October 1999 Archives

For once, we actually got an early start today in anticipation of a long day of driving to Seattle. We hit the road shortly after sunrise and decided to drive a while before breakfast. We're glad we did. In Wendell, Idaho, we spotted a sign along the highway for the Farmhouse Restaurant. We almost passed it up, but could see the place from the highway; the parking lot was packed, and there were are large number of pickup trucks among the crowd. Kathy swerved onto the exit ramp. It was only after we enjoyed a very tasty breakfast that we learned that the place had been voted "best overall food" in a nationwide survey of truckers.

The remainder of the day was a study in contrasts. Idaho's Snake River valley was full of farms and people, but just a few miles west were the dry and barren ranchlands of eastern Oregon. The near desert landscape changed sharply as we drove over the Blue Mountains, which were tree-covered and lush. The biggest contrast, though, was the change from the east side of the Cascades to the West. Ellensburg, in the eastern foothills was surrounded by dry grasslands and the sky was mostly clear. Just a few miles west is the heart of the Cascades: deep spruce and fir forests, lakes, and snow-capped peaks, with a few puffy clouds in the sky. A few miles further and we crested Snoqualmie pass and plunged into the moisture of the Puget Sound. The remainder of our trip into Seattle was under a heavy overcast.

Finally, we were home. After some aimless wandering from room to room to reacquaint ourselves with the house, we both resisted the urge to collapse completely and managed to unpack the car and start in on the mountain of mail.

Today's Photos:

The storm from the Pacific that blew into Seattle a day or two ago decided to dump some snow on the Colorado Rockies, so we decided to play things safe with a couple hundred mile detour up into Wyoming, where the mountains are lower. Though we missed some spectacular scenery in Colorado, we were both captivated by the barren, rugged land we drove through in Wyoming. We also saw snow falling, for about a minute, so Brad won the bet we'd had on that. (Nothing was at stake other than bragging rights...)

We had a fantastic turkey dinner and pie for desert at Little America. Little America is, to use Brad's description, the "Mormons: Stay here on your way to Salt Lake City!" travel stop, complete with restaurant, coffee shop, several gift shops, motel with swimming pool, 24 hour mechanic, dark windowless bar, and trees (which really stand out in this part of Wyoming).

Kathy had been told that Wyoming has more sheep than people and was disappointed when she realized, as we were crossing into Utah, that she'd seen no sheep at all and far too many people.

We also passed by some of the worst smelling feed lots and a strange area in southern Idaho with very ominous signs warning motorists of frequent dust storms.

Today's Photos:

We spent the entire day today with Brad's grandmother, Grace Mohr, and had a wonderful time. For the last few years, we have only seen her during big family events, such as when the whole Mohr clan converged on Denver in May for her 90th birthday. This time, though, we had a chance to just sit and talk.

Today's Photo:

We started our day with a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts for a nutritious breakfast of donuts and mediocre coffee before heading west into Kansas.

We were back into the heart of the plains, but there were more hills and trees here than up in North Dakota. We travelled along route 36 in northern Kansas, passing through several small farming communities. We turned north on route 281 near Lebanon and then took a quick detour over to the geographical center of the lower 48 states, where we were greeted by a sad, cringing, growly stray dog. We stayed only long enough to snap a few pictures of the desolate place.

Soon after, we entered Nebraska and began driving west, paralleling the Republican River to Holbrook, population 233. Brad's great grandparents on his mom's side, the Hansons, emigrated to Holbrook from Sweden in 1891 and his grandmother was born there. It was never a very big town, but like many small farming towns across the plains, it seems to be fading. Although it still has an active grain elevator and a relatively new post office, most of the heart of town has been boarded up and has the look of a ghost town.

After a bit of searching, we managed to find the town cemetery and the gravestone of Brad's ancestors. It was a different experience than our visits to the Chicago cemeteries. The cemetery in Holbrook is small, with a row of trees along each side. It is on a dirt road a mile or so from town and is surrounded by fields. The only sounds were those of dried grass under our shoes, wind in the trees, and an occasional car in the distance. A wonderful place to stop and reflect.

The remainder of the day was a mad dash into Denver. Just west of Holbrook, we were hit by a strong wind storm which blew dust and tumbleweeds across the road and did its best to blow our car into the other lane. The wind ended as abruptly as it began and we cruised into Colorado in the dark. At one point, we pulled over to the side of the road, got out of the car, and watched the stars. Miles away from the light and pollution of the city, the sight was truly amazing, with the Milky Way stretching across the sky like an eerily illuminated cloud.

We finally arrived in Denver at about 10 pm and were immediately struck by the size of the city. Like many western cities, you just keep on driving through it. We eventually reached the Marriot, which has become our home away from home in Denver.

Today's Photos:

A solid day of driving. Other than some snarly traffic in St. Louis and Kansas City, it was pleasant. We started the day off with breakfast at Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville, recommended by Deb and Reg as well as "Eat Your Way Across the USA." The food was great and the decor fantastic, with formica tables and vinyl chairs, a kind of sculpture constructed of hundreds of used tea bags, and murals made of corn. Definitely funky.

As we drove west, the rolling hills of Kentucky flattened out, trees became scarce, and great bales of hay again appeared in roadside fields. Frank McCourt kept us company as we finished listening to "Angela's Ashes." By the end of the day, we had made it to St. Joseph, Missouri, the eastern end of the old Pony Express. Tomorrow, we tackle Kansas and Nebraska, and hope to end up in Denver, Colorado.

Today's Photos:

We started our day with a driving tour of Louisville courtesy of Reg. The funky local place we wanted to go to for breakfast was closed for the day, so we went instead to Bob Evans, a southern chain. We were treated to a great old-fashioned southern style breakfast, including biscuits and sausage gravy. We weren't sure we'd like the sausage gravy, but it was very tasty.

Our tour of Louisville took us to the University of Louisville campus, where Reg teaches; to Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby; past the Presbyterian Church of the USA headquarters, where Debbie works; past Hillerich & Bradsby, home of Louisville Slugger bats; and all around the downtown area. Louisville is quite a nice city. Much smaller than Seattle, but bigger than Portland, Maine. It's big enough to have many of the amenities of a city, but retains a small-town ambiance.

After our tour, we returned to Deb & Reg's house to pick up Debbie and hitch up the boat before heading to the Ohio River. The afternoon was spent speeding along the Ohio on Reg's boat. The view of the city from the river is spectacular. We practically had the river to ourselves. In the whole time we were on the river, we only passed a couple barges and a handful of pleasure craft. Unfortunately, the ride back to the boat launch was anything but smooth. The wind had picked up a bit and made the ride horribly choppy. The whole experience was fun nonetheless, especially because Kathy got to drive the boat for a while!

Today's Photos:

Today started with a wonderful drive through an area of Montgomery County we had nearly forgotten about. The northwestern part of the county is still largely the same as it was twenty years ago, with small villages and rolling farmland, though there are signs of encroaching suburbia here and there. Before long, we crossed the muddy Monococy River, where Kathy had canoed with her parents as a kid; then it was over the Potomac into Virginia and across the Shenendoah into West Virginia.

Old US 50 through West Virginia is a twisty road up over mountains and down into little hollows for mile after mile. Along the highest elevations, we were plunged into fairly heavy fog and drove through a landscape of fresh snow. It was slow going, but the scenery was well worth it. Finally, we met up with Interstate 79 and quickened our pace to Louisville. Much of the day we listened to an audio book: Frank McCourt reading his memoir "Angela's Ashes," a very thoughtful gift from Pam.

We were greeted in Louisville by another of Brad's sisters, Debbie, her husband Reg, and their flat-coated retriever Winston. Somehow, we didn't manage to get a picture of Winston; he is charmingly handsome, with silky black fur and a twinkle in his eye.

Today's Photos:

Having a chance to hang out and play with Anthony, 7, and Clayton, 4, was without a doubt the highlight of our two days in Gaithersburg. They have the world's largest collection of cars (matchbox, micro-machines, etc.) and are real Pokemon masters.

We managed to get down to D.C. one day and paid a visit to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Unfortunately, nearly half of the museum was closed for renovation, so we didn't get to see much. What we did see was great, as expected, but we left rather disappointed.

We ended up with some neat stuff here: some old family pictures courtesy of Brad's parents, and some beautiful baby clothes handmade by Brad's great-aunt and grandmother, courtesy of Pam.

Today's Photos:

No, we didn't gamble away all of our money in Atlantic City, nor did we buy a plane and decide to fly home instead! We've just been lazy updating things.

Before leaving Atlantic City, we spent a few hours at the AOPA Expo. At the "static display" they had at Bader Field, we did manage to see a number of planes up close. All of the planes Brad is considering were there and seeing them (and sitting in a few) was great. Our next big trip is likely to be by small plane.

We finally headed out of town a little after noon. Not too far from Atlantic City, we ate at an interesting diner (Philly cheesesteak for Kathy, reuben for Brad; not our healthiest meal, but very tasty). We had a very interesting waiter who had silvery-white tipped eyelashes and jet black hair, along with a distinct Philly/South Jersey accent.

We arrived in Gaithersburg, dropping by Brad's parents' house first, then paying a quick visit to his sister Cindy and her two cute kittens Grayson and Emma. We stopped for the night at the home of the Cosimano's - Pam (Brad's sister), her husband Kevin, sons Anthony and Clayton, and their dog Sedona, clearly the happiest dog in the world.

Today's Photos:

Ugh. What a day! Today was a day of driving and little else. Yesterday's blue sky transformed into grey skies and rain today. We braved the rain and the traffic to drive through the Northeast megalopolis to get to Atlantic City. We'll take a "boring" day of driving across the plains over this any day. We had plenty of experience driving through New York and Boston when we lived in Portland and when Brad was at school in Troy, but now we're definitely out of practice.

After today, we need to update our list of worst drivers in North America. The list now reads:

1. Rhode Island
2. Ontario
3. New York
   New Jersey (tie)
4. Minnesota
5. Connecticut
6. Michigan
7. Massachusetts

So far, Atlantic City is more-or-less what we expected. We're here so that Brad can go to a big expo being held by the Airplane Owners and Pilot's Association (AOPA). I'm not too sure whether we'd ever come here otherwise. We're staying in a Day's Inn on the Boardwalk that has seen better days, but seems to fit our image of the city.

Today's Photos:

Two days in Portland, our former home! It's a nice place to be a tourist. We've spent the time visiting former favorite restaurants, wandering around the old neighborhoods, checking out the lighthouses... Our first morning here was grey and windy, as we remembered Portland can be in the fall. After a bagel and some pretty decent coffee, we wandered around the Old Port, Portland's oldest and coolest part of town. We lived in the Old Port for four of the six years we were in Portland.

We rarely spend time shopping when we're traveling, but strangely, we found ourselves going from store to store. The Old Port's brick buildings and cobblestone alleys make for nice wandering. At one of our old favorite bookstores, we were both very effectively trained by the resident dog to play fetch. Down the street from there, we browsed through a kitchen store we used to frequent. The smell of the place: coffee beans, candy, and old building brought back a wave of memories. Next in line was Green Design, a furniture gallery with some really amazing stuff we've been admiring for years. When we returned to our car after our nostalgic reverie, we found a parking ticket on the windshield. More nostalgia! As it was four years ago, the ticket was only $10. What's more, the city gives you one freebie every six months, so we don't have to pay. So, why did we leave Portland, anyway?

One of the statistics that Portland residents often bandy about in conversation is culinary: apparently, Portland is second only to San Francisco in the number of restaurants per capita. We took advantage of that little tidbit by visiting several of our old favorites: Gritty McDuff's for chili and corn bread; Chowderheads for the best seafood chowder; Uncle Billy's for fabulous barbecue and funky ambiance. Best of all, though, was dinner at Street & Company, the greatest seafood bistro on Earth.

The other culinary high point of Portland is the beer. New England and the Northwest both have thriving microbrew markets, but we've really missed a lot of the great Maine brews. Very hoppy and bitter, but wonderfully aromatic. Yum.

Speaking of Earth, our side trip up to Freeport took us past the new DeLorme headquarters, home of the world's largest rotating globe. It was unexpectedly compelling. It rotates at one revolution per hour and is made up of the latest satellite and ocean-depth data. We weren't the only people who were strangely mesmerized by the huge thing. Freeport is all about L.L. Bean, and it was strange to be back there. They've expanded yet again since we left, but it somehow felt just the same.

Of course, we also had to drive by our old workplaces. Strange. Finally, we were able to recall some reasons why we left... Portland is a wonderful place to visit, but our time here has also reminded us of the many things we love about Seattle. Our whole visit has been a little surreal. Everything is the same, yet different. It's good to be back, but it's no longer home. Home is 3000 miles west and after today, we will begin heading that direction. First, though, we have to go south!

Today's Photos:

We had a great day leading up to our first visit to Portland since we moved away more than four years ago. We woke to heavy rain in Watertown, New York and had terrible fears of driving all day in a downpour. Fortunately, it didn't exactly work out that way. We made a quick stop at the grocery store to replenish our supplies (and our stomachs) and headed East toward the Adirondacks.

In spite of the gloom, the Adirondacks glowed with the vivid reds and oranges of fall. We passed Lake Placid and got to see the ski jump used in the 1980 winter Olympics. By the time we crossed Lake Champlain into Vermont, the sky had turned light grey; we were outrunning the rain. Just into Vermont, we stopped to take a gander at a large field full of migrating Canadian and snow geese. Back in Seattle, most of the geese have forgotten about migrating and have become pests. It's nice to see flocks of the birds that still remember the whole south-in-the-winter thing. The rest of the drive through Vermont was one quaint town after the other, separated by fields of holsteins and brilliantly colored hills. Migrating geese, red sugar maples, white steepled churches... we had arrived in New England.

Crossing the Connecticut River into New Hampshire, we passed through Hanover, home of Dartmouth and author Bill Bryson, whose book of essays "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" kept us company across much of the midwest. We didn't spot Mr. Bryson among the throngs of students in town, but it was interesting to see many of the places he'd described in his essays.

We drove across New Hampshire eyeing a very pink sunset in the rear view mirrors. Even though we arrived in Maine after dark, we took a drive around Portland after eating dinner at our old favorite pizza joint, Ricetta's. Seeing Portland again after four years was at once familiar and very strange. It's like re-reading a classic novel only to find that someone has subtly rewritten it, leaving most of it the same, but changing just enough to make the whole thing unsettling. Much of downtown Portland seems to be looking better than it did when we left, but then the economy as a whole is doing better than it was then. We'll be staying in Portland for three nights, so we will have plenty of time to check out the changes in town.

Today's Photos:

Another lateish start today, but we both needed the sleep. We headed east and were soon in the heart of the Motor City. Checking out the other cars on the road, we quickly noticed that we were driving virtually the only foreign car. Hmm. We took the Ambassador Bridge across the river into Canada, where they are different.

Most of the day was a long drive up Canadian Route 401. Although the speed limit along the whole stretch was 100 kph, it seems Canadians don't pay much attention to speed limits. To be more specific, it seems they don't pay much attention to speed at all. Canadian cars must have some strange new type of cruise control, one that maintains an arbitrarily slow speed for a period of time, then switches to an absurdly fast speed for another period, before completing the cycle by slowing down again. It made for some interesting driving.

We would have liked to spend more time in Canada, but as we've already mentioned, one month is not going to be enough time to do everything we want to. We whizzed right through Toronto without even stopping. We did manage to stop at a Tim Hortons (Canada's Dunkin' Donuts, only better) for a snack. As we were getting close to our return to the US, we were stopped for a time because of a particularly nasty looking accident, the bright side of which was the scenery around us on the road and the sunset we might have missed otherwise.

It was dark by the time we crossed the Saint Lawrence Seaway into the US. We stopped for the night in Watertown and had a quick dinner. Tomorrow, we're going to try to get an early start and make it across the Adirondacks and through Vermont and New Hampshire to Portland, Maine, our former home.

Today's Photos:

We got a late start today, lingering to play a bit more with Judith and Joseph. After saying goodbye to everybody we headed out of Chicago through Indiana and into Michigan, experiencing some more of that big city traffic. So different from eastern Montana! We're afraid it might not get much better until we're heading back west.

On the upside, we've found some great places to eat. The first was Dale's Donut Factory in St. Joseph, Michigan, another recommendation from the Eat Your Way Across the USA book. A classic donut shop, with delicious donuts. And, here in Ann Arbor, we had a great dinner at the Blue Nile Ethiopian restaurant. In between was a disappointment. We stopped at the Kellogg's "City of Cereal" in Battle Creek. As it turns out, they actually charge money for the privilege of seeing what amounts to a big advertisement for their stuff.

Ann Arbor seems like a nice town, thoroughly dominated by the University of Michigan. Too bad we don't have more time to hang around. Advice to anyone out there planning this kind of trip: allow yourself at least two months!

Today's Photos:

Another couple of days in Chicago. The weather turned chilly and grey, reminding us of winter in Seattle. We found a Peet's Coffee and thoroughly enjoyed real espresso for the first time since Seattle.

Dean's parents and sister arrived today and we had a big turkey dinner in celebration. Brad even made candied yams, so it was kind of like an early Thanksgiving. On Thursday morning, we all attended the baptism of baby Joseph. He seemed to enjoy the attention!

In the afternoon, we visited the Mount Olive and Irving Park Cemeteries, where several of Brad's ancestors are buried. A few years ago, we were here in January and managed to find some of the gravestones, but others were hidden by snow. This time, though, we had no trouble finding them and paying our respects.

We also saw a great exhibit at the Field Museum: "Sounds From the Archives." It consisted of displays and recordings of 50 musical instruments from all over the world, set up so you could play each instrument electronically through different keypads located throughout the exhibit. Very cool.

Today's Photos:

We awoke this morning to the sound of a crazed elephant bouncing on our ceiling. Those of you with children are probably surprised to hear that a two year old could actually be that quiet. So much for the pitter patter of little feet. We spent all day cooing over Joseph and trying to keep up with Judith. We even attended Judith's "Wiggle Worms" class, a sort of organized play group with singing and dancing. Great fun watching a room full of toddlers tackling such classics as "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Shake Out Your Sillies."

In other news, we've taken a careful look at our schedule and decided to adjust our plans a bit. Instead of taking a northward route by way of Montreal, we will be heading directly to Maine when we leave here on Friday. There's just too much to see and not enough time. Maybe we can hop up to Montreal on our next cross-country tour, when we go by plane...

Today's Photos:

Leaving Wausau, we continued south for a while before turning east to Oshkosh. Oshkosh is the home of the largest annual airshow in the country: the Experimental Aircraft Association Airventure, held every August. Thousands of pilots fly in and camp next to their planes for some or all of the week-long airshow. We obviously missed the airshow, but EAA does have a museum there and it made for a nice stop.

As it turns out the EAA museum is much bigger than either of us anticipated. It's no Air and Space Museum, of course, but it was really nice, with a greater bias towards recreational flying than most flying museums. We spent about two hours there, but we could easily have spent most of a day. Very impressive.

After Oshkosh, we plunged headlong into the traffic of the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor. We haven't had to deal with traffic quite like this for a long time (probably since we drove through Chicago when we were moving from Maine out to Seattle 4 years ago!), though we are accustomed to some nasty traffic in Seattle. By the time we got into Chicago, it was dusk and the city was beautiful.

We finally rolled into Mary & Dean's place in Hyde Park right around dinner time. Brad had been doing all of the driving since before Milwaukee and he was thoroughly wiped out. It even instigated our first "big fight about nothing" of the whole trip. None of that mattered, though, once we got into the house and had a chance to see 7-day-old Joseph Dean and his 2-year-old sister Judith Louise.

On a side note, our trusty Subaru hit 10,000 miles today near Milwaukee, almost exactly one year since we bought it!

Today's Photos:

This morning, we spent a little more time in Duluth before heading south. We took a scenic trip all the way around the Duluth airport searching for Cirrus Design Corporation and finally found it close to where we started looking. Cirrus is one of only two manufacturers of single-engine planes built from totally new designs. Most small general aviation planes being made today are based on designs that are 30 or 40 years old. Cirrus, on the other hand, just delivered their first plane to a customer in August. It's a speedy little four-seater with a composite fuselage and a built-in whole-airplane parachute for emergencies. Anyway, we didn't have an appointment or anything, but we did see the place and saw one of the planes sitting out on the tarmac. For a pilot, it was pretty cool. (For a non-pilot, it was moderately cool as well.)

We made a brief stop at a bookstore to restock Kathy with crossword puzzles and buy an audio book to keep us entertained. I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson is a winner; we highly recommend it. By the time we hit the road out of Duluth, it was almost noon. Just over the bridge from Duluth is Superior, Wisconsin, which appeared to be Duluth's more industrial and run-down twin. Just a few miles outside of Superior, though, and we were into the Wisconsin of postcards: rolling hills covered with fall foliage and dotted with small farms.

We turned south at Ironwood, in the heart of the old iron mining region that has transformed itself into a tourist destination. The roads seemed to be quite full of weekend warriors heading home to Milwaukee or Chicago. We decided to stop for the night in Wausau. After a brief tour of the town, we found a brand new Marriott Courtyard hotel (it seemed like we had the place to ourselves), checked in and headed out to dinner. We ate at the sort of place that has been all too difficult to find: a local institution. "The 2510" restaurant was really pretty good. A high point of our dinner was the "battered cheese curds" appetizer: hunks of cheese curd dipped in a light batter and deep fried. As if cheese by itself was nothing special. Yikes. By the time we finished our dinners, we were full, but not stuffed. Unfortunately, the place is known for its desserts, so we just had to get some. Wisely, we got a piece of cake to go and saved it for the next day.

Today's Photos:

Amazing! Two nights in the same town. Despite a full day, today was wonderfully relaxing. We had breakfast at an overly touristy and rather maudlin place with a nice view of the lake. Nonetheless, after several days of one or the other of us being sick, it was great to finally have real food for breakfast.

Following breakfast, we drove up the north shore of Lake Superior along Route 61 (made famous by Duluth native Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited). Though a little lacking in wave action and sea salt aroma, it's much like the coast of Maine: rocky headlands plunging into the water. Route 61 continues along the shore clear up into Canada, but we only drove the first 20 miles or so, as far as the small town of Two Harbors.

We ended up wandering around Two Harbors for several hours, even though it's a pretty small place. The town has three huge ore docks, where trains deliver iron ore from the Mesabi Range, which parallels the north coast of Lake Superior, to waiting ships; this iron ore helped fuel the industrial growth of cities like Detroit and Gary. Though not at important as it once was, lots of Mesabi iron still heads down the lakes through Two Harbors and Duluth.

Before leaving Two Harbors, we had to stop at Betty's Pies, recommended in Eat Your Way Across the USA, a book our friend Audrey lent to us before we left Seattle. The drive to Two Harbors would have been worth it for the pie alone. Thanks, Audrey! Now that Brad and I are eating foods other than saltines, we hope to consult this book often.

Returning to Duluth, we took a detour on Skyline Parkway, which winds its way along the top of the bluff above Duluth. It's not really so much a parkway as a string of loosely connected roads, some of them dirt or very pot-holed pavement, but it lived up to its name in other respects; the views of the lake and the fall foliage were amazing. One part of the drive passes through Hawk Ridge, a local gathering spot for those interested in birds of prey. Though things were pretty quiet while we were there, apparently thousands of hawks, eagles, and falcons can be spotted on a single day. We saw only a few birds, including a Northern Goshawk who had been caught to be banded and was about to be released.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out, doing laundry. Tomorrow, we head through Wisconsin toward Chicago. The bells in the old clock tower here in Duluth have just rung midnight. Time for bed.

Today's Photos:

Ahh... a much better day today. Brad slept well and woke weakened and sore, but feeling much better. We looked out the window and knew for the first time since Montana that it really was fall: the trees were shedding their brightly colored leaves. We took a short drive around Grand Forks before hitting the road. Almost immediately, we were in Minnesota, the Great Plains nearly behind us.

Near Bemidji - about half way across Minnesota - we crossed the Mississippi River for the first time. The Mississippi starts its journey to the Gulf of Mexico at Lake Itasca, just a few miles from where the river crosses Route 2, so we weren't exactly surprised at how small it appeared. Nonetheless, it's hard to make the connection to the vast flow further to the south. Just before reaching Grand Rapids, we took a brief detour along the Great River Route and crossed the Mississippi a few more times.

Mid-state also marked the transition from the Great Plains to the Great North Woods. Over the course of just ten or fifteen miles, the scene changed from fields with a few patches of trees to mostly forest. Unlike the Northwest forests we left behind, these forests are primarily deciduous. Although we're a little late for peak foliage color, it's still beautiful.

Today was a short day and, unlike yesterday, we both did our share of driving, so before long we rolled into Duluth. We checked into the downtown Holiday Inn, where Brad stayed a few years ago when he was here interviewing for a job at Potlatch (a job he turned down for the job at the University of Washington). Perhaps our stop here is an attempt to glimpse what would have been...

After checking in to the hotel, we walked down to the Lake Superior waterfront and strolled along the Lake Walk before looking for a place to eat dinner. Although we didn't find a restaurant without an impossibly long wait, the walk at sunset was worth it. And room service was decent, and quick.

Tomorrow, we're going to relax a bit by spending a whole day in one place. We're going to see the sights here in Duluth and spend another night before continuting on toward Chicago on Sunday.

Today's Photos:

Today will be memorable for all the wrong reasons. Kathy didn't sleep well last night. Worse, this was "The Day When Brad Got Sick" that we had feared. It struck him last night, and he remains sick with what appears to be the same thing Kathy had. He started feeling a bit better by mid-morning, so we decided to go ahead and drive across North Dakota. He was able to sleep on and off and Kathy enjoyed the flat fields of harvested grain and dried sunflowers. For hours on end, flat fields of harvested grain and dried sunflowers. A short detour to the Minot International Airport was less than thrilling; not a single plane landed or took off in the 30 minutes or so we hung out and rested. However, in Rugby, we passed the geographic center of North America! Things actually got somewhat more interesting as we moved further east. We passed a number of lakes created by retreating Ice Age glaciers; these lakes were full of all kinds of waterfowl. All the motels we passed had "Welcome Hunters" signs.

Grand Forks looks like an interesting town. After we checked into the Best Western Town House hotel, Brad took another nap while Kathy took a short drive around town. Most of downtown appears to be under construction, and there are a number of new buildings; the city is still recovering from the huge floods they had in 1997. Hopefully, Brad will be up for a short walk around tomorrow morning. Kathy spotted a nice looking coffee shop, which started a major espresso craving. We haven't had espresso since the day we left Seattle. Kathy did manage to eat her first real post-sickness meal today and is really looking forward to her first post-sickness coffee.

Today's Photos:

Today, we travelled from Shelby, Montana to Williston, North Dakota. We spent a lot more time driving today, though we did take a detour to the Bear Paw Battlefield, part of the Nez Perce National Historic Park. The park, scattered over several sites around Montana, commemorates the flight of the Nez Perce and their ultimate surrender to the US Government at the Bear Paw Battlefield. It's an uncomfortable thing to "commemorate." In the pantheon of poor treatment to native peoples, the Nez Perce are near the top of the list. The few interpretive signs at the battlefield site do not hesitate to point this out. The park appears to be a work in progress at this time - it was just recently taken over by the National Park Service - with a mowed trail through the prairie grass and small metal stakes hammered in the ground wherever something important happened. Many of these stakes had offerings of flowers, fruit, hats, or other gifts placed around them.

The rest of the day involved passing through farm and ranch land (one sign proclaimed "Welcome to Beef Country") and many small farming towns. A regular pattern developed: drive 70 mph for 10 or 15 miles, slow down to 45 mph, pass the "Welcome to <town name here>" sign, spot the grain elevator by the railroad tracks, slow down to 25 mph for another half mile or so, then speed back up to 70 mph leaving town. Most of the towns had a gas station and a grain elevator; a few were nothing but a collection of houses on the prairie; others had restaurants, several grain elevators, and a "Home of the State Champions" sign reminding travellers that their high school once won the Montana State Division B girls' softball championship, or something similar. Those signs must drive folks from neighboring towns crazy! It's a really different world, but we like it here. At the battlefield, we could hear the wind rustling through the grass, the air whistling by our ears, a few grasshoppers. There was nothing else to hear. The horizon stretches out forever; the fields never end.

Much of our journey today paralleled both the Great Northern Railway line (we saw the west bound Amtrak Empire Builder whizz by, along with several freight trains) and the Milk River, which provided enough water for a line of trees that broke up the view at times. There were plenty of cattle and sheep, and bales of hay everywhere.

In non-travel news, Kathy got an email from her sister's husband announcing the birth of their son, Joseph Dean on Tuesday at 8:26 pm: 8 pounds, 9 ounces and 21 inches long. Baby and mother are doing fine.

Today's Photos:

Day Four will forever be remembered as The Day When Kathy Got Sick. We're hoping there isn't a corresponding Day When Brad Gets Sick yet to come on this vacation. Unfortunately, we have no idea what made Kathy quite so sick, but we have a strong inclination it was something she ate. It struck with a fury just after we got up in the morning and never really went away all day. Despite her sometimes violent illness, we tried to make the most of the day while touring Glacier National Park.

Speaking of Glacier, our trip through the park made this the most spectacular day of the trip so far. Kathy's illness, while spectacular in its own way, is nothing to celebrate. Anyway, we started the day with a stop at a breakfast place that was highly rated by the same guidebook that recommended the hotel. When we walked in, we were the only ones in the place, but took a couple seats at the counter anyway. We happily accepted the coffee we were offered, then realized something wasn't quite right... they no longer serve breakfast. C'est la vie. At least the coffee was good. Plan B - a stop at the grocery store - was a success and we hit the road for Glacier.

We'd been warned by Kathy's sister about the huge crowds in Glacier, but that didn't turn out to be a problem. Pretty much everything in Glacier closed for the season last week, which made the whole experience a little surreal. Apgar village, just inside the west entrance of the park, was a ghost town. The tiny visitor's center was open, but that was it. The lodge was closed. The store was closed. A couple people were sleeping (in sleeping bags) on the main dock in Lake McDonald. Fortunately, the Going-To-The-Sun Road, the main road through the park, is open, and will be for another two weeks, unless a major snowstorm says otherwise.

Two main attractions at Glacier are the hiking and the scenery. Kathy's bouts of retching put a damper on the hiking, but we were still able to enjoy the scenery. We'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Emerging from the park on the eastern side, we had an awesome view of the great plains opening up in front of us. Almost everything on this side of the park was boarded up for the winter, too, so we continued on across the plains to find a place to stay the night. We passed up several promising hotels in Cutbank and drove on to Shelby, ending up in the O'Haire Manor Motel. Think early 70's motel modern: sculpted pile carpet, glossy velour lounge chair. So far, a nice place to sleep off the food poisoning from hell -- hopefully!

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Another gorgeous, cloud-free day greeted us on our last morning in Washington State. It seems every motel in the country has free "continental breakfast" in the morning, and ours was no different. The presence of biscuits & gravy reminded us we're no longer in Seattle. We grabbed a quick breakfast, filled our coffee cups and hit the road.

Continuing on Route 2, we headed north out of Spokane before turning east into Idaho. The evergreen trees grew more prolific the further north and west we travelled, as did the logging trucks. Arriving in Montana, we were greeted with the typical "Welcome to <your state name here>" sign, followed by Montana's version of a "Please Drive Carefully" sign: a billboard explaining that the white crosses we would soon be seeing on the side of the road represent recent traffic fatalities. The next 100 miles are dotted with white crosses and we have no problem staying at or under the 70 mile per hour speed limit.

We'd been driving through narrow valleys along fast-running mountain streams for hours, when the terrain opened up and gave us our first views of the high mountains in Glacier. We'd entered the Bitterroot valley, home of the largest town in this part of Montanta: Kalispell. Earlier in the day, we'd read in a guidebook about an old hotel in downtown Kalispell that was recently renovated. The guidebook picked a winner in the Kalispell Grand Hotel.

We set out for dinner at about 6:30, only to discover that all of the restaurants in downtown Kalispell either close at 6 or are closed all day on Monday. Disappointed, we got back in the car to try to find something on the outskirts of town along Route 2. All we could fine were national chains and junk food joints. Ah, the franchising of America hits again. We ended up eating at an Applebee's adjacent to the center of smalltown life: Wal*Mart.

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We awoke to a very cold, crisp day in Omak. Well, at least I did—Brad slept until most of the chill had left the air. I went for a quick morning walk to take in some of the sights: an apple orchard, sheep and cows, wind-powered generators, Wal*Mart. It was so cold overnight, many of the town's well-groomed lawns were dotted with patches ice crystals, formed as water sprayed from automatic sprinkler systems froze on impact.

Leaving town via a circuitous route (in other words, we took a road that didn't quite go where we expected it would), we had some nice views of the surrounding hills, along with more industry and agriculture: sawmills, hay, greenhouses for flowers destined to be dried and preserved, Wal*Mart.

We headed southeast along route 155 towards the Grand Coulee Dam, one of a series of dams on the Columbia River used to supply electricty and water for irrigating the surrounding 600,000 plus acres of farm land. Science and engineering geeks that we are, a full stop complete with two tours of different parts of the dam was required. We got to see the massive pumps used for supplying water for irrigation and the generators and transformers used to make electricity. Cool. On one of the tours, they used a huge glass elevator to convey us down to the bottom of the dam; the elevator moved at an incline down the concrete face of the dam itself. The dam is one of the largest concrete structures in the world and our tour guides regaled us with all kinds of facts about it: they poured concrete for the dam for 8 straight years, round the clock; one of the gantry cranes used for maintenance on the generators can withstand loads of 2000 tons and is the largest such crane in the world; there are 14 miles of tunnels inside the dam; and yes, it's bigger than the Hoover Dam (and about the same size as the contraversial new Three Rivers Dam in China).

After the dam excitement, there wasn't much time left for driving. We headed south to Wilbur on route 174, and then east on route 2 to Spokane, where we will stay the night. Between Wilbur and Spokane, there are farms, farms, and more farms. Many of the fields were a beautiful bleached gold with the remains of the recent harvest (wheat?). Others were just turning green with winter crops (wheat or rye?).

Except for detours and sidetrips (of which we hope there will be many), Route 2 will be our constant companion until we reach Wisconsin. Tomorrow, on to Glacier?

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Ah, vacation. We woke to the most gorgeous fall day. Cool and crisp and literally not a cloud in the sky. We still had a lot of packing to do, but we're in no rush. We did a little packing, then walked down to our favorite neighborhood bakery for bagels and coffee. When we got back, our friend Miriam, who is watching our house while we're gone, was waiting for us with a bunch of books for us to borrow. More on them as we read 'em... By the time we had everything packed up and ready to go, it was after noon. No worries! After a quick stop at the Post Office, we left town heading generally north at about one. It wasn't until a few minutes later that we realized we didn't know where we were going beyond the "big picture." We decided to take route 9 up to the North Cascades Highway. Route 9 a its way north from the Seattle area along the Cascade foothills. It made for a great start to our trip. The urban sprawl gradually giving way to suburbia, then rural farmlands, and finally the wilderness of the North Cascades. At Sedro Wooley (great town name, eh?), we turned east on the North Cascades Highway and started the climb into the mountains. The road was clear of snow, but they were definitely gearing up for winter; every guard rail and edge was clearly delineated with those really tall markers to guide the plows and prevent them from going off the road. The light was fading fast, but Brad managed to get some nice shots of the surrounding mountain peaks as they caught the last of the sun. Just after we exited the park, we got to see a group of deer bound across the highway in front of us. The first town of any size after the wilderness is Winthrop, which is where we were planning to have dinner and stay the night. Winthrop is a real town with a fake "old west" facade and way too many people. It didn't help that a big mountain bike festival is going on there this weekend. Anyway, we wandered past all five restaurants in town and decided to try our luck further down the road. Off we went to Okanogan, 30 miles east over Loup Loup Summit. As it turns out, there isn't much to Okanogan, but its neighbor, Omak, has several motels. Omak is best known as the home of the Omak Stampede, an annual rodeo that, up until this year, featured the "Suicide Race." The Suicide Race was a horse race across a prairie, down a very steep bluff, and across a river. It was a favorite target of PETA and other animal rights groups. What finally did it in wasn't their protests, though, it was a disagreement between the Colville Indian Tribe and the town of Omak. Anyway, there isn't much in Omak, either, but we did manage to find a place to stay (at the Omak Inn). By the time we checked into the motel and brought our stuff into the room, it was close to 9 and most of the restaurants in town had closed or were about to close. We decided to go out to the grocery store and grab some dinner there... We finally settled into the motel room at about 9. After eating our dinner and viewing the day's digital pictures, we started watching "12 Monkeys" on TV. A few minutes later... Holy Crap! The loudest sound one could imagine hearing in a motel began blaring from our wall. Perhaps another guest was using her in-room jet engine? Actually, our upstairs neighbor was filling their jacuzzi.

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On October 2, 1999, Kathy and Brad embarked on "The Big Trip," a month-long journey across the United States and back. We had a rough plan of where we wanted to go and how we wanted to get there, but we left the details until we were on the road. Generally speaking, we tried to take it slow and stay off the Interstates as much as possible. We updated a page on our website every couple days with information about our trip as well as a selection of the pictures we took.

In 2004, we imported the entries from the travel journal into our weblog to make it easier to maintain in the future. The old hand-coded HTML version is toast.