day three

june 26, the potholes in eastern washington to ogden, utah, 662 miles:
here are some random babblings from the road. ... i started talking to myself this afternoon. wonder what that says about the remaining 27 days of this trip. i think it was more a result of today being an intentional mile-eater, plus baristas for some reason not being interested in just chatting for an hour or so. it was a just-get-on-the-road-and-go day. four states -- washington, oregon, idaho, utah -- and more than a few coffee stops. ... said goodbye to mount rainier this morning. there are nice views of it from the road between moses lake and the tri cities. said goodbye to the columbia river as well. played woodie guthrie's "roll on columbia" to mark the occasion. the lyrics to roll on columbia are fairly dated, and rhapsodizing about dams and power plants doesn't go over well these days, but it would sure be a better state song than whatever washington currently has. anyone know the lyrics to the state song? any state song? ... crossed the 48th parallel, meaning i was halfway between the north pole and the equator for an instant. ... one of the nicest surprises of the trip so far was when i hit idaho and saw my first 75 mph speed limit sign. passed an idaho state trooper at one point, and he eased in behind me and paced me for 20 miles or so, but then he dropped back. guess he got tired of trying to keep up. ... if you're ever traveling along interstate 84 in idaho between mountain home and twin falls, you have to stop at the rest area. amazing. it has a lobby. you go through a set of doors into the lobby, where there are maps and pop machines and other things, and then through more doors to the real reason for a rest area. nicely air-conditioned, too. has someone written a book about rest areas? ... my uncle mel is feeling better, enough so that he called my mom to say he might fly to miami and rent a car so he could still beat me to key west. hmmm. wonder what the speed limit is in texas. ... the highlight of today's drive was a new CD i played. hey, when you're driving 600 miles and you start talking to yourself, CDs come in handy. and this is a good one. it was put together by jean from lake forest park, washington. it's time i introduced all of you to jean. she has practiced medicine in africa and the alaskan outback and other places. i can never be her patient because then we'd have to stop dating for four years. she was a driving force behind creating a foundation in her community to enhance the environment and create more and better habitat for birds and critters and fish as well as educate folks to better take care of their part of the environment. it's very cool. i have a great deal of respect for the things she has done, and continues to do, to improve the world around her. so, family and friends, meet jean. jean, meet the friends and family. more about jean later, after you've all gotten to know each other. i suspect that by the end of this trip, i'll have told enough stories about all of you -- yes, that includes jean, mike stanton and everyone else -- so you'll all know each other fairly well. speaking of mike, he's one of my former bosses at the seattle times who never knew whether to laugh or cry about the things i did. i mention him because all of you should know that mike and others still at or recently detached from the times are reading this, as well as other friends and a number of family members past and present, not to mention folks around the world who just google something and get lucky. tomorrow: ogden to monticello or blanding or somewhere in the southeastern part of utah. it may hit 100 in some of these places. might be a good day to put the top down and gather some heatstroke or sunstroke data for jean. good night family, good night friends, good night jean...

day two

june 25, woodinville to the potholes in eastern washington, 207 miles.
an uneventful trip over the cascades to mom's house. decided to take stevens pass across the cascades because it's more scenic. the warming temperatures are causing the snowpack to melt rapidly, which in turn is making the rivers run fast and high. one of my favorite waterfalls, deception falls, is on highway 2 going over the mountains. it's more of a tumbling, rumbling falls than a drop over a cliff, and its spray was keeping the footbridge nice and wet. don't know why it's called deception falls. maybe because it's deceptively hidden beneath the highway. if you're going 60 mph down the road (remember, i never exceed the speed limit), you wouldn't know it's there. most interesting things along the route: a crop-dusting helicopter (hadn't seen one of those before) and tractor magazine, a magazine (like house-selling magazines) devoted to selling tractors and combines and balers and seeders and stuff. these things are not cheap. one combine was for sale for just under $300,000. the magazine itself reminded me of a trip to green bay, wisconsin, with the seahawks years ago. the writers stayed at the howard johnson's in green bay, and the three magazines offered in the hotel lobby were playboy, penthouse and the green bay packer magazine. so maybe i shouldn't have been surprised to see tractor magazine in a place like moses lake, washington. did that anecdote make any sense?
today: the potholes to salt lake city, or however far down the road i get.

uncle mel

my uncle mel and aunt judy had planned a road trip of their own, coinciding somewhat with mine. their plan was to drive from their home in lynden, WA, to nebraska and ohio to see relatives. uncle mel, you need to know, has always taken great pleasure in beating me at things. i remember when i was three or four feet tall and he graciously agreed to teach me how to play chess. i think it took him maybe four moves to checkmate me. again and again and again. no mr. nice guy. but it forced me to learn the game. i didn't find out until years later that he had enough chess trophies to fill a room. at some point recently, mel and judy decided to extend their trip all the way to key west, probably so he could beat me there. but the stupid cancer he has been beating back for a number of years now had him feeling bad when they got to idaho, so they turned back. so i'm going to push on, for me, and for mel. key west or bust. do me a favor and keep mel in your thoughts. he's a good uncle, and a good person. tomorrow: woodinville to the potholes in eastern washington...

the trip begins

day one, woodinville, WA, to neah bay, WA, and back to woodinville. 380 miles.
olivia and i kicked off the trip june 21. it was a fairly long day, with a couple of ferry rides between edmonds and kingston; a side trip to port townsend to pick up olivia's friend, hanna, so she could join us for the day; and some agonizingly slow, windy roads. we were fortunate in that we didn't become part of a battle in port gamble, where a bunch of folks were reenacting some civil war skirmishes. there were folks dressed in blue, folks dressed in gray, and women wearing the dresses of the day. i figure we'll see some of the real civil war areas between florida and washington, d.c. we drove to neah bay and then hiked a nice half-mile trail through the woods to cape flattery, the northwesternmost point in the contiguous states. here's more on what the makah nation has done there recently to make it more accessible for tourists: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2008011123_onlywa22flattery.html. before leaving neah bay, we drove south of town a couple of miles to one of my favorite beaches, but didn't stay long because a fog bank was rolling in. i'm going to take a couple of days now to finish preparations before i start driving east and south. will probably hit the road in earnest tuesday or wednesday.

Hanna (left) and Olivia (right) standing out on the lookout
at Cape Flattery.

OLIVIA!!!!

So, This is Olivia! I just added myself to this blogging thingy-majiger.. and i have to say.. i approve. Even though i don't think that the picture is up-to-par ... I'll just take a new one. :) I'm going to start making all of my posts very bright colors...! it will be uber amazing. BLUE! I just got out of school ... yesterday to be exact. It was the happiest day of my life so far ... I can't wait for high school ... however, i do NOT know what i am going to do without my friends for 3 weeks(ish ) straight ... Anyway ... i'm gonna close this thingy up ... and I'll be sure to post some more ... in bright colors!

planning the trip, part IV...

here's a tentative daily schedule. keep in mind, though, that it has been evolving on an almost daily basis and probably will continue to do so for the next week. but this will give you a rough idea:
.
June 21, 152 miles: Woodinville, Washington, to Neah Bay, Washington
June 22, 152 miles: Neah Bay to Woodinville
June 23, 183 miles: Woodinville to The Potholes, Washington
June 24, 487 miles: The Potholes Lake to Twin Falls, Idaho
June 25, 419 miles: Twin Falls to Crescent Junction, Utah
June 26, 396 miles: Crescent Junction to Kayenta, Arizona, via Canyonlands and the Four Corners
June 27, 244 miles: Kayenta to Flagstaff, Arizona, via the Grand Canyon
June 28, 144 miles: Flagstaff to Phoenix via Jerome, Arizona
June 29, 432 miles: Phoenix to El Paso, Texas
June 30: 551 miles: El Paso to San Antonio
July 1, 393 miles: San Antonio to New Orleans via Corpus Christi, Texas
July 2: a make-up day in case I don’t go as far each day as hoped
July 3, 395 miles: New Orleans to Memphis (Olivia arrives in Memphis)
July 4, 458 miles: Memphis to Pensacola, Florida
July 5, 326 miles: Pensacola to Live Oak, Florida, via Apalachicola and Tallahassee
July 6, 318 miles: Live Oak to Fort Myers, Florida
July 7, 303 miles: Fort Myers to Key West, Florida
July 7-9 in Key West
July 10, 361 miles: Key West to Merritt Island, Florida
July 11, 297 miles: Merritt Island to Charleston, South Carolina
July 12, 225 miles: Charleston to Jacksonville, North Carolina
July 13, 338 miles: Jacksonville to Washington, D.C.
July 14-16: in Washington, D.C.
July 16: Olivia flies to Seattle
July 16, 211 miles: Washington to Morgantown, West Virginia
July 17, 148 miles: Morgantown to Sugar Creek, Ohio
July 18, 248 miles: Sugar Creek to Indianapolis, Indiana
July 19, 473 miles: Indianapolis to Des Moines, Iowa
July 20, 135 miles: Des Moines to Omaha, Nebraska
July 21, 498 miles: Omaha to Cheyenne, Wyoming
July 22, 438 miles: Cheyenne to Salt Lake City, Utah
July 23, 519 miles: Salt Lake City to Reno, Nevada
July 24, 293 miles: Reno to Ashland, Oregon
July 25: in Ashland (all Shakespeare all the time)
July 26, 569 miles: Ashland to The Potholes, Washington
July 27, 183 miles: The Potholes to Woodinville, Washington

planning the trip, part III

a little more detail is available. olivia flies into memphis on july 3, then we head south to key west for a few days, then north along the atlantic to d.c. for a few days. she'll fly back to seattle from the d.c. area.