2005 Summer Roadtrip

THE FINALE

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 11:50:46 PDT

(8/20/2005 11:50:46 AM) Greetings to all friends, family, acquaintences, strangers, that joined us on our wild excursion through the lower 48 United States of America.

I thank all of you for your for your participation, support, well-wishes, prayers, and good-lucks the past month. For me, it has truly been an experience that will be forever stowed away in mind and heart.

Some people have asked me if our four weeks had gone by as fast as it did for them. I believe if it was a 2-week roadtrip, it would have gone by in a split second. But when you double the time to a month, it feels like 7 split seconds.

Now that the trip is over, it did feel like it had gone by relatively quickly. During the trip itself, however, some days on the road felt like they'd never end. Sometimes that was a good thing. :)

After 12,537 miles, 27½ days on the road, 14 million bug splats, and almost $1,300 spent in gas, I can evenly summarize our trip up into six parts.

The first part of our journey had a few hiccups, as the overlooked flaws in Steve's car were unfolded and the van's flat tire developed into a massive seek-and-destroy mission. But despite the vehicular problems, we were able to enjoy the sights of Vegas, the wonders of the Grand Canyon, the geekiness of standing in Four Corners, the majestic views of the Colorado Rockies (the mountains, not the team) and the long stretches of the Midwest plains.

The second part began with a welcome reception from my family in Texas. They didn't disappoint, for sure. :) That was followed by a memorable trip down Bourbon Street in New Orleans, where we learned how to sweat a few buckets. A last minute freak decision was made to travel all night for one of the most memorable events in space history, watching the Discovery shuttle launch in Florida. We topped that off with an amazing piece of cholesterolic art called the Hamdog outside Atlanta.

The third part consisted of jaunting through the eastern mountains to our nation's capital of Washington, D.C., where I learned not to drive the streets at midnight. The sights and wonders of Capitol Hill brought back memories of bad Social Science grades but at the same time provided us with a perceptive look into our nation's history. Tom was fortunately able to visit is grandmother in Pennsylvania, and we could all enjoy a pure Philly Cheesesteak for once. New York was extremely overwhelming, with all of its skyscrapers and the endless amount of places to go and things to see. You just can't fit it all in one day. The wonders of Boston and the women of Maine were also notable in this part of the trip.

The fourth part starts with our route to Niagara Falls, and where we also conquered the country of Canada for about 30 minutes. We passed into Michigan to see Tom's other grandma and his family, where we were all treated to a fantastic lightning show at 5:00am. In Chicago, a broken windshield was one of the results of an overnight stay, which prompted us to leave after visiting the Sears Tower, and of course who can forget the the Field of Dreams ball park in Iowa, where "people will come"?

The fifth part took us through the northern plains of the Dakotas and down by Mt. Rushmore, where I have seen far more than my share of Harley motorcycles. After feasting on the famous Runza in Nebraska, we came to Yellowstone, where we unwillingly drove through because of no camping space that evening. Old Faithul and another lightning show were the only things to keep the night memorable. This leg ended with a peaceful ride through Montana, and a great day at the lake with my dear friend Lorna in Idaho.

The last part invited us through Seattle and the iconic Space Needle, where it seems the clouds like to declare a permanent residence. We came down through Oregon with another night of camping, and entered back into our home state, where we saw the wonders of the Redwoods, the fog-drenched bay of San Fransisco, and the business of a typical Saturday night in Los Angeles.

I can also answer the following questions most asked by others.

What were your favorite cities?

It's still a toss up between D.C. and New York. Both are magnificent places, and I definitely want to go back for an extended visit. The highlights may have whetted the 'ol appetite, but the craving to see the rest definitely hounds you.

Hopefully in 2 or 3 years I can come back to these areas. My other favorite spots include the mountain and desert areas in the western half of the country. Despite what my allergies and chapped lips think, they are places of serenity and peace and I should like to visit them again soon.

Would you do all 48 states again?

Most likely not. The physical goal has been accomplished and there's no need to repeat it. But I'm still glad I did it, because I can see where I would like to spend more time.

What was the most memorable?

The top two things would easily be the last-minute detour to the space shuttle launch and the unexpected tour in the Capcom HQ building. Usually the spontaneous things are really what makes a roadtrip flourish.

What was something you'd rather just forget?

The Waffle House in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Total ghetto.

What's next for you?

I plan on taking a week to finish up the last two states of Hawaii and Alaska next year. I want to travel to Barrow, at the very top of Alaska, because the sun never sets above the Arctic circle in summer time and I'd like to experience the "Midnight Sun." I also want to see some of the major Alaskan cities such as Juneau, Anchorage, and Fairbanks.

I would also like to visit ALL eight islands of Hawaii (yes, including the two small ones) and see the clear water, the huge waves, and experience the sight of two-foot bugs. (Um yeah, kidding on that last one.)

Obviously, I won't be using the road to travel to either of these places.

How much did it finally cost you?

Some people pointed out that I had complained about certain aspects in my blog, such as the cost of everything. Guilty as charged. Sometimes you forget that you're living your dream, and you shouldn't care how much it costs. However, I have been raised to be ultra-conservative, and sometimes I let that get in the way. Yeah, I'm a big baby when it comes to high prices. But I was successfully able to stay under budget and only spend $3,500 total for the trip. That's not too bad when your rental and gas make up $2,300 of that. When you live where I live (South Cali) and you're worried about trying to buy a house in the future, you may understand why I had to watch what I spend.

How about your roadtrip comrades?

Before I go any further I would like to say something. Over the course of the roadtrip, I had blogged anything that I deemed would be funny, interesting, or of course, dramatic. It's what brings people back the next day to find out what transpires.

However, it has been pointed out by a select few individuals that my blogs have been, shall we say, rather harsh about my roadtrip buddies. For those who noticed, they can see I was venting my minor frustrations on the fact that neither Tom nor Steve were disciplined on getting up early. Most people can agree with me that when you're on a trip you should get up as early as you can so you don't have to drive at night.

Unfortunately, we could never get in that early-to-bed/early-to-rise pattern. Tom and I didn't play into this as much because we could switch drivers, but if I made Steve get up early then he would be more tired during the day and possibly not able to drive safely. This could have resulted us staying somewhere far away from our destination and putting us farther and farther behind schedule. Letting him sleep until 10:30 am was my best option, but obviously not my favorite.

Granted, there were several nights we were hurting to stay awake but we had no choice but to move forward to the next destination, especially for the days where we had no margin of error left for getting behind. These days were ripe for getting up late the next morning.

But I digress. There were a few individuals, including Steve himself, that took great offense to my blogs, basically calling it a smearing campaign and making my friends look as bad as possible. For those who know me, you know I would never intentionally write anything slanderous or hurtful. I was spontaneously calling the shots as they were happening. All my comments were meant for entertainment and I assumed anyone who could read between the lines would see that I was making a big joke out of it.

Sure, there were frustrations between all of us, and I made sure to note them, just for that "drama" effect that would bring you back to see what happens next.

But when it all comes down to it, those frustrations were superflouos compared to the entire roadtrip as a whole. Am I glad they came with me? Absolutely. Despite my friends' peculiar idiosyncrasies, they were my best choices to bring on the trip because they all made it immensely fun and it was our way to bond. Would I roadtrip with them again? Probably not. Our discipline of schedules varies too greatly. I pushed them when they didn't want to be pushed.

Anyway, it has put me in the unfortunate position in dealing with a jeapordized friendship because of my insensitivity on the blogs. To me, every word of what I wrote was no big deal, and most everyone else can say the same. Just about everyone had a blast reading our daily adventures, including Tom. But to those with a higher sense of emotions, it did not come easy.

In addition, I have been accused of blatantly leaving Steve out in the 110° desert when he got his flat tire. There were other times we got separated, which somehow turned into accusations from people of losing him on purpose. I also could be seen as disdainful when I laughed at his anger because he saved his appetite for a sit-down restaurant which we did not have time for, when we could have gone anywhere to pick up a quick fast-food and get moving.

On the immediate surface, that can sound like I'm the most horrible friend ever. Anyone can take all these little negative things and immediately sum me up to be the most arrogant a*hole on the face of the earth, and I'm sure that might be the case for some of you out there reading, because in my haste to publish the blogs for the day, I may have failed to be more specific about these certain events and better explain the situation.

Even though I have the ability to explain my reasons for the unfortunate events that happened, I will not bother to defend my actions here on this blog. They are deemed personal issues that don't need to be pointed out, and I will handle them privately.

But I would like to make a public apology, to Steve, Tom, and anyone out there who considered my blogs to be tasteless. In my opinion, it was all in good fun, and if I had thought my comments were truly inappropriate, I wouldn't have posted them. It has not, nor was it ever, an intention to hurt or smear anyone, be it one of my best friends or a stranger, because this is ultimately not me.

I am truly sorry for the hurt I have caused. If my 11-year friendship with Steve is broken, I have no one to blame but myself and my lack of vision.

That being said, Tom and Steve are still two of the greatest guys I could have made friends with. We have share a lot of "geek" things in common and have done a lot together. And I pray that will continue. But I just may very well learn the hard way that friendship can be more important than a schedule.

I'm glad that Tom and I were able to stand each other in the same van as long as we did. I believe we know a little bit more about each other, certain things more than we need to :), but it was good to have someone to share things with and learn to work together with. It was great stuff.

Bad events aside, this was still one of the greatest trips ever, and I'm still glad they came with me.

Conclusion

I have come home and immediately back to the grind of my day job. I brought back kitchen fridge magnets of every state, plus replicas of almost all the structures or attractions I visited. They are small reminders of what each place meant for me. Fifty years from now I can tell my non-existent grandkids about each state, and tell them to go to Maine to find their woman. The next time someone tells me what state they're from, I can almost instantly visualize what kind of lifestyle they must have had. I have come back feeling more experienced and independent, which are good things to have on the path of life. I never thought I would enjoy travel, but there was always a sense of excitement not knowing what was going to happen next. And to share that with your friends, well, that could have been the greatest gift of all.

Thanks for putting up with my rambling. I wish you all well. Hugs.

There's no place like home

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 22:17:59 PDT

(8/14/2005 10:17:59 PM) DAY 28

I got up relatively early and went down to the 104°F jacuzzi and did my 20 minutes. That will certainly wake you up. It even wakes you up more when you exit back into the 60°F air. I got my contintental breakfast items and headed back up to the room for a shower and to get out of here.

Check-out was unfortunately at noon, so by 12:30 pm we continued south on the 101. An hour later we were crossing the famous Golden Gate Bridge, which I have not crossed for a good 20 years. I should have brought my FasTrak toll device. I would have saved a dollar off the $5.00 fee. Oh well, I'm living it up.

We headed into downtown San Fransisco on the famous Lombard Street. If you don't know the significance, keep driving it until you reach the incline, one of the steepest you'll find anywhere. Once we were about to reach it, we could see going up the hill was a parking lot. No cars were moving at all. Um, NOT worth it. So we detoured and stayed on the 101 through the city. We did stop at a beach and take pictures of the bridge. And MAN it was cold and windy. That was the first time Tom wore his jacket.

We got out of there and headed on to some of the neighboring cities. One of our stops was Cupertino, where the famous Apple Computer has their headquarters. Unfortunately the batteries in Steve's walkie-talkie went out, and by the time we used the cell phone he had already missed a freeway change. Whoops.

After we navigated him back on track, I remembered that Sunnyvale was a neighboring city to Cupertino, and I also remembered that Capcom, creator of the Mega Man and Street Fighter video games, was also stationed here. I had to at least get a picture of the Capcom sign to say I was there.

Being a Saturday, the place appeared closed. We pulled into the empty parking lot and waited for Steve to catch up. Like a typical nerd I posed with some Mega Man merchandise in front of the sign. When Steve got there we both got in a few poses. Steve just happened to be wearing his Mega Man shirt.

As we were about to leave, two individuals appeared out of nowhere and asked us what we were doing. We told them we were Capcom fans and were taking pictures of the signs. Well it happened to be that these two were employees of Capcom, one of them being Ken, the VP of sales. They saw from our belongings that we were travelers, and they kindly offered us a tour of the building.

I believe Tom, Steve and myself had perfected synchronized eye-widening that day. We were so stunned we couldn't believe it. Apparently there were several employees working overtime to meet a deadline for game debugging, and they just happened to see us out there and came out to greet us. I had told them I've been a Mega Man fan since 1987. They thought that was pretty hardcore. So in we go.

Holy crap. I mean, like, holy CRAP. Freakin' Capcom. I'm in the Capcom building. CAPCOM. Holy crap.

OK, I'm done with the nerd part. We go in the building and see all the different rooms with all the different video game merchandise, development stations, debugging stations. Employees looked like they were taking a break playing video games, when they were really looking for bugs in this game about to be released. Ken showed us around and let us take a few pictures (which I will fail to show, just out of NDA respect). They actually gave us some stuff to take home, such as Mega Man T-shirts, display boxes, and replacement manuals. I was floored by their generosity and courteousness. I thank them forever for it. This was definitely one of the highlights of the roadtrip, at least for us. For non-geeks, it's just another "whatever" event.

From there we headed down to the Apple Campus. We wouldn't be so lucky this time. Everything was closed, even the merchandise store. So we had to settle for pictures at the front door. We could say we were there.

The next stop was Santa Cruz. We made our way to the boardwalk and did a quick check out of all the attractions and shops (and women). Again, being a Saturday, this place was hoppin', so we didn't park. There were railroad tracks running right through the street. Commuter and freight trains come through here, causing a big ruckus when they do, since all traffic has to stop or get out of the way. I don't know how they do that. Steve filled up the KITT and we skid-addled.

Back to the 101 we went. It was getting to be almost 8:00 pm, and we were pretty sure we were NOT going to camp, which means the decision had been made for the final destination.

HOME.

We had decided on some sort of celebratory meal in Los Angeles somewhere, but by the time we'd get there it would be after 1:00 am, when most everything closes. We reached Los Angeles at 1:15 am and at least looked for the late-night places to have some sort of celebratory dinner. Oh wait, this is a SATURDAY NIGHT. We have the best timing for these things. All restaurants were overflowing with people. I was so not in the mood for that so I said let's get out of here. We instead drove into our home county of Orange and picked up a meal at IHOP in Irvine. It's just a slight downgrade. Good enough. We left there at 3:30 am. From here, Steve parted from us and went home.

Tom and I got to my house at 4:00 am, exactly 27 days and 12 hours to the time we left. We locked the van, went inside and crashed. Hard.

So yes all you faithful readers. My journey has come to an end. But please keep the dial tuned. The map will be updated and a finale blog will be written. I've got a lot of things to take care of.

Hitting the final turn

Sat, 13 Aug 2005 10:30:22 PDT

(8/13/2005 10:30:22 AM) DAY 27

I woke up at 8:30 am to the sounds of birds twittering their little hearts out. It was then I remembered I was sleeping in a tent, and how the tent does NOT block sunlight out. Isn't there such a thing as tent blinds or something?

I moseyed on out of the tent, only to find you-know-who still sleeping in his car. Hilarious. After a cold cereal breakfast, I packed up my crap and did some paperwork before Tom woke up and did his crap. And it was DANG cold. It had to have dipped into the 40s. Of course, we are only 2 miles from the cold Pacific Ocean so I'm not entirely too surprised. I had 2 pairs of shirts on, plus my sweater, and long pants, and I still had to turn the heater on in the car to warm up.

Steve woke up and did his thing. I nonchalantly told him of our plans to head south down the 101, and he seemed fine with that. He wanted to see the Redwoods near Crescent City, and I thought that was fine. We headed out of the camp just before noon.

We made sure to fill up our tanks completely right before crossing the California border, as we had no clue what happened with the gas prices while we were gone. It was GOOD to finally see the "Welcome to California" sign. It was BAD to see the mileage markers start at about 800 and slowly slowly SLOWLY count down as we continued into our home state. It was UGLY to see the gas prices on the station signs we passed.

Up here on the 101 is very mountainous with a plethora of forests. Even more peculiar is the beach that is sitting right off the freeway. It's a stark contrast just by turning your head 180° from left to right. The rocks bulging out of the ocean were quite a sight.

We cruised past Crescent City and into the Redwood National Forest, stopping at an information center to get the scoop on these here Redwood trees. We would either hit the biggest or the tallest trees. Unfortunately the route to get to the tallest ones would take about 4 hours round-trip. The biggest ones, on the other hand, would take about 15 minutes.

That settled that. Off to the biggun' trees we went. We arrived there at about 5:00 pm and went around the looping trail. Here we saw gigantic trees that dated back 2000 years, starting their life during the Roman Era. The biggest tree was at the start of the trail. You'd have to place about 10 six-foot-four Joeys end-to-end to reach all the way around the base of this one. (I'd compare the other two comrades but that just opens the door for height jokes.) And they were quite high, but obviously not as high as the other ones we were hearing about. We made our loop and took off.

Down, down, down the state we went. The terrain of mountains never once let up, and neither did the beaches. Not until we passed Eureka did we start heading further inland. I knew that we wouldn't hit San Fransisco before sunset, so I decided we will stay in Santa Rosa. Of course, once again it takes a few tries to find a vacant place, but there was a Sandman Motel, which for an off-brand hotel wasn't too bad at all. We will head off in the (probably late) morning. The goals for the next day are to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, and also to visit the Apple Merchandise Store in Cupertino.

If you're still wondering about the fate of Steve, he seems to have more or less put aside yesterday's incident thing. You can't stay mad forever, especially something as superfluous as not getting your choice of dining. So for the most part it's all good again and we can hopefully finish up the last 700 miles of the trip in peace.

The final question of when we get home still lingers. If we're really ambitious, we could come home as early as tonight. Or we just might camp one more time in the area of Santa Barbara/Ventura. So our home arrival can vary anywhere between 11:00 pm Saturday night and 2:00 pm Sunday afternoon. You just can't plan for things like that. We will show up when we show up. Nevertheless, the journey is wrapping up and we've got less than 36 hours left.

I think I'll admit I do miss home. Just a little bit. (Don't tell anyone, OK?)

Sleepless in Seattle

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 13:07:18 PDT

(8/12/2005 1:07:18 PM) DAY 26

Since we found a hotel well before midnight, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for all of us to get some decent sleep and wake up early for once.

C'mon Joey, you should know the routine by now. No leaving the hotel before 11:00 am!

Tom made the mistake of turning on the TV, and both of them ended up watching late night shows until 2:00 am. Tsk tsk, no discipline these two have. This is probably the reason it doesn't matter when we show up to the hotel. They'll stay up until they dang well feel like it. It took me a while to doze off to the blaring TV. But you know me, I'm not going to tell them what to do.

So of course they sleep in as long as they can, again. We left at 11:30 am, again. I only have to deal with this two more times, me thinks.

The first thing we did is head off to the city of Redmond, where there are two famous companies. The first is the Nintendo Headquarters, where all they have for visitors is a service center where you get your consoles repaired, and had some archived displays and merchandise. The entrance was marked with a Pikachu-type Volkswagen bug. ::shudders:: Not a Pokémon fan, as you might guess. I bought some stuff and we took off.

The next stop was the home of Microsoft. Their real estate is a little bigger than we thought. They owned several acres of Redmond and they even had their own freakin' soccer field. But it's Microsoft, so you shouldn't be too surprised. There were over 100 buildings that belonged to the software giant, and we were trying to find the big kahuna corporate office with the address of "1 Microsoft Way." According to Google Maps it looked easy to find, but it must have been built deep underground in a bunker or something, cause we couldn't find it. We wanted to get a picture in front of it with Tom wearing his Apple Computer shirt, just for irony's sake, but all we could make do with was a Microsoft visitor parking sign.

We gave up on that mission after 30 minutes and headed towards downtown. Here we found a Goodyear so the van could get its badly-needed oil change. The oil life meter reached 0% when we were in Montana so I think it was time. Steve got KITT lubed as well. While that was going on, we decided to walk the 3/4 mile to the Space Needle.

Another structure to conquer. We paid $13.00 to go up this thing. (Yes, Nicki. 13 whole American dollars. SO freakin' expensive. I can't take it. God. It's ruining my LIFE.) Using elevators that face outward, we could see our view as we flew 520 feet up the landmark and onto the "O" deck, as they call it. Yes, you get to walk around the entiire thing and see a full circle of Seattle. It wasn't the clearest of days so you couldn't see far enough to the nearby volcano of Mt. Rainier. But the views of course, were awesome nonetheless.

It was almost 4:30 pm when we left and walked back to the Goodyear. They were a little behind so we had to wait an extra 45 minutes for everything to get done.

Now for those who have been complaining and crying uncontrollably because of the lack of some really good drama, you can all put away your handkerchiefs and tissues now. Just when you thought we'd get through the entire road trip with no spats, may I present: a spat.

We hadn't initially planned on getting some grub after the Space Needle, but I figured we could squeeze it in if there was time. The Seattle thing was the seafood, so we all saved up our appetites, but because of the extra wait time at the Goodyear, it was going on 6:00 pm. It was going to be impossible to squeeze in a sit-down dinner and be in southern Oregon before midnight, so I made the executive decision to scrap that plan, either snack on stuff or find a quick eat, and get moving. We were supposed to be camping and cooking food later, and we didn't want to be pitching a tent at 2:00 am.

Well, ladies and gentleman, that didn't sit well with Mr. Steve. Even though he didn't show it, you could tell on the inside he was blowing up about the change of plan, since he had his heart set on a good seafood meal. But usually when things don't go your way, you get over it in the course of about 90 seconds. Not Steve. He was loudly complaining about the lack of communication going on between us and whatnot. That just kind of came out of nowhere. It must have been building up for a while, and Tom and I had no clue about it.

But dude, when you decide to watch TV until the wee hours and get up late, that's what happens. I had not one ounce of sympathy. This whole trip has been one big batch of spontaneity. Both Tom and I could not do things we had our heart set on doing, but we got over it. When Steve doesn't get his way he turns into Mr. Hyde and he's ready to drop an H-bomb on you. I think I have been quite lenient and forgiving as to what my comrades do, but when it all comes down to it, this is MY roadtrip I invited them on, and I won't let them drag behind my schedule, even if I have to be an a*hole about it. If someone gets pissed off at me, then so be it. I really don't care.

(Are you loving this? I can tell by that big grin across your face.)

We left Seattle (without getting food) and headed straight for Portland, Oregon, which was our 48th and final state to touch. We arrived in Portland shortly after 8:30 pm. Tom was going to visit an acquaintance that had a train engine, but we couldn't get in contact with him and it was too dark to do any good searching, so we gave that up before it even started. (Another disappointment for Tom, but at least HE can get over it.)

While radioing our plans to Steve he wouldn't "copy" back anything. When we asked if we should get gas or pick up something to eat, all he could say was "I don't care. Whatever you want." And it was in that pissed-off tone. We couldn't help busting up laughing over such a silly thing. Oh well, I wasn't going to let it ruin what was left of the trip.

We replenished in Portland and headed further south. When we reached Eugene, we detoured onto highway 126 that went directly to the Oregon coastline. When we reached the ocean, we again turned south onto that famous highway 101. We went about 10 miles further and found a camping spot at the Oregon Dunes, just north of Big Bend. Tom and I pitched the tent (at 12:30 am) in 51°F weather. We ended up not cooking food because of course it was too late, we had no firewood (kinda forgot that little detail) and we were just plain tired. Steve decided it was too cold and just stayed in his car. In fact, it looked like he'll be spending the night in his car, since it seems he doesn't wish to be within 10 feet of me.

LOL that's just great stuff, man. Now of course, I'm only telling my side of the story. I'm sure you'll be reading his side very soon on Steve's future website www.kinless-sucks.com.

We will be heading back into the home state and down the 101 through to San Fransisco. We won't be staying in the city because I heard it is expensive. Like $200/night expensive. Where we stay depends on if we can cross the Golden Gate bridge before sunset. If we can, we'll stay on the south side. If not, we'll stay to the north. We've got 48 hours left. Will the group come back together in harmony? Or will we fall apart and tragically end our miserable existence? Come back in 24 hours and we'll tell ya.

Serenity on the lake - Part II

Thu, 11 Aug 2005 01:30:36 PDT

(8/11/2005 1:30:36 AM) DAY 25

I didn't have to worry about any check-out times today. I was able to get my normal 8 hours of sleep for once. Same with Tom and Steve. It's probably the last time we'll be able to do so (until we get home, that is).

Lorna was quite zealous in making all of us breakfast. I haven't had such a hearty meal in quite a while. After we finished, we all walked down to Coeur d'Alene Lake, where Lorna's boat was waiting by the dock. She took us out on the boat for the next hour on the lake. It's been quite a few years since I've been out riding on a small motor boat in the mountains. I could have stayed out there all day, but I don't think my skin would have agreed with that. When we got back, Tom took a dip in the lake while the rest of us soaked our feet. It couldn't have been a better day for that.

After going back to the house, Steve took a shower, Tom did Laundry, and I took an inadvertent nap. I probably needed it to catch up on the 59 hours of sleep lost in the past 3 weeks. By 4:00 pm we had our stuff ready. We took pics and left.

It was a 300 mile trek to Seattle. We stopped in the city to get supplies, gas, and money. We took off as fast as we could, because we wanted to see the Cascade mountains before sunset.

That didn't quite work. By the time we reached the peaks there was barely any sunlight. Oh well. We made it to Seattle by 11:00 pm, but of course had to go through the ordeal of finding a motel, and it took a few tries before we could find a vacancy. Dang travelers.

We'll stop by the Seattle highlights and make our final turn south through the last state of Oregon. We're on the home stretch. Pray that the van doesn't break down 5 miles from the border.