Go East Old Man, Part 3

July 13 - Today we began our long trek home. First order of business was getting out of the DC area, not a small fete. It took close to an hour to slowly get out of the busyness. We crossed many states today, from Virginia to Maryland, West Virginia, and Ohio. I was amazed at how forested it was. Most areas were solid deciduous forests fully covering hills and valleys, with some farmland, corn fields and Appalachian rock outcrops. Quite nice. There were few evergreens anywhere, especially as we moved west. There were nice town names like Meyerville, West Virginia! Things went quite smoothly. We even went for a walk around the town of Athens, Ohio, home of Ohio State University. We found a Walmart near by and bought some meat and cheese and grape-related beverages. (The meat went missing though. My theory is that Donald's son got some Russian spies to sabotage our trip in order to encourage us to return to our foreign land.) We mapped out the remainder of our trip, taking a short side trip to Estes Park in the mountains north of Denver.

July 14 - Our weather fortunes seem to have turned. Yesterday we arrived in Athens, Ohio after a rain storm had moved through. We had mainly sunny, hot weather. Today we learned that after we left Washington, a major storm hit the city, causing problems including canceled flights. The TV had weather warning of severe rain and flash flood problems for the Midwest but for us it has been hot, and humid. We drove across Indiana, Illinois and into Missouri, going through Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis and into St. Louis.  It was to be a 7.5 hour drive and was going very smoothly and on schedule until halfway through Illinois, when we hit major construction delays. We lost over and hour in intermittent slowdowns and stoppages. (Between lunch stop, gas stop, and construction delays, I think I passed one truck at least three times.) We also gained an hour by crossing into the Central time zone in St. Louis. St. Louis was a very industrial looking city, and not very attractive. We did get photos of the Arch. We passed on a few of the standard motels we had been frequenting because they looked a little seedy. We settled for The Hampton Inn near the airport so we could get out of town quicker. We had dinner at the restaurant next door, a ribs place. We of course had to have St. Louis ribs. Very good, although, to tell you the truth, I prefer baby ribs that don't require covering your hands and face in ribs sauces, but I really enjoyed the backed beans with actual meat in it, rather than the piece of fat that comes in pork and beans cans.

July 15 - It was difficult to write too much about today because I had no complaints. Our travel went very smoothly, with no traffic delays, and the weather was nice. It reached into the mid thirties, although who would know with the A/C blasting icy air at me all day. OK, I have one complaint, but it was a little one. We drove through Kansas City, and my only regret  was that we did not get any photos shots of Arrowhead Stadium, home of the NFL Chiefs, although we did get a shot of baseball's Royals home, immediately in front of it. KC straddles the border of Missouri and Kansas. In fact there are two separate cities called Kansas City, sharing a border but independent of each other. Who knew? We spent the night in Hays, Kansas, a university town. Now, I did have an issue with Hays. The entire town was designed to make me drive all over the place. Every direction I wanted to go in was blocked or one way, or there were distractions so that I would miss a turn. I drove for many blocks to get to the Mexican restaurant a few blocks away. My family now realized it was not easy being me, with so many things conspiring against me. It is amazing that I still have my cheerful disposition!

July 16 - We left Hays, Kansas and headed for the mountains. Driving eastern Kansas it was a hot day, but the skies in the distance looked threatening. Then the dark clouds rolled in and the sky seemed to come down upon us. We saw only a few drops of water before things cleared again and we had sun the rest of the day. Temperatures reached about 32 degrees C. We arrived at our destination, Loveland, a suburb of Denver, early. We spent the afternoon going to Estes Park, about an hour away in the Rockies. We had visited Estes Park many years ago when we camped in Colorado Springs, but we hardly recognized it. A quaint, little mountain town with a large Christmas store with lots and lots of Dickens houses, was now a town with many motels, condos, etc., and many shops. I think the Christmas store was a good part of Joanie's motivation for wanted to visit here, but alas, it was no more. Probably saved me over $100! We still enjoyed the new walkway and the little shops, and the drive through the mountains was beautiful. I also enjoyed visiting the sports store, and sneaking up on Joanie with a KC Chiefs mask on. She jumped into Leah's arms, which was good exercise for both of them. You're welcome. In the evening Leah visited with an old friend who lived here, while Joanie and I broke down and went to McD, and then walked through a sculpture garden, with bronze and steel statues displayed in a garden setting, very nice. On a side note not related to anything, we have probably never seen so many exceedingly obese people on our trip through the USA.

July 17 - Today being the first day in a new time zone, mountain daylight time, I woke up an hour early and couldn't get back to sleep. Last night I conducted an experiment to see how safe a place called Loveland could be. It passed! We came to the car to discover that my drivers side window was completely open, but nothing was missing, including the GPS on the dash beside the window. It was a risky move and not one I would be very happy to see Joanie do.  We drove north in Colorado along side the Rockies, and then into Wyoming. The drive was on a two lane divided highway that wound gently through high grassland with long stretches of nothing. The speed limit was 80 MPH, or 128 KPH. Unfortunately, while we were miles from anything, our oil lamp went on, the first auto incident on this trip. The next town we hit had only an unmanned set of gas pumps and a sign saying the store would open soon. We had to drive another 25 miles to find a regular gas station. Perhaps the high speed contributed to the oil light going on. I did put some oil in and the problem went away. The auto manual suggested adding oil every 2,000 km. So, I have never added oil and on this trip, we were just 8,000 over the recommended procedure. The only other problem was finding an actual rest stop for lunch. There were unserviced pullouts but very few rest stops. We had a good drive and enjoyed the scenery. It was also a prophetic day. I had everyone on antelope alert. As we crossed the Wyoming border, Joanie said she wanted to see bison. Less than five minutes later, we came upon a herd of bison at the side of the road. We also saw a farm with several camels. We saw a few pronghorn antelopes but it was always too late to take a photo. I said I would find some antelope and if no one was on my tail, I would stop. Sure enough, not long after, I saw a herd of about 10 pronghorns and pulled over on the wide shoulder. The sign said emergency stopping only but this was an emergency. Do you know how danger it is to take photos while driving 135 MPH? We got some good pictures. From then on, see saw a lot of antelope, probably between 200 and 300. I had never seen so many before. We also saw a deer, some elk, and a dead fox. (You take what you can get.) We spent the night in Billings, Montana. A good day. We were looking forward to being home, although the thought of cleaning house and other duties did not appeal.

July 18 - The drive from Billings to Spokane, Washington was uneventful, which is always a good thing. The weather was good and there were no traffic problems until we entered Spokane in rush hour. In parts of Montana it was very hazy, and we wondered whether that could be a result of the wild fires burning in B.C. Most of the hotels we stayed in were 2 to 2.5 star jobs that included breakfast. I was looking forward to getting home and having an egg that had not been sitting in a bin for who knows how long, or those packaged scrambled eggs. I generally went with the waffle but even those were not always great, depending on the texture of the batter. We generally had lunch at a rest stop somewhere. We brought meat, cheese, buns or bread as well as peanut butter and cream cheese, so we usually had to eat only dinner in a restaurant. We decided to book our hotels at least the night before online, since a few of the places we were in were sold out soon after we arrived. I had tried to book the Kelly Inn in Billings through Expedia, but I kept getting a message that the booking could not be completed and to try again later. I clicked on Customer Support and messaged my problem to them. After not seeing a reply, I booked through Book.com for a better room, king sized beds vs. queens. This evening I got a response from Expedia support saying I should contact a Sales Rep. I am not sure how telling people to call a sales rep is providing customer support, particularly a day after the enquiry. We booked the Days Inn in Spokane through Book.com as well. It was located on the west side of town near the airport. I have to say it looked a little sketchy, and some of our breakfast sharers were a little shabby, but we made it through another night unscathed.

July 19 -  We loaded up the car for the last time and headed for home. The drive between Spokane and Seattle was very nice. First the expansive landscape of rolling wheat fields that transitioned into our more familiar alpine setting with mountain passes, evergreens, etc. The plan was for me to drive until about noon, have lunch at a rest stop before entering the busyness of Seattle, and then head for the border! There were rest stops early on but those disappeared as we approached Seattle. I should note that it would be really nice to have rest stops with nice views you could enjoy as you eat or wait for everyone to finish their potty breaks, but from across Canada and the USA, this seldom happened. We did not find a rest stop before Seattle, so when We joined onto Interstate 5 from Bellevue, I stopped for gas. At the side of the building, in front of the car wash, were two little cement tables. We decided that we would have a quick lunch break. It was too much for Leah however when she came out of the store to find the table nicely covered in a table cloth, plates and glasses laid out, etc. We looked a little odd. When we got back into the car and got on the freeway, there was a sign, "Rest Stop 1 Mile". Crossing the border went very smoothly. We did not even get asked how much we spent, which was a good thing because he probably would not believe that we were gone for 28 days and only brought back less than $200 for the three of us.