-
To Follow this Blog Click Here!
The Ministry of Happiness
Categories
Ministry of Happiness on Facebook
On the Road Day 4
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
On the Road: Day 3
On the Road: Day 3
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.
Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
On the Road: Day 2
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.
Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
On the Road: Day 1
Wherever you go, go with you all of your heart. ~ Confucius
On the Road: Day 1
Day 1 began with breaking camp in my apartment.
After a bit of a soap opera to get the movers to actually show up, they arrived three days late, I was finally able to get on the road. It took a few hours, after they did their part, to finally pack my car, throw out the things that didn’t fit and toss out the last bits of my apartment that needed to be removed. I dropped off my keys, dropped off my cable/internet equipment, ate a quick lunch and hit the road. Unfortunately, that meant I didn’t get out of town until about 2PM. So I decided my first night’s stop would be Reno. This also meant a quick pop into Cabelas on the way to the hotel. And the big horn sheep sculpture pictured above hits a little differently at night.
As I was driving, listening to ABACAB, I thought I heard an odd tone in the song a couple of times. And then when the music quieted down I realized what it was, the chime that plays when you’ve left your keys in the ignition or fail to put on your seat belt. This started randomly about an hour and a half into the drive. No warning lights, just the audio torture of ding, ding, ding, ding, ding and I started imagining how absolutely insane I would be after listening to this go on for a week. So, since cars are effectively computer chip controlled these days, I pulled over and did what you do with a computer, shut it off, wait a few seconds and rebooted. When I tuned the ignition back on, no tone! You know, until I put it in drive and then ding, ding, ding… I drove down to the next exit and pulled off. My hypothesis was that the load had shifted and pushed on one of the doors, not enough to set off the dash warning but enough to trip the sensor, hence the reason it was only happening when in drive. So I pulled into a parking lot, and open and forcefully closed all the doors and the tailgate. Then, I took a deep breath and started the car, no ding, then the big test, I put it into drive and drove around the lot, no ding, thank god!
I made it to the Silver Legacy a little before 8PM, tired and not ready for humans, checked-in with the automated kiosk and went to my room, which I immediately realized was a smoking room. Marched back down, waited in line for one of the two clerks, one of which immediately went on break. After finally getting to the desk, I got to my room and was excited to finally be there. I went down to the cafe, got a salad and a teriyaki chicken bowl. The salad was awesome and something I being very careful with after learning an important lesson the first time I drove cross-country. The combination of a week in the car, driving all day and eating a lot of burgers and fries, I arrived in California not feeling particularly well. It turned into a pretty scary pain that I was afraid it was appendicitis but turned out to just be my intestines being backed up. So ever since, on every cross-country trip, a salad a day is absolutely a requirement. The teriyaki bowl was great but I made a mistake that seems to be an inherited physical trait on my mom’s side of the family, sometimes food gets stuck. Not sure what the technical name for it is, but if you eat a little too fast, and for me it seems to almost always happen with rice, the food gets lodged just above the stomach and causes you acid/reflux like pain and discomfort and also almost always makes me vomit up bile. So, a few bites in and my food was caught, sometimes I can relax and stretch it out but not this time, happily I didn’t vomit, but got my food boxed and took it to my room for later.
I decided to do a little gambling, wasn’t super in the mood and really wanted to get to bed. So instead of quarter video poker I hit a couple of dollar machines, I figure I’d burn out what I allotted quickly and would leave, two machines didn’t do well and I moved on after dropping about a hundred dollars. I sat down at the third machine and the New York song they’ve use in the NY State marketing ads (Empire State of Mind by Alicia Keys and Jay-Z), started playing and seemed like a good omen, and it was, two spins in I hit four deuces, not with the ace kicker unfortunately but still paid me $600. I decided to move on and hit a couple of quarter machines with the goal of getting back to the room before ten. Once again the third machine and boom, four aces, which paid me another $200, all total ended up winning over $500 and decided it was a nice way to spend my last night in Reno at the Silver Legacy, a place I’ve spent a lot of time while living in California. It’s the sportsbook where I drop my annual NFL bets, it was the place I always stayed the night before going in and the night after coming out of Burning Man. The place holds some really great memories so it was a fitting last night there. I went up to the room, finished my dinner and went to bed, early day on the road tomorrow.
Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane
Posted in Happiness on the Road
Tagged adventure, be happy, burning man, gambling, happiness, happy, life, reno, travel
2 Comments
