Day Six: Bozeman, MT to Seattle

I made it! Saturday's drive was the longest drive, 10 hours. Add to that the hour I lost when the muffler fell off my car as soon as I pulled on to the interstate. I pulled over to the side of the road, where the speed limit is 75mph. It was a bit scary sticking my head under the car with cars and trucks going by so fast. It looked like one of the screws holding the muffler/tailpipe up to the car had rusted off. So, I figured if I could find some wire or something I could at least get the thing off the ground so it wasn't dragging on the ground. There were tons of little flies and a dead deer by the side of the road. And I think there was some shit, too, because it stunk. If I had stopped a half mile down the road, I would have stopped in front of a sunflower field, and it would have been so pretty. I have AAA, but that doesn't help when your somewhere in Montana where your mobile phone doesn't work. Before long, a highway patrol car stopped and called up the nearest auto shop to see if they were open. But instead, she ended up calling a service truck to come out. She left, and as I was waiting, a big old truck stopped and two young guys got out. I thought they were the service truck, but they'd been driving the other way on the highway and turned around to see if I needed help. So nice! And they had great accents. So, they had tools in their truck, and they fixed the muffler for me! Of course, then the service truck that the patrol had called earlier showed up and charged me $30 for having to drive out there. But I was just glad my car was fixed and I could finally get back on the road. And I got to meet some friendly locals.



Most of the day's drive was through mountains, so there wasn't much fun stuff along the way. I stopped in St Regis, Montana for gas and a short break. There's a giant gift shop with free popcorn and a trout aquarium. There was a family selling fresh lambert cherries by the side of the road. I bought a pound of them. They were so good!



Nice view entering Idaho.


This was somewhere in Washington, probably about 2 hours before I reached Seattle. I stopped at a scenic overlook just before sunset.






The last two hours were hard driving because it was a lot of mountain driving at night. And it was raining and all the other cars were going so fast. I finally got to Seattle about 10:30ish. Yay! I'm home!

Day Five: Bismarck, ND to Bozeman, MT

Yesterday it was the world's largest buffalo. Today I visited the world's largest holstein cow. It's located in New Salem, North Dakota and she's called Salem Sue. Really nice view from here. Australia has it's Big Things, but the midwest has it's fair share, too. Here we have The World's Largest Things.


View from Salem Sue's perch.


The yellow in these pics is sunflowers, fields of sunflowers. I drove past several sunflower farms, but this one was the most vibrant.


From the world's largest holstein cow to the world's largest metal sculpture. This is called Geese in Flight. It's part the Enchanted Highway, a 32 mile stretch of road leading south from Interstate 94 to the town of Regent. A guy named Gary Greff wanted people to visit his town of Regent, so he created a series of giant odd metal sculptures along the road to the town. This Geese in Flight one is right off the interstate.


If you were wondering where Home On The Range was, it's in North Dakota.


I didn't know I'd be passing through Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I hadn't expected to see such a spectacular view. This is the Painted Canyon overlook at the visitor center.


Not much to see during the Montana stretch. Quite a bit of mining, very windy and some rain. It was a long drive.

Day Four: Minneapolis to Bismarck, ND

I had originally planned to go to the Mall of America while I was in Minneapolis. Not because I wanted to shop, but just to see it since I'm here. But this morning I decided that I didn't really want to go all that much. So I skipped the mall and went on my way. I considered taking a detour to go see the World's Largest Ball of Twine made by a single person. But I decided to stick to the things closer to the interstate. I was disappointed to find out that I was very near the SPAM museum in Minnesota yesterday. Oh well...I hit some traffic just outside of Minneapolis, and wondered if I should have gone to see the ball of twine. I stopped for gas at Fergus Falls where there was this Continental Divide monument. It's just next to a gas station, no one really pays attention. kind of boring....


I stopped at the Fargo visitor center. They have a walk of fame with 100 celebrity hand/foot prints in cement. Here are a few. Hmm, Bill Gates and I wear the same size glove.


The Space Aliens bar and grill in Fargo.


Today's drive was pretty easy. Just six hours on I-94. The speed limit in North Dakota is 75 (120 km/h), but I drive slower than that. I don't like the way my car sounds at 75mph. It's a nice drive unless you're running low on gas. I forgot to get gas when I stopped in jamestown to see the world's largest buffalo. Then I drove past fields and farms and exits with no gas stations. I was worried I'd be stuck by the side of the road with a mobile phone with no signal. But I did find a gas station and all was well.



I made a stop in Jamestown, North Dakota to see the World's Largest Buffalo and Frontier Village.




Frontier Village was a nice stop on the way. It was free, so worth the price. I was amused with the mannequins.




Inside one room schoolhouse.


Nearby Frontier Fort. It's mainly a gift shop and restaurant with some buffalo in the back that you can feed. Also a strange "museum" that looks more like it's used for storage.


The Space Aliens restaurant in Bismarck is right by my hotel. I decided I had to check it out.

Day Three: Chicago to Minneapolis

This morning I enjoyed my complimentary continental breakfast while reading my complimentary USA Today and used the complimentary internet to book a night at another Hampton Inn. IKEA was just down the road...I planned it this way, haha. I couldn't buy anything, but looking is still fun. Green is my new color. I love this bed, and IKEA fabrics.

Today's lunch. Yummy, swedish meatballs and a lingonberry slushie.




Most of the drive today was through Wisconsin. I stopped at DeForest to visit Sissy the Cow at Ehlenbach's Cheese Chalet.


Just down the street from the Cheese Chalet is the Citgo gas station with the Pink Elephant wearing glasses. I love silly stuff like this. It makes the drive less monotonous.


The sun was behind the elephant, so it was hard to get pictures from the front of it. You can see where it is in relation to the gas station in this one.


My king size bed for tonight. Lady at desk not as friendly as at the last one, but still glad to have a nice room for tonight. And looking forward to breakfast.

Day Two: Akron to Chicago

Tuesday morning, I ran some errands and hit the AAA for some maps. I also made one last trip to Marc's for some strawberries and sunscreen. I met my friend David for lunch at Summit Mall and then hit the road.

Six hours later....approaching Chicago. Beautiful scenery.



This was before all the traffic. Even at 7pm the traffic was really heavy. I finally got to the hotel at 8pm Chicago time.



My wonderful room at the Hampton Inn. As soon as I walked in to the lobby I felt so much better. A big improvement from the previous night at the ExtendedStay. Complimentary breakfast and internet...and no weird staff trying to give me extra pillows. Very happy.

Day One: Blacksburg to Akron

I'm soooo weary of moving. Not counting the few months I spent exploring the eastern hemisphere with my backpack, this is my third move since december. Moving all your worldly belongings from place to place is a lot of work. I had aspirations to leave a 6am Monday to be in Akron for lunch. It's a 6 hour drive. But (no surprise) packing up the car took much longer than anticipated because I couldn't get everything to fit. I was up 'til 4am and slept until 6:30. Then I packed, cleaned, tied up some loose ends and left Blacksburg at quarter past 9. About an hour from Akron, I noticed that my bike was falling off of my bike rack. Who knows how long I drove with my bike hanging like this...I suspect it was a while.



My favorite place for fresh fruit and veg.


My room at the Extended Stay in Montrose. This place was bizarre. I got the room on priceline. When I finally got to my room, housekeeping showed up at my room with two floppy pillows. She said, "Here are your two pillows" and put them on the kitchen table. I was on the phone, so I didn't ask. Then she started cleaning the toilet. I was still on the phone, then she asked me to come look at the toilet to see if it was clean enough. Um, yeah...then she finally left.


I ended up meeting my buddy Jake at Starbucks and chilled out there for the rest of the night. When I got back to the "hotel" that night, the woman at the desk started this strange exchange.

woman: We got you your two pillows. They're on your table. You said you didn't get them, but they're there. I just checked.
me: (Confused look.)
woman: When you checked in, you asked if you could have two extra pillows.
me: Um...no, I didn't.
woman: Yes, you asked me "Can I have two extra pillows?"
me: (Confused) Uh, no...

this continued for too long....I contemplated asking her if there was another asian staying there, but decided not to. eventually...

woman: So, you don't need the extra pillows?
me: I don't know what I would do with them. I was wondering what they were for.
woman: Well, how 'bout I come get them then. We've had people coming down and asking us for more pillows.

then she followed me to me room, waited in the hall while I went in and got the pillows.

woman: I must have heard you wrong or something.

I've no idea when during my check-in I would have said anything that sounded like "Can I have two extra pillows?" She was friendly though.