Wherever you go, go with all of your heart ~ Confucius
On the Road Day 6 – 7
Day 6
Day six saw me driving from just outside of Cleveland to Albany, NY. Made a quick stop to see my dad at the nursing home, then dinner with my sister’s family.
All total this wrapped up the trip across the country California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and finally New York, and to go all Tennyson on you, my once and future home.
The drive was generally good, only saw one accident on day 7 and the truck was utterly engulfed in flames. One insane driver passing on the inside breakdown lane and only got flipped off once, so a pretty smooth trip.
I was fortunate to have really good weather pretty much the whole way.
Today I arrived on campus, got the keys to my apartment, started moving in but am doing one last night in a hotel. The view from my room of downtown Saranac Lake. So as of tomorrow, I’m no longer homeless and unemployed, but by Wednesday will have a home and be working again, not much of a vacation but really looking forward to the new gig.
The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines. ~ Charles Kuralt
On the Road Day 5
So it was an eventful day on the road. First, I went through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and spending the night just west of Cleveland, OH. Four states, no scenery and about 520 miles today, so a little lighter than the last couple of days in terms of miles.
You pick hotels by stopping point, so tonight I decided to stop in Elyria, OH. It was the right amount of miles, a Hilton where I have all of my points and just off the highway. Of course, you never know what you’re getting and this is by far the most depressing Hampton Inn I’ve ever stayed in. The hotel is behind and abandoned mall, and surrounded by closed and abandoned hotels, lovely. Plus the wifi sucks, I can only get access in one corner of the room, on the other side of the room from the bed.
The highlight today happened on the Ohio Turnpike. As I was pulling up to the toll booth, the lady in front of me was having trouble with the payment machine. She opened her door and what I thought was a coffee cup spilled out onto the ground. She left it there and drove off, that was when I realized it was a purse. So I pulled up, paid and reached out and picked up the purse. Then, it was time for the great American Road Race! I chased them for about 20 miles when suddenly I saw them pulled up on the side of the road. I pulled over, about a thousands yards in front and started backing toward them. They had to be baffled by what I was doing, at least until I opened my window and hung the purse out for them to see.
The husband jumped out of the truck, they had pulled over because they just realized they’d lost the purse. They were so incredibly thankful, the husband actually hugged me and then insisted I take the reward pictured above. I tried to decline but he insisted that losing that purse would have been a major disaster, which kind of makes me wish I’d looked inside. Anyway, a good deed done and New York tomorrow!
Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living. ~ Mary Ritter Beard
On the Road Day 4
Started at day break in Ogalala, NE ended at sunset in Iowa City, IA.
A long day of driving with a really fantastic break. A good friend lives in Lincoln, NE and him and his wife were driving west this morning to go see the grandkids last high school football game and celebrate their birthdays. So we did an algebra problem, if one car leaves from Lincoln at 10AM CDT, traveling west at 70mph and another car leaves Ogalala at 7:30 MDT traveling east at 70mph, where will they meet? The answer is Grand Isle, NE, or as the following picture shows, nowwhere.
We hadn’t seen each other in ten years and while it was a brief half hour in the middle of nowhere Nebraska, it was great to see him. We got really close in grad school in Kentucky, we had a really tight knit group of friends. Unfortunately in the last year one of our group, Paul, passed away unexpectedly, so it made meeting up that much more meaningful. He’s also a witness to the great cowboy midget event in East St. Louis, a story you only get in person, or if you know the secret webpage where it’s posted. Or, you can wait for my memoir to be published.
Back on the road and pushing for Iowa City, IA. I have to say, drivers in Iowa have been the worst so far, by a long shot. Even saw someone, while traffic was flowing above the speed limit, rip off and pass traffic on the inside breakdown lane at like 80 mph, absolutely nuts.
Pulled in and instead of gassing up and washing the windows, went straight for food and the room, I’ll gas up in the morning. There was a restaurant next to the hotel, they made a really good steak but god knows why this was in the lobby, the name of the restaurant was the street address. Just another Iowa mystery. Went for a walk after dinner around the property only to realize the hotel is next to a cemetery so imagining poltergeist movie scenarios. And oddly, saw an Amazon Prime van driving out of the cemetery at like 7:30PM at night, does Prime spread ashes now?
Anyway eastbound and down for Chicago then Cleveland tomorrow, only a measly 1100 miles to go.
After a few days on the road, the routine is finally set, packing the car is second nature each morning, everything is arranged for the drive, my music, my drinks, my snacks, napkins, tissues and emergency pee bottle all at the ready! Happily, there have been no emergencies, have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. ~ Matsuo Basho
Today is what I call a trucker day. By that I mean it was all about miles, a long 600+ mile day was the plan. I lit out of Salt Lake City at 7AM, I’d say dawn, but it was pitch black. Today I saw a massive temperature swing, shortly after Salt Lake City, up in the mountains the temperature kept dropping getting down to the thirty-six degrees. By time I crossed into Nebraska it was eighty-two degrees, a full forty-six degree swing. A trucker day means no full lunch stops and as much as absolutely possible, bathroom, food and gas breaks all at once, so of course it means stopping at truck stops like Pilot, Maverick and Loves. So today, quick little sandwiches and snacks until I hit the hotel at the end of the day. In general, short of a lot of construction, it was a good driving day, traffic wasn’t bad and although the temperature swing was huge, it was a sunny dry day.
Today I left Utah, crossed all of Wyoming and drove into Nebraska. I have a couple of friends from Wyoming and so I had to check off all of the standard Wyoming items, cattle, cowboys, antelope and Taco John’s, seriously don’t ask, it’s a Wyoming thing.
Kicking through all of the albums on my MP3 and it’s been a fun run through my music collection.
On the upside I reached out to a good friend from grad school who lives in Lincoln, NE and he and his wife are driving west in the morning, so we’re going to find a midpoint once we’re both on the road and say hi, it will be good to see him, it’s been around ten years.
So tonight, a slow night, a good meal and hopefully a little more sleep than the last couple of nights. Tomorrow Nebraska and Iowa, so corn, soybean, corn and more corn, tomorrow will absolutely be the least scenic day of the run.
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. ~ T. S. Eliot
On the Road: Day 2
Early morning in Reno, up and out and headed for one of my favorite fast food items, the egg and cheese burrito at Del Taco, don’t judge. Met a panhandler at the door, and living for thirty years in California you get pretty jaded about them. But this guy made the ask that almost always work with me, he asked if I’d buy him some food, so in we went and I bought the dude a couple of burritos for breakfast.
On the road and running hard for Salt Lake City, nothing like 80MPH speed limits, few cops and flat highly visible roads for making time. Flew across Nevada and into Utah. One of the interesting things on the trip are gas prices, at a quick stop in Colfax on Day 1 I spent the most I’ve ever spent for gas $7.39 per gallon for 87 octane, today a much less painful but still high $5.39.
Fall has absolutely hit the high desert and got a great shot of the color changes in the photo above on a lovely sunny day. Of course, that changed into Utah, after driving past and through the always trippy Bonneville Salt Flats it started to rain and I perfectly hit rush hour traffic in the rain. I finally made the hotel, being tired and avoiding humans went strait to my room with my digital key and opened it to find that the room had not been cleaned and for a second, I thought someone was in the bed. So for the second night I marched back to the desk and got a new room, seems like we have a pattern developing.
I walked across the street after the rain stopped and picked up a salad and bananas for dinner and raided my traveling snack back and ate one of my emotional support cupcakes. I then went out for a walk, typed this up and am now calling it a night. East bound and down for Ogalala, NE in the morning, 600+ mile drive tomorrow if it goes well, or a short 450 to Cheyenne, we’ll see what the road holds. Did see my first sign of snow while out for my walk, right in the direction I’m driving in the morning.
