Friday, May 29th

Faye
I’ve been working on ideas for summing up the trip, and here they are:
First, I’m really happy I decided to join Kelly on this adventure. It’s been great to spend the time with her and to help her do the tremendous amount of driving involved. 9 days sounded like a leisurely amount of time to drive from Chicago to LA, but it really wasn’t. Although we did stop to see various sights, we never spent more than one night anywhere, and there were other sights we could have stopped for. We did hit all the big ones and a few small ones along our route. Other than Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore and Badlands National Park, some of the most scenic spots were: The Black Hills in SD, the Bighorn Mountains in WY, the drive from Jackson WY into Idaho, the Great Salt Lake Desert/Salt Flats and Lake Tahoe in CA. It’s been hard adjusting to the traffic in San Francisco and LA after all the wide open spaces. On the other hand, we agree that staying put this morning and not needing to pack up and head out on the road is a nice change. Instead, we’ll spend the morning unloading Kelly’s car and getting her settled into her apartment.

Kelly

I'm afraid I'm a bit too overwhelmed what with the move becoming real to have any good 'summing up' thoughts, but I agree I was glad Mom came along with me. Both for the companionship and for the help with driving. She also knew when to say comforting things like 'that smell that's coming from the car is part of the catalytic converter, it's perfectly normal.' There were definitely a few places that we missed that would have been fun to go to - I could easily have spent more time in Western South Dakota or Western Wyoming, and will have to go to Yosemite someday. I definitely plan on going back to Lake Tahoe sometime. But we covered a good amount of ground in a short time and are both pretty exhausted from it all.

We spent the morning sorting things out in the apartment. Then I took Mom down to Venice Beach to see the crazy people on the boardwalk, and to have lunch. We drove around the area aimlessly for a bit and eventually ended up at Target to buy some odds and ends for the place. After this long trip through the north it's only in the 60s and cloudy here in LA, which is cooler than in many parts of the midwest. Ah well, it's probably the best for our fair skin. Mom leaves tomorrow and I plan on going out for a long walk in the area to see just what exactly is walking distance from the place. This New Yorker refuses to accept that she can't walk to a grocery store.

Thursday, May 28th

Faye
We made it! Just want to let everyone know that we're in LA. We had time to walk from our hotel this morning in San Francisco to Fisherman's Wharf, then take a cable car back to round out the experience. After that we spent the day driving down I-5 till we hit the LA traffic. Everything has gone well - we're both fine and so is the car! Kelly is starting to settle her stuff into her bedroom while I'm typing. More later

Wednesday, May 27th

Kelly

Second to last day on the road, and most of it spent in California. We started by going on a loop along the western shore of Lake Tahoe, which was absolutely beautiful. Sunny, warm, and not yet the high season of summer. The car made it through its last mountain passes well.

From there it was into California proper, meaning 4-lane highways and traffic. Both Mom and I had to remember that it was not ok to go 80 mph in this state, as they have a fairly active highway patrol. We were stuck in traffic going towards the Oakland Bay Bridge and into San Francisco (I know, traffic in SF, shocking).

Mom did a very good job of navigating the tiny city streets, although we've discovered her memory of San Francisco geography has mostly left her over the past 30 years. We went on an odyssey to find the old home on Melrose Ave, and saw most of south San Francisco in the process, including a large number of steep winding roads that barely fit one car, but were still two-lane. My tire was making some odd noises for awhile, and I couldn't stop thinking how odd for it to make it through the Rockies and the desert, only to be bestest by a hill in San Francisco. Luckily the noise stopped, so she seems to have pulled through for now. We had dinner in the Filmore District with my old roommate Adina and then made our way back to the hotel, both of us a little more familiar with the street arrangement now.

Faye
Turns out you shouldn’t go home again, or at least I shouldn’t. Joe and I lived in San Francisco over 30 years ago (for 3 years) and my memory of how to get around is even more non-existent than I thought it would be. All of the SF maps we have are made for tourists and only cover the northern part of SF, not the more residential southern part. I got (not very good) directions from our hotel clerk on how to get to Monterey Ave, the closest big street to where we used to live and figured I’d remember the way from there. I didn’t! There are way too many small, winding, steep, interconnected streets. Luckily Kelly had her trusty Blackberry so she could look up directions, but we still had a hard time finding our old house. Kelly's the one who did a great job driving. I felt really bad that I couldn’t remember anything, then felt even worse when we finally found the house. Both the house and the neighborhood looked both different and worse than I remembered! Joe – I took pictures, so we can commiserate when I get home. As Kelly said, the day did start out well with a drive around Lake Tahoe and a very good lunch at a lakeside restaurant. Tahoe definitely lived up to my memory! Onward to southern CA.

Tuesday, May 26th

Faye
One look at the photo will tell you which state we’ve been crossing today. We left Salt Lake City this morning and spent most of the day driving 80mph across Nevada, on I-80. I’m impressed with Kelly’s car – it didn’t complain at all! Before then the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah were very impressive – incredibly white and flat. As we were approaching the Utah/Nevada state line Kelly predicted we would see our first casino about 10 feet after crossing the line. I figured the town was too small to have anything other than a few slot machines, but Kelly was right – except it seemed less than 10 feet. We decided to stop for lunch in Elko at a casino with a restaurant and wireless internet, so we could Skype Bridget from our table. The connection wasn’t very good, but it was a good opportunity, since by the time we’re settled in a hotel at the end of each day it’s the middle of the night in Ireland.

We’re ready to make some totally unscientific generalizations based on the license plate watching we’ve done since somewhere in South Dakota. Considering only the eastern half of the country, we’d say that people in Michigan, Illinois and Ohio are very likely to take long driving trips across the country, with those in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa close behind. Indianans don’t travel much. Kentuckians travel less than those from Tennessee and Missouri. From the east, people in Virginia and Maryland travel a lot, with North and South Carolinians close behind. Those from Delaware and West Virginia don’t travel much at all. Neither do New Englanders, which I pretty much knew from 30 years of living in New England. Over several days we’ve only seen one MA and one CT license plate and none from RI or VT. NH and ME do a little better. We were quite excited to see our first NH plate in Wall, SD. Anyone know who owns a “Snafu” plate? New Yorkers and people from PA travel a good amount, but those from New Jersey do not. Yes, we realize that state populations vary tremendously; that’s part of the word “unscientific”. People from the rest of the southern states don’t travel much, especially those from Louisiana, since, again, we haven’t seen a single plate. Texans, however are everywhere – and their state is big enough to be thrown into our “eastern” list.

Kelly
I've had not the best relationship with Nevada in the past (as some may remember), and I'd have to say today didn't sway my opinion too much. There were a few very beautiful areas, but the towns are generally pretty dumpy and geared entirely towards parting people from their money. Also, Mom and I spent what seemed like an hour trying to find a specific restaurant in Sparks, only to later, after several failures, end at an all-you-can eat buffet at a rather sleazy place. To top it off, the buffet was more expensive than they advertised. So... I'm pretty much done with Sparks. Tomorrow is Lake Tahoe and then into California!

Monday, May 25th

Kelly
Today was a much more relaxing day after our whirlwind tour of Yellowstone yesterday. We spent the morning doing a bit of wandering around downtown Jackson Hole (Jackson Hole is the town center, Jackson is the larger area), and having a great breakfast. Then we headed out of town, towards Idaho.

Mom read off to me different activities to do in SE Idaho, and of course I chose the Potato Museum. We saw the world's largest potato crisp - 24" by 12". A crisp, by the way, is different from a chip in that it's made from different potatoes, not just one. So there are no two foot potatoes floating around out there. We drove another couple hours south and settled in Salt Lake City. Pretty town, right near the mountains, and has a working public transit system. It was also completely empty for Memorial Day. We took a tour of the Mecca of Mormonism,
Temple Square, led by two very sweet young women who were on their mission. They were very passionate about their faith but Mom very firmly told them that she did not want anyone to be calling her in a few weeks to discuss the life of Joseph Smith. I nodded along, thankful that she took the stand.
A long quest for an open restaurant landed us as a bar where our friendly bartender told us all the complications of liquor laws in Utah. Luckily for him, and for Utahans, the $5 'membership' fee to drink at a bar will no longer be necessary after July. So plan your trips now!

Sunday, May 24

Faye
Another day on the road with Kelly and I’m exhausted again! But, happily exhausted. Buffalo was the word for the day (or bison if you prefer.) We saw dozens of them, close up, inside and outside of Yellowstone. We also, of course, saw lots of geysers and waterfalls and generally beautiful scenery, but alas not very many other animals. We finally saw 2 herds of mule deer on our way out of the park, but no moose, elk or bear. That is a bit ironic since we apparently had a bear visit Williamsburg Dr. while we were in Wyoming.


Kelly
Definitely an exhausting day, but worth it. Saw the best of Yellowstone in 8 hours or less. We had lovely weather most of the day, but it unfortunately started to get cold and rainy just as we were sitting to wait for Old Faithful. According to the schedule, it was supposed to go off at 4:39pm, give or take 10 minutes. It erupted at 4:55pm. So now it shall be known as Old Not-Quite Faithful. After we took a soup break inside the lodge, we drove through rain down through the Grand Tetons into Jackson, which reminds me a lot of Taos or any other western town with a chi-chi seasonal crowd.

Oh, Mom and I were both surprised by the amount of snow that's still on the ground in Yellowstone. All of the roads were open, but several of the trails and campsites were still closed due to the snow.

Saturday, May 23rd

Kelly
Today was less sightseeing and a lot of driving. We drove across most of Wyoming, including a harrowing trek over the Big Horn Mountains, which Mom drove very impressively. We were both amazed by the amount of snow at the top of the mountains. I was perplexed by all of the road closure signs that were on Interstate 90. What do they do when the road is closed in winter? This isn't a back road, this is the main way to get across the state in winter.

We settled for the night in the town of Cody (named after Buffalo Bill), which fully embraces its Wild West heritage, although doesn't have quite the sense of fun as Deadwood. We're about 50 miles from the eastern entrance of Yellowstone, which we'll be hitting up tomorrow. Today was great as we managed to get good food, with a variety of food groups, for both lunch and dinner. Nothing against beef or bison burgers, but it is nice to have some veggies mixed in...

Although I did end the night tasting some buffalo and elk sausage at our hotel. Quite good. I was disappointed to find out that sarsaparilla is basically root beer.

Friday, May 22nd

Faye
Ok, we actually passed up The Devil’s Tower today, not Thursday, but it fit well into yesterday’s paragraph. Today I found a new man, but he soon got shot during a poker game. Life in Wyoming! – Well, Deadwood WY anyway. More later.

To start from the beginning, after spending Thursday night in Wall, SD, we decided we had to check out the famous Wall Drug before leaving town. It was worth the visit, only because it was not out of our way at all. Then we headed to The Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore. Rushmore is one of the most photogenic places ever – I don’t think we got a bad picture, and we took a lot. There were lots of people there and we were very happy to be there in May, not July or August!

We also went to see the Crazy Horse Monument, which was good, but couldn’t compare with Rushmore. Kelly kept up her tradition of finding local wineries to check out. This time it was Prairie Berries. The Black Hills are very pretty and we were happy to spend a little time on smaller, scenic roads. My only complaint so far is that pretty much every restaurant we’ve been to has had the same boring, “American” menu – lots of fried and fatty, bland foods. That should improve in CA, if not sooner. Oh, about the man getting shot - he was an actor playing Wild Bill Hickock in an old west saloon in Deadwood, and he liked to draw the audience, including me, into his performances.

Kelly
It's true, Mom got married to Wild Bill. He died playing cards about 5 minutes later, so I think it should all work out.

I will say that South Dakota, while having a lot of flat dull land, has found ways to make up for it by having the best billboards. Ever since we entered the state we've seen sign after sign for Wall Drug, The Corn Palace, Reptile Museums, Crystal Caves, 1880s Town, and a dozen or so other small attractions that get most of their business from people following those signs. Wyoming so far hasn't had as many. Hopefully we will soon hit the rockies, and won't need any signs to keep us occupied on the trip.

Thursday, May 21

Kelly
Today was equally long, but less exhausting due to us spending more time outside of the car. We’ve discovered that all depressed river towns are similar, as both Sioux City and Sioux Falls reminded me of Manchester. After checking out the namesake falls, Mom and I stopped in Mitchell, which is the home of George McGovern, but more importantly is the home of the world-famous Corn Palace, a tourist trap that advertises from 100 miles away. It is a local rec center that is decorated entirely with corn and corncobs. It’s… well, it’s impressive. The corn is made into murals.

From there, we tested out the car’s long-range high-speed capability as we crossed hours of prarie land to get to Badlands National Park. It reminded me of Tatooine from Star Wars, or similar alien planet. Tonight we’re in the equally fun tourist trap town of Wall, home of Wall Drug, which, they claim, has signs for it in Kenya. Think South of the Border, but in the Dakotas.

Faye
We saw several dozen highway signs advertising the Corn Palace, my favorite being one about “Ear-chitecture.” Like corn mazes, an artist designs a new theme every year for the building, then it’s put together with ears of corn cut in half and glued on to the facade, with other grains and such filling in as needed. They do great work!

Throughout Illinois, Iowa and South Dakota we passed signs for numerous American landmarks. Even though we are not on a deadline, we decided we didn’t have time to see: Ronald Reagan’s college, Herbert Hoover’s homestead and museum, John Wayne’s birthplace, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s home or souvenirs from “Dances With Wolves”. Most disappointing to Joe, I’m sure, is that we not only passed up “Reptile Gardens” with its very large collection, but also The Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, one of his favorite spots. Sorry Joe.

Wednesday, May 20th

Faye
We had (probably) our longest day on the road - 12 hours - 9 to 9. That includes meal and gas stops of course, and everything went well. Illinois and Iowa vary between flat farmland and rolling hilly farmland, which can be quite pretty, except that there's a lot of it.

We're spending the night in Sioux City, Iowa and enjoying a little of the Bushmill's Irish whiskey that Joe brought back from Ireland for Kelly. Kelly's been celebrating the end of each day on the road with a little Bushmill's. We learned 2 main things today. Iowa has wireless internet in their rest areas, and the state capitol building in Des Moines is a very large, very impressive building

Kelly
In addition, I have now crossed into my first new state (Iowa) and have added one more wine onto my 50-state wine checklist (Iowa makes 15!). Des Moines seems like a nice city, and yes, the capital building overwhelms everything else.


TUESDAY, MAY 19th
Kelly

Started off the day at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Again I lamented the lack of people downtown, because the waterfront area is beautiful. And totally safe, really! Come back people! The Museum is great, you must go if you find yourself anywhere nearby. The sheer amount of stuff from different genres and decades means that everyone can geek out over something. Also, I can say pretty confidently that I am taller than Mick Jagger, but shorter than Keith Richards.

From the museum it was 5 hours, four more tolls, three rest stops, and one wrong turn to Midway Airport to pick up Mom. We had planned to eat dinner at the airport to wait out rush hour traffic, but were thwarted by the fact that Midway does not have any eateries outside of security. We experienced a bit of Chicago traffic (the end of my streak), and eventually made it to the home of the Morlans in Bloomington. They were all good sports in waiting up for us to have drinks and dessert. And the bed was never more welcoming than that night.


Faye

I left Manchester NH via Southwest Airlines and learned a helpful hint. If you want to get some plane seats to yourself, on a plane that's only 2/3 or so full, you go down toward the back and choose an aisle seat. Everyone who got on after me looked for an empty aisle seat, even if that meant sitting next to 2 other people. No one sat in the empty middle or window seat next to me! I don't think it was anything about me, but that's ok if it was. Anyway, Kelly met me and we worked our way through Chicago traffic and down to Bloomington IL. We had a very nice visit with Joyce, Larry & Clif Morlan and enjoyed their comfy guest beds.

Monday, May 18

Kelly
The day the trip really started. Jess and I bade farewell – her to go back to bed for a day of coughing and sniffling, me to points west. And my 33 hour streak of no traffic started, as downtown Philly is fairly empty of cars at 9am on a Monday. That doesn’t seem right to this city girl. From there I hopped onto the beginning of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and $20 later I left the very end. Sigh…

Anyway, between those two points I had my very first car problem as the transmission sensor, which had been threatening to die for the past several weeks, went for good. As I found out later, when the sensor dies, the car can’t tell how fast it’s going, and so it by default goes into second gear. This is really fun when your car is going 70 mph. I pulled off at the next exit (near Hershey) to find a mechanic right there. The mechanic was friendly and competent enough to both get me a new sensor and to pull out a rodents’ nest that had been built in the bowels of my car. He assured me that he saw that a lot in wooded areas, but this made me doubt the Hyundai dealers who never noticed it during their ‘thorough’ check-up of the car.

Several tolls and hours later, I made it to Cleveland, where I had enough hotel points for a room at the Doubletree downtown. While the hotel was nice, it would have been great to see Cleveland at night. It doesn’t seem that anyone does that, as that city follows the great Midwestern tradition of people not walking around their very nice, rebuilt downtown area any more than they have to.


The one exception to this – Minneapolis. Great downtown. Very busy, even in mid-January.

So, I consoled myself with a fluffy bathrobe and the season finale of Gossip Girl. Not a bad night.

Sunday, May 17

Kelly
After a late start to the day, the car and I were off – really on a trial run, 2 ½ hours down to Philadelphia. Once in central Philadelphia, I paid a small fortune in parking and went up to see the new Wharton grad, Jessica Tait. The Wharton apartments are very nice (as you would expect), not too far from Rittenhouse Square. Both of us were zonked from our respective celebratory weekends, and so our night out in Philly consisted of dinner down the block and a night of chatting with her roommate and watching Doctor Who, like the sci-fi fans we are.