The trip - 2011

So I finally made my way across the country. I took 9 days to make the trip, leaving on October 31st. I was actually in the truck for 6 days. I spent two days in Utah, and 1 day in Kentucky. I figured I traversed 13 states, and covered 3,238 miles. And in that entire time, I never once used my cruise control, and never once turned on my windshield wipers. It was sunny the entire drive. Magical, huh? Here's a not so quick synopsis.

Leaving proved to be a little more difficult than I had planned for. I decided to take my motorcycle, which required purchasing a trailer. I've never towed anything, which had me a bit nervous about towing a 5'x8' enclosed trailer across the country. I had no idea what kind of weight L'il Blue could tow, so I kept my travel contents to a minimum. I had enough boxes of work stuff to fill my truck bed, so I ended up only taking the big stuff, and shipped the rest. I loaded my motorcycle in the trailer, added a few things, and closed it up. I ended up not finishing up some of the paperwork for my project that I had hoped to finish before leaving, due to the Corps taking their own sweet time on reviewing previous submissions of it. That ticked me off pretty good. But such is life when you work for an entity that couldn't care less about efficiency and coorperation.

I decided to take two days to get to Salt Lake, driving through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and into Utah. I figured it would allow me time to get through the Cascade mountains and test how L'il Blue would do, without stressing about needing 14 hours to get to Utah. Much to my surprise and happines, Blue made it through the mountains like they were nothing. Which led to me wishing I had brought more. But hey, better to be under-loaded than over-loaded, right?

I spent two days in Utah, got to meet my niece Addison, hang out with the fam, have dinner and fun conversation with my friend Emily, and relax a little for the first time in a long time. It was a fun visit. I left on Friday to continue my trek. It didn't take long for me to think about how gnarly the mountains are for a truck, I couldn't imagine having to make this trek as a pioneer. That would have really sucked. I was about a day behind a snow storm, so it made for some pretty scenery as I made my way through Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. I did not realize till I was extremely tired and really ready to be done driving, that if you're going to go through Colorado, stop in Denver. Because there is nothing between Denver and Limon, CO. Which is a little over an hour drive. So it made for a wayyy too long day of driving, I was beat. Here's a picture of Wyoming:
This was in Colorao, just before Denver:

Given my too long a day driving on Friday, I slept in a touch, had some breakfast, then left Limon. If you ever have a need for a torture device, in which you bore the person to near insanity, have them drive between Limon, CO and Lawrence, KS. There is nothing in that entire stretch of highway. To make matters worse, I was driving into 50 mph winds. Given my truck's gas tank is only 17 gallons, and I didn't know which exits had gas stations, it meant I was stopping every 120 miles or so for gas. L'il Blue was getting a whopping 8 miles per gallon. It also meant I was barely moving. Even better, about midway thru Kansas, my company credit card was turned off. I told our accountant to notify the bank I was travelling across the country, and of course, she didn't. So they turned it off for security reasons. Fortunately I had the info to get it turned back on. That would have been bad, I don't have the funds for a cross-country trip.

Despite the nasty winds, and very slow progress, I was inspired by the simple beauty of Kansas. There were lots if abandoned and still in use farms, with old wooden structures on them. I seriously wanted to stop and get some pictures, but time didn't really allow it. Here's a picture of somewhere in Kansas as I drove through:

This was also somewhere in Kansas:

I made it to Lawrence, and decided to call it a night there. I wanted to stop in time to watch the LSU-Alabama football game that was supposed to be the game of all time. It turned out to be a clunker, but I still had a really fun evening. Who knew I'd enjoy the University of Kansas territory?! Seems sacreligous. :-)

I stayed at a Holiday Inn conference center hotel. I got my room, then headed to the hotel restaurant for dinner and to watch the game. I ended up sitting next to, and visiting with, an Iraq war vet who was in town to visit his kids. He was rehabbing at Fort Leavenworth after being hit with two IED's. We were later joined by a few guys who were doing their best to avoid the wedding reception next door that they were supposed to be participating in. It proved to be quite a fun evening.

When I finally returned to my room, I decided to check in on my e-mails and whatnot. As I was sitting on the bed doing this, the bed started to shake. I knew it couldn't be a storm, it was clear weather outside. Turns out it was an earthquake. Nice, huh? I leave earthquake country, ony travel halfway across the country to Kansas to find one. I thought it was pretty funny.

I got up early the next morning and headed out, I had a long drive to make it to Lexington that day. I was amazed when I had to stop for gas in Missouri, and only paid $3.11/gallon. No joke!! We're still paying nearly $4 a gallon in WA. The drive wasn't too bad this day either, despite going through both Kansas Ciy and St. Louis. I figured it was really beneficial that I did this on a Sunday.

Anyway, by about mid-Illinois, I hit my mental wall. I was done with this drive. It took some serious talking to myself to push through. I managed to make it to Lousiville, where I was reminded of our wonderful Kentucky senators, who refuse to pull their heads out of a certain place and agree to a budget to fix the bridges. So a bit a of a detour later, and a little more time in Indiana than I planned for, and I was in Kentucky again. Last time I was there was 1996.

I found my way to my hotel, which was right off of I-64/75, at the Kentucky Horse Park. It's been 15 years, but I knew right where I was. I got up the next morning, relaxed for a little while, then headed out. I didn't really have a plan for the day, basically just to sight see and get some UK stuff. I first made my way to my old stomping grounds, which took me past Keenland.

It was beautiful. For those who don't know, Keenland is the "other" race track in Kentucky (Churchill Downs in Lousiville is the more recognizable one). I caught the tail end of the fall colors. That, combined with the clear sky made for a beautiful setting.

I'm going to have to see if I can get some of my pictures blown up and printed, I love the Kentucky horse farms.

After circling the Keenland grounds for a little while, I headed up Man'O War Blvd towards the old house. This area of Lexington looked to be one of the few that was still untouched. The farms were still there, as was the golf driving range that Jeff and I would go hit golf balls at. We'd hit one, and put two in our pockets. How else is one to learn how to play? :-)

Here's a barn along that road:

Here's the house we lived in for 7 years. The trees were a wee bit smaller back then...

I wanted to get out and take more pictures, but some lady at another house was eyeing me all weird. I decided a visit from the cops for mischievious activity would not be a good thing. So I kept driving. The pine trees we planted before we left were HUGE!

After hunting down the Harley store, and picking up a couple of t-shirts, I decided to drive to the outskirts of town. I found some beautiful horse farms and scenery. It figures the weather would be just right for some great pictures, and I would leave my camera in WA. Yes, I forgot my camera. I had to go to Walmart in Utah and buy an el-cheapo one so I could get some pics during my trip. Lame, huh? Anyway, here's a random horse farm in the Tates Creek area:

I had gotten in touch with two of my good friends from high school, and we got together that night to catch up. To make me feel wayyyy old, one of them has a daughter that is a freshman at Dunbar. Where we went to high school. Ugh..... It was good to catch up though. Even though we regularly communicate through Facebook, that's not the same as face to face conversation.

And as evidence of how much things have grown in Lexinton, here's a pic of my high school:

Notice you can't really see the school because of the trees? Those trees were little seedling things when I was there, and you could totally see the school. Scary. But it was cool to see, and to reminisce. There was a lot of memories while driving around the city. And I managed to get my UK stuff.

I headed out the next morning, for the final day of driving. I was so dreading this day, but I pushed through. In all the excitement of seeing Lexington the day before, I realized I still hadn't picked up some Ale-8. This is a Kentucky soda, only sold in Kentucky. And I love it! So I stopped along the way and stocked up with enough to last me a while. I loved that the Ale-8 section of the aisle was as big as the rest of the sodas combined.

The drive through West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina was nothing to get excited about. A lot of mountains, toll roads, and not much else. I missed the fall colors by about 3 weeks, but it was still beautiful to see. This is at the Virginia-Carolina border:

I got a little turned around in Greensboro, NC, but otherwise made it to Spring Lake just fine.

On Wednesday I moved into my apartment, which again proved my company sucks at follow through - they hadn't signed the lease yet. Even though they had had it for 3 weeks. We got that resolved, and I was good to go. I'm on the third floor, which made for a rough go of moving in. Fortunately, I packed light for the most part. It's a 1,000 square foot apartment, and I have a futon couch, end table, tv and stand, and a twin bed for furniture. It looks pretty funny. But what is a person to do when their company-paid move-in budget is only $500. It's amazing how little that buys in furniture. And I brought the tv. Spring Lake and Fayetteville leave a lot to be desired. From everyone I've talked to, there's nothing to do here. You have to go to Raleigh or elsewhere. There are some golf courses around, and we're not too far from the coast. So I'm sure I can fit in some good motorcycle rides. And it's apparently been unseasonably warm here. It was 84 degrees yesterday! Of course, a storm came through last night and now it's in the 40's. But it's supposed to be back in the 70's by Saturday. I am not complaining in the least bit!

My jobsite is about a half hour away, so I'll get to sleep in a touch compared to my Fort Lewis commute. The guys I'm working with seem really nice, so we should have a successful project. I'm nervous about leaving my house. It's already been well below freezing in Belfair, and I didn't do any winterizing of my house before I left. So I'll head back there for Christmas. But at least for now, the crazy travel is done. I'm grateful it went so smoothly, that L'il Blue was such a trooper, and that I'm settled in here for the next year. Hopefully it goes as smoothly as the trip out here did!