I'm Home
Well I made it back.
I'm sitting ok my deck typing my last offical blog entry of the trip on my iPhone. I'll add photos from my "real" camera as I process them over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for those photos. Hopefully I'll be able expand on the stories from the road and add some goegraphical context.
The last two days I spent with Joe and his in-laws at their beautiful cabin near Detroit Lakes, MN. It was great to spend time with Joe and Toni and catch up with latest developments out of Fargo. Business is still going strong for Joe, he as hired another employee for OnSharp (that's 9 total now) and he has moved to half time for Western Products. It is always great to hear how well they are doing and how the hard work is paying off.
You may or may not have noticed that the blog was unavailable Friday evening and most of Saturday. This unfortunatly put Joe to work for part of the weekend. Now the problems were for all the websites the Joe hosts including OnSharp and their clients. But the final problems were solved from the fishing boat this afternoon with the help of the iPhone. Go Apple!
I reallynappreciate all of the hospitality I received from my cousins their families and the Bullingers. It was nice to sleep in a bed use a real hot shower and nothave to sit in my car for the day.
It is time to start the process of downloading 500+ raw images to my Mac and start reviewing them on the full screen. Have a good night and thanks form reading.
The Last New State
It was a crazy night last night If you see my Facebook updates you may have seen that I spent the night in my car after a 20 mile round trip in the wrong direction. But it was with it I ended up sleeping in a parking spot along the highway next to Grand Teton mountains.
I took some great pictures of the mountains at sunrise. I then again missed a turn but realized it quickly and pulled a u-turn. What I didn't realize was that I was entering the actual Teton-Yellowstone National Parks. It wasn't on my plan but I took a few photos of lakes and hot springs. Trying to get out of the park I made another wrong turn, actually I didn't make the turn I was supposed to. But this was a much costlier mistake because of the park speeds and getting stuck behind a bus it took over 40 minutes to get back to the same spot.
I nearly made it with out incident, but I was captivated by the drive through Big Horn National Forest (pictured). I totally forgot to check my distance and how much gas I had left in the tank. Luckily the clb up the mountain that killed the tank also provided the more than 10 mile coasting and gas saving excersice.
Now I'm in South Dakota heading north to trek across the other Dakota tomorrow to visit Joe. Again thanks to Budget Rent a Car for the free XM, I'm listening to the Twins-Angels game.
Sunset Screw-up
Another Thursday another messed up night. In my rush to get to Wyoming by the end of the day I missed a turn and went almost 20 miles in the wrong direction. The only good news is that I've been able to listen to an was extra innings Twins game.
As you can see from my photos today I enjoyed the drive through Idaho. It was another great day. The only bad weather was in Portland on Wednesday when it was raining all the way to Bend, OR.
I'm not going to let the screw up get me down. The moon is out so I'll get the telephoto lens and tripod out for the first time on the trip. I may try to get a nice picture of the stars. It will me my first attempt at astro-photography.
Craters of the Moon National Monument
A great drive on I-20 through the Sawtooth Mts. and Crater of the Moon. I'll hopefully make it too Wyoming tonite.
Leaving Oregon
Well I survived the night. It actually didn't get that cold, but I didn't sleep long. I was up and out of Burns by 6am. I'm back on the road and made it into Idaho at 9:23 Pacific and now it is Mointian time so I've lost the first of two hours on my return.
My stats for the first tank back: 408.6 miles, 13.67 gal., 29.9 MPGs. The computer said 31.7 MPGs, but I didn't restart the counter until I was half way up Mount Hood.
Have a good day.
More Desert
Be prepared the low tonight is supposed to be 48 degrees. Not fun. I was supposed to get a real sleeping bag but I didn't get that far. So I've got a sweater pants and socks on, if that doesn't work I'll be sleeping in my car.
As for Portland I learned that my cousin Aaron is a minor celebrity. His coffee shop was picked up on CNN as the coffee shop that served a $15 cup of coffee. You can see the clip on YouTube. I can't get the file imbedded in this post right now, but it is cool.
Aaron was also interviewed by the Wall Street Journal on hyper-milage. If is where you use the computer data from you car to alter your driving patterns to double your cars MPG rating. Aaron was able to double the milage of his van from 12 to 24, just by the way he drives the van. I tried the techniques with the in car data but I wasn't patient enough, I'm only at 30.4 MPGs.
Im alraesy planning my next trip maybe to Iowa or Nashville. I may even go before the job starts in September. We'll see what happens.
Have a good night and stay warm.
I made it!
it has been a couple of days since an update because I was having a great time in Oregon and Washington reconnecting with family.
Here is a photo of the Archery Summit winery where my cousin's husband is the cellar master. I had the unfortunate timing of visiting when they just started bottling the 2007 wine. It is a beautiful place and I look forward to another visit when I can spend time in the tasting room.
I also spent a night with my cosuns Mitch and Aaron in Vancouver, WA across the river from Portland. You should check out Aaron and Melissa's coffee shop if you are ever in town, www.rivermadien.com. They make an excellent cup of coffee! I realize now why I don't drink much coffee, because so many cups at other places are crap! I unknowingly hve been a coffee snob and I'm gone with that.
Enjoy the day and look forward another update tonight.
Day Four
Today was the most scenic of the drives so far. It was all mountian lakes in Western Montana and northern Idaho. I didn't take many photos because the roads were cut right next to the lakes and forests.
I was extremely jelous of the locals out fishing or recrating on their boats. It would have been a perfect day if it wasn't for the 100+ degree heat and the fact that I only got an hour or two of sleep. This was definately the reason why I will return for an extended vacation to the mountains.
The Fun of the Road
I made a completly random stop in Lincoln, MT because it was two hours closer to my destination and a a few campsites to choose in a National forest. I ended up crashing the biggest coed softball tourney/party in Montana.
I was really annoyed at first because of all the craziness in the camp ground and ballfield complex. There were numerous ATVs, trucks and motorcycles crusing the campground like high schools in Morris on a Saturday. There was even a freakin' pony!
So I set up camp an hour before dark, after an exhaustive search for another option. Of course the only spaces left were the worst ones, no flat ground with pine cones, sticks and thistles everywhere. After set up a couple of guys walked up and asked what I was doing here. They were amazed that my random stop put me in the one weekend when this tiny town is host to Montana's super aoftballers.
This event probably triples the size if the town if not more. In about one minute they invited me to party with them and rock the town bars with the other teams. Of course I did what any road tripper should do, I joined them. Now Im working on maybe two hours of sleep with a few hundred miles left to Portland
The photo you see is from the trip to Lincoln yesterday to see a softball pic head over to Flickr.
Missouri River
Here is anice photo of the Missouri River. It was amazing to see the river snaking through the mountains, it makes you want to come back. I would definately recommend.
Random Stop
I'm stpped in Lewistown MT taking a break on the way to Great Falls. I finally sent a note to my cousins in Portland and they're free to hang out. I love it when a plan comes together!
Now about that plan...I seemed to have forgotten my passport. So now no more Canada. I working on a new plan now which includes either staying in Oregon later and flying back on I-94 or putzing it back fly fishing where I can.
Stay tuned for futher details.
On the Road - Two more states
Knocked out two more states, North Dakota at noon and into Montana at 3:30. The photo you see is from my iPhone as I was driving along the SD/ND border for a hundred miles or so.
I was able to get some nice photos of the badlands and rolling hills and fields. I'm staying in Miles City tonight and off to Great Falls tomorrow.
Day One
Well I made it through day one, but not without some hiccups. With
Mark Haugen's help I picked up the rental car from the airport. It
wasn't the car I wanted but it would do fine, but the trip's carbon
footprint just grew quite a bit.
Some rental benefits I was conscious of like wear and tear and no cost
worries from a break down. Then there is cruise contol and cleaning!
Both make life so much easier. Just in case you didn't know.
The drive was just fine but because of my delays I barely made it to
the camp site with daylight left, but then I had no cash. So I drove
15 miles back to Aberdeen for a cash machine.
By the time I was back it was dark and I had to put Thor's tent
together by the headlights. Oh yeah, I haven't put a tent together
since high school...and it wasn't this tent!
I made it, the tent is up and I'm in it. I didn't take any photos
today because of my time concerns. I should have much better luck
tomorrow.
Good night. Hopefully I stay dry, I can hear a storm in the
distance...find out tomorrow!
New Adventures
As many of you know I was laid off by KPMG in July. Unfortunate as it was; it has allowed me to do new things like fly fishing and take a trip through the US and Canada. The map shows my plan from Minneapolis to South Dakota, Montana, Coeur d'Alene, ID, Portland, OR and up to the Trans-Canadian Highway. Right now that the plan has me returning via Devil's Lake, North Dakota, Fargo and back to Minneapolis.
I'm planning on taking some photos and putting my nice camera to good use. However since I don't have a laptop any more I'll be uploading images from my phone, if I can get it to work. Otherwise I'll find good links to share the adventure.
So stayed tuned to the blog and possibly Facebook, if I can keep the synched, and I'll share what I see along the way.
