To be completely honest, the numbers about this trip are pretty scary/astonishing/unbelievable when I start to think about them.
Total driving distance: 3354 miles
Total driving time: 59 h0urs
States passed through: 14 (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana)
Amount of beef jerky consumed while driving: unknown... but probably measured in pounds
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Author Graham Green once wrote that "a story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead." This particular story picks up somewhere in the middle, in Gurnee, Illinois.
I had a wonderful visit with all of the family in Gurnee. Maria was wonderfully accommodating with Dixie--allowing her to stay in the mudroom when she was not comfortable being closed up in the garage--and Lib and Nick were thrilled that they could now say they'd had a dog in their house. Dixie even played basketball with us! Maria, skilled amateur photographer that she is, snapped a few great pictures of the kids playing with Dixie.
Dixie attacking Nick!
I spent a full day there in Chicago, and then Alex met up with me that night. Thursday morning, we got on I-94 West. And spent the next two days driving on that same road. One stretch of I-94 was completely uninterrupted for over 800 miles. Talk about simple directions!
Entering Wisconsin. Not the best picture, but you get the idea.
There must have been some kind of classic car show going on somewhere out here, because I must have passed a dozen classic and restored cars going down the road with me, including one that looked like the Grease car but painted black and hot pink.
The sky out there was just beautiful. I could see for miles!
I missed getting a picture of the North Dakota welcome sign because it was storming pretty hard at the time. You'll have to trust me that I did in fact pass through North Dakota on this trip.
After stopping for dinner at an IHOP in Fargo, ND (where I was happily greated by the IHOP hostess with a classic Fargo accent!), Alex and I called it a night in the town of Jamestown, ND. We'd been on the road for twelve hours. Jamestown is apparently a big buffalo town, as evidenced by the advertised "Live Herd of Buffalo" at the Frontier Village. Too bad it was closed...
We stopped at a motel for the night. Dixie did like she usually does and slept in the bed with me. But when I got up in the morning to take a shower, she found herself a new and warmer location to keep snoozing. She did it without waking Alex, too! Michelle, I'd watch out... you've got some competition going here!
I'm driving down the road when I see signs for the "World's Largest Holstein Cow." Clearly I must pull over to investigate. This is what I found. According to the plaque, this is Salem Sue. "The World's Largest Holstein Cow is 38 feet high, 50 feet long, and weighs 12,000 pounds." Quite impressive, isn't she?
The intrepid explorer!
A few miles down the road, Alex calls me and tells me to pull off in the town of Medora. It is apparently a still-functioning frontier town and is on the edge of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We had entered the Dakota Badlands. The building in the picture below is the "Rough Riders Hotel Dining Room."
At least the scenery is absolutely amazing. Like I said in an earlier post from the road, now I understand why they call this Big Sky Country.
The Rocky Mountains in the distance were just surreal, as was the experience of driving towards them for hours without seeming to get any closer to them.
FINALLY ARRIVED!
So that's it. We made it. We're living in a great little house with two other guys and one other dog. There's a large, fenced backyard, with a doggie-door in the back door, so Dixie can come in and out at her leisure. I fear she will get spoiled and will not be happy about moving back to DC in the fall. Come to think of it, I fear I will get spoiled and will not be happy about moving back to DC in the fall. Oh well. As MaryClaire has taught me to say, I'll burn that bridge when I get there.
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Hi! Thanks for the kind words. We loved having you and Alex and Dixie come visit. We hope you'll stay longer on the way back!
ReplyDeleteWe enjoyed seeing the cross country photo log. I'm glad you took the time for some "fun" stops along the way. I mean, that Holstein pic will be priceless some day!
Love you!