headed up to Sleeping Bear Dunes National lakeshore http://www.nps.gov/slbe/planyourvisit/things2do.htm where I got my next passport stamp at the visitor center in Empire, MI. The new visitor center had a small museum that had a bunch of mounted animals from small birds (bunting) to large birds (Owls and eagles), to snakes and I think a Wolf. There were a bunch of animals in the room, very well done.
For dinner we went to (I think) Sheri’s café off hwy 72 and they had some great food. I had a biscuit that was about 2 inches tall with my Chicken dinner. I picked up a half dozen for the road.
Tuesday 11-9-10
5 AM comes early, I got all my stuff packed up took a few family photos and was on the road by 6. I was heading up to the Mackinac bridge which connects the upper and lower peninsulas http://www.mackinacbridge.org/ I’ve been over it a number of times and it’s always fun. Cost for a car was $3.50, car w/trailer $5.25 and I guess a big truck & trailer $7.50. On the way up to the bridge it was dark and really foggy in places. The sun came up just as I arrived at the bridge and the top was still in the fog or clouds. I got over to the north side (where you pay) then headed west on Hwy 2 that hugged the coastline for many miles then I headed north up Hwy 77 to the Seney National Wildlife Refuge. There were a bunch of Canada geese and a number of Swans there. The roads were closed but you could walk down a ways to take some photos. It was cold and windy (the general theme of the trip) but nice and sunny.
Next stop was Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore http://www.nps.gov/piro/planyourvisit/index.htm up on the north side of the peninsula and lake Superior. I wanted to come from the east by Grand Marais but it could be iffy with dirt roads so I tried to get to it via road H15. Somehow the roads were not marked as well as we’d like and I ended up heading east on Adams trail for a few miles. I turned around and headed west until I saw a sign for Miners waterfall & castle. I took the hike to the waterfall took a few shots then went to the castle and hiked around there before heading into Munising (long U) for my passport stamp. The gal at the visitor center was quite talkative – NOT! So I pressed on west to Marquette where I wanted to have lunch but ended up passing up every opportunity. I finally stopped in Ishpeming for a quick bite (roughly 300 miles into the day).
My original thought for the day was to go on over to Duluth, Minnesota and head basically straight west to Fargo ND for the night but I decided at the last minute to head SW and see northern Wisconsin. I went through Hurley, Mellen (gas stop ~450 miles), Hayward, Spooner, Grantsburg then I made it into Minnesota. It was finally starting to get dark but I carried on through to Rock Creek, Cambridge, and when I hit Princeton there was a monster detour because the bridge was out. I asked a trucker about the detour and he confirmed there was a detour and off I went. The rest of the evening was uneventful as I zipped through St Cloud and up to Fargo. I did quite a bit of sight seeing for this 4 state 830+ mile day.
Wednesday 11-10-10
6 AM and I load the car, get some fuel and prepare to drone west on I-94 towards Bismarck for breakfast. Because the head & side winds are so hard on the gas mileage I decided to refill the tank then head into a truck stop for some good grub. I decided to drive through the town and check it out. The Capital of ND is Bismarck and the capital building is kind of in the center of town and there is about a ½ mile of park type land all around the buildings. I guess if you have the land why not?
I head north up Hwy 83 to the small town of Washburn. There is a Lewis & Clark interpretive center there that is quite nice. I believe they were charging $7 a head to get in. It also said it was a rest stop and I needed to “rest” After seeing the cost to get in I just hopped in the car and headed west to the town of Stanton as just north of there is the Knife River National Historic Site. http://www.nps.gov/knri/index.htm On the way there I was getting blown all around in the car. I pulled up and went inside the visitor center and they were having a lot of work done inside and out so most of the inside stuff was not available for viewing. I got my passport stamp and headed out to see the large earth lodge. It was really cool inside this large structure. I hiked on out to view the remnants of the other earth lodges - basically depressions in the fields where they had once been. I was getting cold so back to the car and head on down the highway. I went through the small town of Hazen then Beulah and a few others. What was very interesting in these small towns is they all seemed to have a small golf course and a nice airport. As I was finally getting close to the freeway (I-94) I looked up on a hilltop and noticed a very pretty metal sculpture of an Indian woman with her hands raised up.
After a few more hours on the road I arrived at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. http://www.nps.gov/thro/index.htm There is an east painted canyon overlook & the regular park entrance from the old time historic town of Medora. I went to both visitor centers and they were very nice as usual. . This area is part of the Little Missouri National Grassland. I had also wanted to hit the north unit and a few other National Landmarks/parks, etc but the day was moving fast and I was loosing time and daylight. I decided to drive the 36-mile loop and just enjoy the scenery. Did I mention it was WINDY and cool, well it was! There were patches of snow here and there. I saw antelope, bison, deer and wild horses on this drive.
By now I had gone about 400 miles and it was just going to be a grind towards my evening destination of Bozeman Montana which was another 420 miles away. I got into Montana and tried to call a friend but because of the poor cell coverage we didn’t get to talk much. Another fill up in Miles city and then 300 miles to go. Just west of Bozeman is a fairly substantial pass to climb and go over, well it was snowing pretty good over that baby. I was happy to get down into town and get my room at the local Super 8.
A few interesting tidbits of todays drive is the elevation gain. I found the change from Fargo, ND to Medora, ND (on the west side of the state) to be about 2000’ and from Medora, ND to Bozeman MT to be another 2000’ gain. The elevation gain along with the relentless winds are the reason the fuel mileage was poor. Roughly an 820 mile day.
Thursday 11-11-10
Veterans day! Thanks for your service. I got up and headed down to the lobby for breakfast, of some waffles & coffee, I noticed a man with his grown daughter. He had an Army shirt (it said Army on it). As I was leaving I thanked him for his service and he thanked me for doing so. I hopped in the car and took a few photos of the snow around town and headed on west. I had a variety of thoughts on what to do as there were a few things to see in Deer Lodge but as I approached I decided I didn’t care to stop in but wanted to jam on towards home.
I got gas in Missoula 200 or so miles away and kept on jamming down the highway. The next thing I knew I was in Idaho and moving quickly. Those 75 mph highways are great for making time. Halfway through Idaho I see this character coming up really fast behind me in a Ford Flex (from Washington no less) and he almost slams into the back of my car. At the very last second he must have woken up and jerked the wheel to the left and darn near side swiped me. I was a little miffed to say the least and blared the horn at him. Being a total Psycho I chased him for a while scaring the bejesus outta him (maybe 20 miles) before I finally decided to chill out and go back to my normal speed.
Looking at the clock I see that I’ve made it to Post Falls Idaho about noon. Well it’s roughly 5-6 hrs home from there and I hate to get caught up in the rush hour traffic of the Seattle area so I pulled off and found the Cabela’s store http://www.cabelas.com It was a nice diversion. I could spend hours or days in there. The mounted animals are just incredible. They have a large fish tank with huge fish a few feet long in there and it was sad to see their noses all smashed from hitting the sides of the tank. Almost every large fish had a smashed nose, the smaller ones somehow didn’t have that issue. Leaving the store I got messed up in some sort of construction detour and ended up getting into Washington without seeing any signs.
I checked the clock again and it still looked like I’d get in really early so I decided to take a more scenic drive home via Hwy 2, this would bypass the Seattle traffic and put me out in Everett about ¼ mile from my house. Lunch in Spokane at Carl’s Jr and zip on towards the Grand Coulee Dam. A few of us were making good time and blew by a bunch of cars here and there and the next thing I know I’m all by myself…. Leaving the Grand Coulee area to the west I started seeing fog and really heavy fog. This crazy fog was just terrible, you could hardly see which made driving quite treacherous. Once I got to the canyon just west of Waterville the fog cleared and the drive down the canyon was quite pleasant. It was pitch black by now as I passed through Wenatchee then Leavenworth. The Christmas lights in the town of Leavenworth were spectacular and short lived as the canyon up to Stevens Pass was ready in all her darkness. I dispatched cars at will and finally was approaching the rest area I found a guy that was driving pretty well and just fell in behind. We passed cars and made our way up the canyon and the next thing we knew it was snowing and snowing hard. The close we approached the summit the more snow was on the ground. There must have been 3 inches of snow on the roads, we passed other rigs and vehicles very carefully and once down the other side it was raining hard in various spots. We finally caught up to a group of cars that the lead car was going 45 in a 60. I put up with that for a few miles before I got fed up and decided to blow them away. I found another nice straight away and put the hammer down. Now that Camry hybrid has about 150 or so HP from the 2.4 ltr engine and roughly another 50 from the electric motor. When you put the pedal to the floor the variable valve-timing engine spins up and the electric kicks in and you get pushed back into your seat while the jet fighter takes off. I blew by almost all the cars except the lead dog ( I could have passed him to but wasn’t totally sure of the straight away). This igit finally got a clue and pulled over the next place he could and everyone passed him. The rest of the drive home was uneventful. I pulled into the driveway about 7:30 PM for another 750 mile day. What a nice trip.
