Atlanta — Seattle, May/June 2000

I'm still making changes to this journal. If I've left anything out, I might come back and edit it tomorrow! So, be sure to check back later! All the stories on this page are 100% true. None of the names have been changed; no animals were harmed; I'd like to thank the people of Saturn and Subway for making this trip possible.

Totals:
6,742 Cows
95.5 Sheep
423 Bison
7 Deer
14 Cokes
1 Pepsi
7 coffees
11 pieces of Trident
1 bag of pumpkin seeds

Favorite Roadside Signs
"Think"
"Fresh Oil"
"LAMB!"

Favorite State: Montana (runner-up: TN)
Least Favorite State: Missouri

Cool Place Names: "Crazy Woman Creek", "Nishnabotna River"

Sunday 5/28/00 - Packing up, moving out,

Carol, Tom, Kimberly & Mala came over to help me load the trailer this morning. And, it was a huge help! We got it all packed up in under an hour. It was the cleanup and final move-out that took most of the afternoon. At about 3 o'clock, I discovered that the police had stickered my trailer. Seems we disagree on the definition of "trucks over 30 ft. or over 16 tons..." I'm not sure what kind of ruler they used. But, mine says the trailer is 25 feet long. And it weighs about 5 tons. So, I had CF pick it up that afternoon instead of waiting till Tuesday. The police had threatened to impound it in 8 hours if it was not removed.

Monday 5/29/00 - Memorial Day

After a night in the "execute-ive" suite at Mala's house, and a quick breakfast at Caribou coffee with Kelly and Anabel, I left Atlanta around 11 am to head for Nashville, TN. It's a relatively short 5-hr drive to Ryan's place. Just like last year, I forgot that Central time starts after you pass through Chattanooga. Thus, I arrived an hour earlier than I expected. So, I went to the Parthenon to kill some time and photograph the King Ryan and I went for Mexican food, then to a little bar down the road for a couple of beers.

License Plate Bingo:
Georgia
TN
KY
SC
AL
TX
NC
MS
VA

Tuesday 5/30/00 - Where the hell is the Super VIII?!

Rockport, Missouri - I left Nashville at about 8 am today. Ryan doesn't usually get up till 8. But, he got up early enough to see me off. It's cool and foggy as I start out. But, the temperature will quickly reach 94 degrees. Rush hour around Nashville was not too bad. I stopped in St. Louis to see the Arch. I only stuck around long enough to walk through the arch. It's pretty impressive. But, wouldn't it be cooler if they built it across the river, instead of beside it? : )

St. Louis gets my vote for the city with the worst drivers in the country. That honor used to belong to Atlanta. But, the people of Missouri are much worse. For some reason, there also seemed to be a lot more stuff flying from cars. I saw plastic bits, soda cans, bags of trash, cigarette butts, and other UFOs come from all different types of vehicles- buses, cars, trucks, motorcycles,...

I started the first of my 2 books on tape today - "Fierce men from hot climates," by Tom Robbins. It's the unabridged version. So, it's taking me about 2 and a half days to get through the whole thing. When it gets a little slow, and I start nodding off, I have to put the Foo Fighters tape in for a while.

I had planned to stop in Kansas City for the night. But, since I still had a couple of hours of daylight left, I kept going... and stopped in Rockport - a small town on the northern border of Missouri. The sign said there was a Super 8 somewhere on my exit, but I couldn't find it. It must be a couple of miles in the other direction. So, the "Rock Port Inn" will have to do. Seems nice enough. The lady at the counter spent a little time telling me about her grandkids as I checked in. She had their pictures prominently displayed under the glass countertop.

Things you can't find in Nashville, Illinois:
1. Coke products
2. The veggie burger at Subway

Wednesday 5/31/00 - Corn and cool air

Today, it was much cooler than yesterday. I wasn't expecting such a huge drop in temperature. But, I'm glad to finally be getting the cooler temperatures I've been looking forward to. It was foggy this morning. And, I could tell I was in for some seattle-esque drizzle. After a quick coffee breakfast in my room at the Rockport Inn, I left at 6:45 am, and headed north on I-29. Some of the highlights of the trip... my stop at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. (photos soon) The outside of this place is covered with murals made out of various colors of corn. They change them out once a year. This year's murals include a portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr., Elvis, and the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. ? How did they decide on those 3? The theme seems to be Y2K; they even have a (bogus) url on the front: www.millenium.corn. There were billboards leading up to this spot - "Ear-chitecture" "American I-corn" "A-maize-ing!" and so on. Continuing West on I-90, I stopped next at Wall Drug- basically a giant tourist trap in Wall, SD. But, they have a cool "backyard" where they offer "Free Ice Water," pictures in front of a miniature Mount Rushmore, a Jackalope, a singing/piano-playing bear (25 cents), a giant animated JurassicPark T-Rex, an "art" museum, a stagecoach, a tipi, a fiberglass bear, a merry-go-round,... and more.

I've seen dozens of dead animals along the route. And, for the last 600 miles or so, I've endured a constant barrage of Kamakazi birds crossing the highway in front of my car, just a few feet off the road, and just inches from my car. It's amazing I haven't made a new hood ornament out of any of them yet. I see one or 2 about every mile or so. Maybe it's some instinctive thing, like when dolphins swim along with boats. They must think my Saturn is some giant alpha crow or something.

I made it to my expected checkpoint (Rapid City, SD), and once again, decided to keep going. At around 6pm, I pulled into Gillette, Wyoming to stop for the night. I'm staying at a Ramada Inn where I can hear the hail pelting the roof as I type. The storm started about 5 minutes after I got into the room. My cell phone battery is nearly dead, so I had just enough time to plug in the charger and grab a burrito at Taco John's up the road.

One more stop before Seattle.

Thursday 6/1/00 - Why Oming?

After passing through Wyoming and most of Montana, I made it to Missoula around 5 PM today. John was waiting in the driveway as I drove up. And, we went inside for the tour. The University of Montana owns the house that he's renting. And, John is sort of the resident landlord for the time being. He had 2 roommates, but he's down to one for now. The place reminds me of a frat house. It's a little run down and in need of some new carpet, but not too bad overall. 3 stories, with a bedroom and "office" for all three tenants. John is house sitting up in the mountains for his advisor, so that's where we'll be staying tonight. His advisor, Deni has an amazing house in Lolo that has absolutely amazing mountain views on all sides. Along with the house, John is looking after 2 friendly but rambunctious golden retrievers - Oriel and Spirit, and 1 black cat named Lucky. John's advisor calls the cat "lion bait" because in the summer, cats seem to disappear up here. So far, we haven't seen any bear or lions. But, John has his can of bear spray at the ready, just in case.

Friday 6/2/00 - Lions and Bison and Bears!,...

The sun woke me up this morning. The room where I'm sleeping faces East, overlooking the mountains. And the sliding glass door has no curtain on it. Plus, my internal clock is all screwed up with the stress of packing, moving, driving, time-zone skipping. The sun rises around 5 am, I think. And, it doesn't get dark until around 9:30 here!

Today, John-tana and I are going to watch some Buffalo roam, and possibly do a little hiking. Last night, we counted about half a dozen deer grazing around the property. I'm sitting here in the TV room as I type this. On the couch next to me are Oriel and Lucky. Last night, we had Indian food at a hip little vegetarian place with really horrible service.

Today, we went to the National Bison Range. It's a little like a mountain safari. You drive around and see which animals are out and about. I was hoping for a glimpse of a T-Rex or something Jurassic. But, I had to settle for smaller critters. As soon as we drove in, we came across a small group (about 5) of bison meandering across the road. We were no more than about 20 feet from them. So, I got some good close-up photos. (to be posted later) One of the bison was a little brown calf, still nursing from its Mother. There were supposed to be around 400-500 of them all together. But, we only saw about 25 out on the range. The others were being stored in a separate corral that we could see, but could not drive to. There were also quite a few pronghorns, elk, rabbits and things. And, overall.. it was a good visit. We returned to Missoula and had lunch at one of the local burrito shops. Pretty good, but it's no Tortilla's. After lunch, we went hiking along some creek that I can't remember the name of. I had located the hike in one of John's trail books. It was only a 3-mile round trip. But, it was a pretty good hike, with lots of rocks and a 500-ft elevation. John brought along his bear spray. We came across some strange hoof/paw prints and large piles of animal droppings, but about a mile later we found out that the prints belonged to 2 llamas, their riders, and a dog. The top news story of the day was that a mountain lion was spotted roaming around the University of Montana campus. So, we were ready for anything.

That night, we met up with John's friend Melinda at Blockbuster, rented "200 Cigarettes" (thumbs down), and picked up a pizza before driving back up to the house to hang out.

Saturday 6/3/00 - Last Day of the Drive

After a coffee/muffin breakfast at the "good muffin place", I gave my car a quick garden-hose-carwash, (I had several days worth of squished bugs and mountain dirt to remove. And, the hose really didn't do much good at all) and then jumped back on the road. The drive thru Idaho/Washington was really amazing. Most of the mountains were still capped with snow. And, there were lots of melted-snow-waterfalls dripping off the walls surrounding the interstate. The drive into Redmond afforded me an excellent view of Mount Ranier, south of Seattle.

Sunday 6/4/00

Today, Kim and I went to a surprise party for a Microsoft co-worker. It was held at a little tapas restaurant in a neighborhood called Queen Anne. After the party, we stopped at a little park overlooking the city. There's an amazing view of everything from up there. I'd love to live in that area; but, I hear that it's insanely expensive. I have a couple of i-zone pictures to post from that spot, as soon as I get them digitized.

My trailer of stuff is supposed to arrive tomorrow! Looks like I might be unloading it solo.

That's about the end of this journal for now... I'll also post any noteworthy Seattle stories here. So, keep an eye on things for more news.

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