welcome to oregon

the homestretch was a nice drive along the columbia river. rain greeted us for the first time in days, but of course, as we were nearing portland. it was late, but we had gained an hour yet again at the western edge of montana.

and now i am in portland, sipping coffee at a cafe in the northwest. we made it back in one piece, no van problems, no stolen goods (i was worried about this on some nights!). in the process i visited 8 states i'd never been to, and also learned a lot more about driving. thanks for joining us on our adventure!

northern idaho

idaho was gorgeous. we slipped through a northern piece, which was about 70 miles wide at the most. climbing through the montana hills, we were stunned at the immediate view at the border of idaho; curving down from a high precipice, the gold, orange & green fir trees went far down beyond our view. josh queued up "keep it like a secret" by built to spill to begin right as we passed the state line.



we never knew about lake coeur d'alene. it was absolutely blue, and the blue sky & sharp green branches were breathtaking.



we lunched at an irish pub in spokane, washington where notre dame alumni were cheerily watching the game. the rest of the drive down through eastern washington was pretty boring... bland fields and nothing much else.

westward bound

breakfast at the Lariat Restaurant in gilette, wyoming was $3.88 for two. coffee & a plate of 1 egg, 2 pieces of bacon, toast, & hash browns each. i could hear folks in the restaurant talking about the economy, about going to work to change engines, about gas prices. their accents reminded me of the accents in old westerns.

once we headed back out in the morning, we were immediately greeted by our first view of the Rockies. i couldn't help but scream; what a nice way to start the morning. i can't imagine living with these mountains in view; i am so used to skyscraper skylines.



wyoming & montana were hilly, and farmland was replaced by cattle ranches; wide spaces and tons of cows, bulls, horses grazing. larger bales of hay. as we crept into montana, the landscape became greener; fir trees began to appear.



we made a few stops in montana. in billings we lunched at a cute mexican place. i noticed many native american faces in the mix; this town looked more diverse than most places we'd seen in the last 24 hours. in bozeman, we got coffee at the leaf and bean, which was a cool coffeehouse that held nightly events such as solo musicians and poetry readings. it was there that we overheard a girl saying she was going to drive to missoula for the built to spill show!

we spent the night in missoula, too tired to catch built to spill. now we're having breakfast at food for thought, which is on the U of M campus. it's autumn here.



the coffee here is good. you have to hunt a bit to find good coffee in these parts.

next stop is portland, oregon!

a south dakota day

western south dakota was a little more intriguing; once we crossed the missouri river the landscape changed so much! it got hilly right away. the final wall drug billboards were piling up! and then we stopped by the badlands national park, which was shockingly stunning; we had no idea what to expect. for about 30 miles we looped through these awesome rock formations.



right after the badlands we finally got to see what this "wall drug" was all about. for those of you who have never driven through south dakota, the freeway is littered with billboards advertising a mysterious wall drug store, complete with dinosaurs, ice cream, 5-cent coffee, and western art. when we finally pulled into Wall, SD we were sorely disappointed! we didn't even go inside. it was like an anti-climactic ending at the end of a page-turner. just a simple street with a few touristy shops.

fortunately, we crossed into mountain time! but the sun was still lowering quite quickly and we had an hour or so to get to mount rushmore. that last stretch felt like forever, but we got there right as the sky was turning a surreal sort of pink. we were elated to have made our destination. "i'm sure no one here has driven all the way from minneapolis today," josh said.



for dinner, we drove down to keystone, which is the little tourist town 10 miles down the hill from the mount rushmore memorial area. the rubyhouse restaurant was a throwback to the 1800s; sort of like a fancy restaurant from the Little House on the Prairie days, except all the clientele, us included, were wearing sweatshirts, jeans & sneakers. the waitress from the bar wore a sad little floozy outfit, all red satin & black lace. our server was an asian dude - quite unexpected. oh, and can you believe they didn't have ginger ale? our waiter told us that it's hard to find out there in south dakota.

so we still have a ways to go before portland, so josh buckled down for some nighttime driving and we pulled into Gillette, Wyoming at 10:30pm. we're at the national9 inn which is not too shabby really! we've decided to skip yellowstone in the interest of driving less; we are too exhausted to sightsee, and i'm sure montana will have enough sights of its own to offer today.

We are in south dakota

well i tried to get creative with directions and wanted to get off the beaten interstate. but we got lost for the first time on the trip. so our shortcut made us backtrack and we didn't save any time at all. still, we saw some cool back roads of minnesota. highway 60 was a canvas of beautiful cornfields and cow pastures.

for lunch, we took a weird detour. we wound up at some tiny store in buffalo ridge, south dakota where we had quarter-pound buffalo burgers! the place was a shoddy old deli/convenience store/gift shop, complete with five buffalo heads displayed on the walls.



the "dining" area was stocked with plush buffalo dolls and all kinds of strange memorabilia. our burgers were $3.50 each - pricey for the area?

we did a very long stretch in south dakota, racing against the sun to get to our important destinations of the day. eastern south dakota was a little boring, with long stretches of the same old same old - corn fields, cow pastures, etc. beautiful of course, especially with blue skies and 70 degree weather. the speed limit out there is 75 so we were flying.

Good morning minneapolis

we got into minneapolis quite late and it was raining, so the evening was restful. in the morning, we snuck into rush hour traffic and stopped by caribou coffee for some essential elixirs. minneapolis was foggy in the morning. still, much of the architecture was pretty striking.

driving to Madison.

we stopped for lunch in madison, wisconsin to check out the University of Wisconsin campus. the sandwiches at potbelly were warm and delicious, and only $3.79 each! we are no longer in new york.


driving to Madison.
Originally uploaded by josh!.

Leaving chicago

sad to leave our comfy hotel, we checked out and took a quick spin on Lake Shore Drive. we couldn't seem to find an easy way to the beach unfortunately. but the views were lovely, alongside the park. we also liked the chicago river bridges, and of course, the els.

chicago

we did alright in chicago due to the many recommendations from my co-workers. this morning we took the brown line to belmont and walked down to lincoln park. we do like chicago. the el cars look like nyc subway cars but the platforms are quite different; i love the wooden boards.

the el reminds us both of queens due to the elevation. some houses here are right up against the trains, it's crazy. it does remind me of cruising on the 7 line past long island city.

we walked through the actual park in lincoln park and saw some crazy trees.



for dinner we went to gino's east for chicago-style deep dish pizza. i take it this was authentic; i was surprised at how saucy it was! the cheese was buried under gobs of sauce. i was expecting the buttery crust a la pizzeria uno sadly, but gino's was good. afterwards, we walked past the largest, craziest mcdonald's we've ever seen, and checked out the clark street ale house. we feel awful heavy from pizza and beer and are catching the end of the angels/white sox game on tv. aw. i am somehow rooting for the white sox.

great lakes.

we looped around cleveland this morning, not really knowing where to go, we didn't have much time and hadn't looked up where the Flats were. we passed up the rock 'n roll hall of fame ($20). instead we loafed around some downtown area and then stopped by edgewater park to see Lake Erie up close. a subtle ocean.

just outside of cleveland, we lunched in lorain county.

a few hours on the road through rainy western ohio. we saw cows, cornfields, and barns. indiana was rather pastoral until we got to industrial gary.

chicago feels large and luminous. we just got in and are staying at a fun boutique hotel that looks like candy. it's got a fun 1920s chicago feel to it. fortunately we have a day of r&r so no driving tomorrow. it's all about the el!

by the way, i am storing more photos at my flickr site here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tremelor/

Breakfast in cleveland

Breakfast in cleveland
Originally uploaded by tremelor.

And we're off!

we are not too tired after day 1! 8 hours on the road from jersey city, nj to lakewood, oh. luckily the heavy rain ended late last night, so we were only hit with light sprinkles. we picked up a sleek dodge caravan from the airport and magically, all my junk fit quite well!

And we're off! Originally uploaded by tremelor.

we can still see out the back window. after about 3 hours on the road we stopped for lunch in khylertown, pa at the roadhouse for some diner grub. we saw mainly trees, but also some appalachian hills and pennsylvania farms. some of the trees are already red! kings of convenience was great driving music for that. josh & i were quite excited to see the ominous cleveland skyline, behind the fog, but what is up with the bugs here in lakewood? our travelodge is disgustingly dotted with these mosquito-ish insects. the waitress at papa nick's told us that these bugs fly in for a few days from the lake and die pretty quickly. they're so nasty. we've been running in & out of doors to make sure no bugs get into our room/our minivan. gross.