[320 miles today; 1896 miles so far. I-80W from Elko NV to Reno NV, Hwy 395S to Carson City NV.]

Today’s journey began with a much needed late sleep. Well, ok, my internal clock went off at 5.45am, but it was a slow moving start, and that was great. After setting up reservations in Carson City NV, I ate some breakfast (yes, Beck, I had some fruit!) and hit the road.

The scenery in northern Nevada is really outstanding. I had mountain peaks in clear view all day, with only a few clouds here and there to make the scenic shots that much more dramatic. Really, this is pretty country, and it sure does sing a siren song to my soul.

Today’s journey was to be about 300 miles, and it flew by fairly uneventfully. I arrived in Reno around lunchtime, and set out on the streets. I hit three casinos, and they commemorated my visit by creating a terrific suction that was quite adept at pulling green slips of paper from my wallet. In short, I didn’t do well, but lived within the budget I’d set for myself, so I guess that’s the silver lining. 🙂

I quickly tucked my tail ‘twixt my legs and pointed the truck south. Along the way, I passed through Virginia City. This little burg is on a piece of Highway 395 that is built like a racetrack, and yet has a 50mph speed limit. All along the way are resident-created signs imploring folks to keep to the 50mph speed limit. Impressive to see the rank-and-file getting involved like that.

I arrived in Carson City just a short bit later. Carson City is the capital of Nevada, and is really one of the smallest and quietest capital cities I’ve seen. Cheyenne and Lincoln both look like Metropolis (the one from Superman, not the one in Illinois) by comparison. Check-in was uneventful, and the desk help pointed me to a Chinese restaurant just next door. Man, did they have good food! Of course, the fact that I was starving may have influenced the perceived quality of the meal, but still…. yum! And my fortune cookie? “What you seek is closer to you than you realize.” Hmmmm……

And, unlike Elko, Carson City does have Thai food — in fact two restaurants! I think I’ll give one of ’em a try, although there is a sushi shop just next door in the other direction that may grab my dinner funds.

Tomorrow, I make the drive to Yosemite, and beginning of DLWS. I’m excited, I’m nervous. Were I a budding guitarist, this would be akin to Eddie van Halen teaching me how to play. One of the best, teaching me… it just seems hard to believe. Cool. I looked back at my old e-mails, and found that I first exchanged e-mail with Moose Peterson in late 2003 concerning DLWS. That session just so happened to be at Yosemite as well. Two years I’ve waited to do this, and now it’s happening, and at a location I really wanted to see.

I would imagine, given what Moose describes on his site, that I’d be hard pressed to get any writing done before the last session ends on Wednesday night. Stay tuned though, and maybe I’ll make a token appearance now and then!

[410 miles today; 1569 miles so far. I-80 from Rock Springs WY to Elko NV.]

Weather was the story this morning when I got up. Thunderstorms in southern Utah… in November… before sunrise and the day’s heat. Weird. The weather gurus were figuring this storm to march north, straight up I-15, so I elected not to drop south and try US-50 in a big ol’ storm. So, it was I-80 west yet again today.

When I pulled out of Rock Springs WY this morning just before sunrise, the east horizon was clear, while the west horizon was threatening. The farther west I went, the more interesting the skies were — sun behind me, clouds ahead, and the contrast between the dark skies and well lit landscape was really cool. I could see that the mountains to the south were getting snow, but there was none for me, despite the cold 29 degrees!

There wasn’t much left of Wyoming before hitting the Utah border. This was my first journey into northeastern Utah, and I had high expectations. I was really surprised last year by southern Utah’s beauty, and while northern Utah was pretty, it was no southern Utah. The Big Mountains were mostly to the south, and southern Utah had so much more color in the ground…. well, I guess I just liked southern Utah better. Still, it was a pretty drive through northeast Utah.

With the route plan for today, I knew I would run right alongside the Great Salt Lake. And I did, but had the GPS not been telling me that, it would’ve been hard to know it. The cloud deck was low, the rain was falling, and it really made for lousy conditions coming through Salt Lake City UT. I kept seeing ghostly silhouettes of the mountains through the clouds, but it just wasn’t very pretty. I stopped at one site alongside the Lake, and despite looking hard, there wasn’t much to see. I suspect with a sunny day, my whole view of SLC would’ve been different.

Of course, 30 miles west of SLC, the clouds began to break up, and the sun started bathing the land. With the sun coming out, and the road continuing west, I found myself in the Great Salt Lake Desert. This was a stark landscape, like something from a science fiction film — white, white and more white, all the way up to the base of the mountains. This was a desert comprised of a salty residue, and finished off with signage warning passers-by to keep out of the desert, as the US Government owned it. Despite that, there were many, many, many homages to those folks who had passed down I-80. Within twenty feet of the road were messages made of rocks by passersby. Hundreds of them! There were folks who just left their initials or a word, and a few with big ol’ hearts, professing enternal love with rocks in the salt. Pretty cool stuff!

My last stop in Utah was at the Bonneville Salt Flats (part of the Great Salt Lake Desert). This was a publicly accessible point on the desert, and was amazing. This desert is like no other I’ve seen — it was like walking on or touching slighty damp rock salt, dampened because of the rain. The “surface of the moon” look of this area has made it my favorite of all the stops thus far.

Of course, the Flats are where the land speed records have been pushed, and as a testament to those feats, Goodyear has a sponsored plaque, describing the feats of the fastest men on earth. This was a nice touch, and for me, was the icing on the cake that was this stop.

So I crossed into Nevada. How’d I know that? Well, because the saloons and gambling halls beckoned! As soon as I crossed the border, the lighted signs popped up, and suddenly I was threatened with every manner of buffet, loose slot and table game that you could think of. And all this lasted for about… a mile. 🙂 Then, it was off to the high country again, and finally levelling out in the 5000-6000 foot range.

Since I lost another hour by moving into the Pacific Time Zone, I decided that I would stop a little shorter than I had planned, and get rested some. Rest meant a hotel, and a hotel meant Elko NV. Despite navigating through counter help who was on their second day on the job, I was able to get a nice room, with a good, non-wireless connection, fridge and microwave.

However, when I asked about Thai food in town, I was greeted with a blank stare, and finally the deskhelp’s brain engaged, and she sputtered out, “You want Thai food? In Elko?” Ah, the quaintness of the small towns of the west, eh!

[634 miles today; 1158 miles so far. I-80 from Grand Island NE to Rock Springs WY.]

I understand that some of you are tracking my progress across the country, so I’ve added my route info with the entries. Have fun plotting Hurricane Colin! 🙂

This morning, I awoke in Grand Island to temps in the 20s, and a crystal clear sky. After a little breakfast, me and Smokey got on the road, pointed west once again.

I didn’t get far until I pulled off for my first stop: Kearney NE. Ordinarily, there’d be no reason to stop in Kearney versus anywhere else, but as I approached, I saw this mammoth arch across I-80. As I found out, this arch was The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument. This thing is truly… well, mammoth! I pulled off, and drove to the archway, only to find that it is only open on the weekends this time of year. Oh well! The site was beautiful, and worth stopping it, despite being closed.

A little farther west, in Gothenburg NE, I pulled off and walked around an original Pony Express station from the mid-1800s. The building had been moved to this location, but looked like it had been there for the last century and a half. It was a nice little stop, and Gothenburg smacked of being a quaint little town, probably worthy of the fifteen minutes I’d given it.

Westward I continued toward Sidney NE. Yet another opportunity for a break, and a terrific shooting locale. I stopped at a rest area here, and just took in the plains. All through the trip this morning, I’d been climbing in elevation, the prarie slowly giving way to the rolling hills that would eventually lead to the buttes and mountains. This was the last good view of the flatland before hitting the majestic peaks of the front range of the Rockies. Here, the plain stretched to the east, and planted atop them was a two-story tall aluminum sculpture by Hans van de Bovenkamp, placed there during the Bicentennial. This thing is huge, and depicts a confluence of roads, presumable the confluence of I-80 and I-76, which is only a few miles from this spot.

On west I continued, and I saw my first butte jut from the landscape. I was elated to see the promise of the big mountains yet to come. I love the Rockies. Their beauty really speaks to me, and I was exhilarated to know that soon, I’d start seeing them peek over the horizon.

And soon came. In truth, had the skies been clearer, I would’ve seen the peaks earlier, but when I hit Cheyenne WY, I finally saw the big mountains on the horizon. They’d been there for a while, but the growing haze during the day kept me from seeing them any earlier. I was filled with joy when I realized they were there, and felt like I’d made real progress on the trip. The Rockies just seem so far away from St. Louis, and seeing them told me that I’d exited the flat prairie, and traded it for the mountains.

The road to Laramie WY wound higher and higher into the mountains, crossing 7000 feet in elevation. Here though, the elevation was making for a tough drive. I thought it was just me having trouble keeping the truck on the road — I’ve been known to have challenges with altitude — or that the truck was complaining about the altitude. Then I passed the sign that said that the winds were over 45 mph with higher gusts. No wonder the truck was all over the place! This was a tough, tough part of the drive, with me and a whole bunch of big rigs jockeying for space and position on the road.

Still east of Laramie WY, I stopped at a “Point of Interest” (that’s what the sign said, anyway). Basically, it was a chance for me to rest from the drive and walk around in the whipping winds. The point of interest? A tree. Growing out of rocks. Apparently, this was an amazing thing to see when folks first came from the east to find their fortunes in the west. According to the signs, this scene has graced many photos and postcards. I guess it’ll be in my collection too!

Still east of Laramie WY, I encountered yet another rest area, this one at the highest point on I-80 — 8640 feet. The folks out here really like big monuments, and this rest area had a gigantic statue with the head of Honest Abe atop it. I-80 was at one time a private roadway, called the Lincoln Highway, and this monument was a tribute to the old roadway. Also memorialized was the first telephone cable run through this area in 1882. A very nice stop, albeit cool and windy. The 70s I had enjoyed on the plain had given way in the altitude to mid-50s, along with 40+ mph winds.

My intent was to stop in Rawlins WY for the night, but when I did, it seems that every hotel in town was under construction and weren’t quite open yet. This, despite having lit signs, advertising prices and touting availability. I stopped one worked and asked if they were open, and I got some response in Spanish indicating clearly that neither of us understood the other. I finally figured out that he was telling me the hotel would be open in a few days. I couldn’t wait that long, so I decided to head for the next wide spot in the road: Rock Springs WY.

Rock Springs WY was also under construction, but here it was the roads, not the buildings, that were all torn up. Happily exercising my 4WD over the pummelled roads, I found my way to the Best Western Outlaw Inn, and plopped myself down for the night. So, my misfortune in Rawlings WY puts my about 100 miles farther than I needed to be, so I’m just a little ahead of schedule, with only 100 miles left in Wyoming, to be followed by Utah and Nevada tomorrow. My goal is to spend the night in either Reno or Carson City on Saturday, leaving me just a short jaunt to Yosemite on Sunday.

Given that I’m a little ahead of schedule, I’m seriously thinking about taking I-80 to Salt Lake City UT, and then taking I-15 south to Hwy 50, and then taking it west to Ely NV. That’s a short day for me — about 450 miles, give or take — and sets me up for a short drive of about 300 miles on Saturday, which will allow me to spend some down time in Reno, enjoying The Biggest Little City in the World.

[524 miles today and so far. Hwy 40 from Ellisville MO to I-70, I-70W to Kansas City MO, I-29N to Nebraska City NE, Hwy 2 W to Lincoln NE and I-80, I-80W to Grand Island NE.]

This morning, I said my goodbyes and pointed the family truckster away from the rising sun, toward the prairie, and the beginning of my journey.

I couldn’t help but think about home a bit as I passed Wright City. Wright City is home to the little farm from which we got Emma. That little wiggly bit of dog has been such a joy to us, and as I passed Wright City, I couldn’t help but reflect on my little pup.

When I left Ellisville this morning, it was 72 outside. Two hours into the trip, the temperature had dropped to 54 degrees. Unbelieveable. As I continued west, then north, then west again, the temperature continued to drop to about 48, with loads of clouds and some outrageous wind. Of course, with it 72, I’d set out in shorts and a t-shirt. This really raised the eyebrows of the folks I encountered, but that’s nothing new — my tolerance and preference for cold weather is legendary! 🙂

When I pulled off I-29 to continue westward on Hwy 2 toward Nebraska City, I discovered that there is a Lewis and Clark museum there. I stopped, and enjoyed the warmth of the musuem. I also took a stroll on one of the trails to an overlook that stood high above the Missouri River. This was a wonderful view, but with lots of the leaves off the trees, it wasn’t as nice as it could’ve been.

I’d forgotten just how brown Nebraska can be around this time of the year. The farther I drove, the browner it got. Most of the trees had already lost their leaves — the high winds, I suppose, took care of them. However, the prairie grasses were beautiful! All kinds of reds and yellows, and the occassional brown and green. Combine that with the clouds today, and it made for some beautiful photos.

The rest of the drive was really pretty uneventful. I wound my way to Grand Island, a town I never visited when I lived in Nebraska. After checking in to the hotel, I asked if there was a Runza in town.

Runza is a restaurant chain that I used to frequent when I lived in Omaha. A runza is basically a calzone-style bread, stuffed with a meat and veggie combination. And as I walked in, I understood why I like White Castles so much….. the waft in the air smelled just like a Castle! After a runza and fries, I was quite satisfied, and ready to pack it in for the night.

And so, here I sit, watching South Park and Drawn Together, and looking forward to tomorrow’s drive into Wyoming.

$2.159

Tonight, I’ve spent most of the evening finishing up the packing, and getting the truck loaded. It’s hard to believe that only one person is going on this trip — there’s so much stuff loaded in the truck!

My plan tomorrow is to leave out bright and early, maybe around normal work time (6.30am) in order to skip some of the St. Louis rush hour, and head toward Kansas City. There, I’ve got to make a decision about my route. Mapquest has me going north to Nebraska, and across on I-80, which is a route I favor. That’s over 2000 miles.

However, Topo USA on my laptop has me going out I-70, and then picking up US-50 for the a big chunk of the trip. That distance? About 1875 miles.

Here’s the rub. I wanna go north to see the big mountains and to see some of the US (outstate Nebraska and eastern Wyoming) I haven’t seen in almost sixteen years. However, I would really like to run The Loneliest Road through Nevada and parts of Utah, although I have no real interest in running it or I-70 across Kansas and eastern Colorado.

So what’s a fella to do?

Well, I have four and a half days to get to Yosemite (Sunday at 2pm is when the seminar starts), so maybe I can combine the two plans. Go north, across Nebraska and Wyoming on I-80, and then find a way south to US-50, and ride that on across the rest of Utah and Nevada. I don’t have to quite figure that out now — that’ll probably be a decision for Thursday, or maybe Friday. Both paths lead to Reno, and it’s there that I would like to spend Saturday night so that the journey to Yosemite on Sunday isn’t too long or hard.

Of course dropping a few coins in The Biggest Little City on Earth isn’t a half bad way to spend a Saturday night! :-0

The return trip should be even more interesting, if that’s even possible. I intend to go north, as far as Boise, I think, and then come across Montana into Yellowstone. From there, I’ll find a route that takes me east so I can visit Devils Tower and possibly Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monument. I’m sure there’s plenty more to do out that way, and I’ll have about six days to take it in and get home. I plan to leave Yosemite Thursday morning, and I need to be back to St. Louis on Tuesday.

Then on Wednesday (day before Thanksgiving), I’ll pick up Sio, and point the truck south, visiting Mom on The Mountain, and enjoying some nice down home rest after over 4000 miles of driving.

$2.099

It seems like all my vacations end with me wanting to see more of wherever I was, and possibly have some desire to live there for a while. This trip was no different. The very act of travelling always appeals to me, so just that can be enough to trip my trigger.

So what stuck with me about the outer banks? Well, I think the pace of life was the biggie. No one was in a rush, folks were generally friendly, and there were no traffic jams, clogged roads, or lines of folks waiting for anything. In fact, there were times when we could walk on the beach half a mile or more, and still not run into anyone.

Now, I’m sure that the time of year had a lot to do with that. We kept hearing, especially in Ocracoke, that the crowds were miserable come summertime, and the roads were so thick with people that driving was almost impossible. That wouldn’t be so good, I expect.

But I loved being in the wilder parts — Pea Island NWR and Cape Hatteras NS. Between the roar of the ocean and the cry of the birds, I really found some quality time that I could hang my hat on. I loved photographing that part of the trip, and really never got tired of watching the pelicans ride the waves as they rolled in.

If I was to pick up my bags, and move somewhere, would the outer banks be my first choice? No, but it’s close. Between the mountains and the desert, the west still has my imagination captured, and I’m sure the photography junket in November will only fuel that fire.

However, the outer banks did inspire me, relax me, and helped me get some rest and clarity that I desparately needed. And, of course, now I have a ton of new photos to start processing, and a fire once again to get my photography business off the ground.

Hey, I went on vacation, and came back with work — that’s not fair! 🙂

We headed out from Lenoir City this morning, trying to time things so that we missed the traffic in Nashville’s rush hour. We had to force ourselves to stop at Cracker Barrel along the way to miss the rush in Nashville — darn! 🙂

We drove toward Nashville, and eventually Paducah KY. We’d kinda thought to stop at Lambert’s — I really like their frog legs! — but decided that we were just ready to get home, so we stayed on the interstate through Paducah, Marion and Mt. Vernon, and on into St. Louis.

We got home, found the house standing, the pets happy, and all right with the world. No surprises there, but it’s always comforting to make sure!

Since the grass had grown huge due to all the rain, I needed to mow the grass. I got the mower out, pulled the cord…. and it broke somewhere inside the mower. Ugh. So tomorrow, I’ll need to find someone who can take the engine apart and install a new pullcord.

If that’s the worst that happens, I’m in good shape!

Today, we began the first leg of our journey home.

Last night, we spent some valuable internet time trying to decide what the best route to Maryville would be, having decided that we would go that far and spend the night nearby. Mapquest was insistent that going into South Carolina toward Columbia was the best route, probably because of the interstate roads. I really thought going west through North Carolina would’ve been better, but who can argue with the internet, the source of all knowledge? Off toward South Carolina we headed.

Just before we crossed into South Carolina, we started seeing signs for Pedro’s South of the Border. We can’t resist a good rubber-snake shop, so we had to pull off the interstate for a peek. Pedro’s was the hugest, cheeziest place I’ve seen in a long time — it was great! Hat shops, gift shops, lodging, antiques, mini-golf, amusement rides, fireworks, gas…. they had it all. Definitely someplace you could spend a lot of time exploring. We blew about an hour, and pointed the TrailBlazer westwardly, more or less.

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful until we got to Asheville, and the pull off to go through the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We wound through the little roads, with the rain starting to fall the farther we got into the mountains. By the time we were near Cherokee NC, it was raining hard, which made the drive up and down the hills kinda interesting! We finally got to the eastern entrance to the Smokies, and stopped to do a little shopping, and stretch our legs before going across the mountain tops.

As we drove through the park, the cloud deck got lower, and by the time we reached about 4000 feet of elevation, it was so foggy you couldn’t see two cars in front of you. A whole line of us snaked along the winding road, crossing the entrance to Clingman’s Dome at an elevation of 5046 feet — the highest point on the trip. I would’ve liked to continue on to the Dome (6643 feet), but with the fog, there was no point. We drove down to the western entrance, and stopped to shop again.

After a little break, we headed on to Maryville TN, to visit Grandma. She was doing well, and we enjoyed a nice pizza dinner with her, and chit-chatted about life, the universe, and everything. A couple of hours later, we said our goodbyes, and drove to Lenoir City TN.

We stopped at The Inn of Lenoir, where they proudly sported brand new king-size beds. I can report with confidence that the one we test drove was indeed comfortable! 🙂 This was a quaint little mom-and-pop motel — seriously, the mom and dad and daughter ran the place! — and was cheap, clean and restful.

Tomorrow — on to home!

I got up early this morning, and walked down to the beach to shoot the sunrise. This was a beautiful, near-cloudless sunrise, and offered a really different view from the sunrise at Corolla. The birds were all over the beach, once again pecking at the treasures the ocean had washed up.

Today, we tried breakfast at The Pancake House, just across the street. This was probably the most ordinary meal of the trip. Unfortunate, too, as this place gets pretty good press. No biggie!

We went south (same thing we’ve done most of the trip!), heading toward today’s venues, the Oak Island Lighthouse and the Bald Head Lighthouse (Old Baldy). Our first leg of this journey was a car ferry from Fort Fisher to Southport NC.

On this part of the trip, we got a bonus — a peek at the Price’s Creek Lighthouse ruins. This one lies on private property, and about the only way to see it is to look at it from this ferry. Very nice, and one that wasn’t on the list.

We got to Southport, and found it was a cute little village, but much more modern than Ocracoke. It almost had a Mayberry kinda feel to it, with a big main road, and lots of well organized shops along the sides and sideroads. Beck fell in love with this place! We stopped at their information center and got some information on the lighthouses and ferries, and started on our way.

The first stop was the Oak Island Lighthouse. Truthfully, the best views of this one were from afar. It lies at the end of a dead end road on a piece of US Coast Guard property, with no real parking — we parked illegally, and were expecting the Coasties to come out and yell at us at any moment. Really unfortunate, especially given the attention North Carolina focuses on its lighthouses. This one was by far the least user-friendly, and really could’ve been skipped.

We drove to the people ferry that would take us to Bald Island. Bald Island is not only home to Old Baldy, but also appears to be home to Stepford-like retirement community, where everyone runs around on rented golf carts (no cars) to their rental properties and condos. The island is basically one big sales pitch. We went over, found a shopkeeper who clued us in on a little path to the lighthouse (which was closed today), and walked the trial to the lighthouse. This one is very nice, again without the black and white paint jobs of some of the others, but carrying its own character nonetheless.

We also walked through the grounds of the island chapel. This was a beautiful place to watch bees pollenate the flowers and listen to the quiet of the island. A very, very peaceful spot.

We walked back to the ferry, caught it back to the shore, drove back to Southport, shopped, ate some pizza, and headed toward the car ferry to take us across the inlet to Fort Fisher. We got back to the hotel, took a quick nap, ate some dinner at a small seafood place, and started packing.

We talked over dinner, and decided that tonight would be the last night of the vacation march. We had accomplished what we’d set out to do — see the lighthouses of North Carolina, and not kill each other in the process. 🙂 We succeeded, and had a ball, but it was time to start heading home, and getting back to our pets and home.