OMG tired and sore

We made it into Philadelphia yesterday. After a great day in Pittsburgh on the 8th, we decided not to stay another evening and we headed out on the road. Around 9:30, just in time to catch Lost, we found a hotel in Carlisle, PA. Lucky enough, we got the last room in the hotel. They were having a car meet the next day.

After Carlisle, we came to Philadelphia. To be specific, we are not in Bryn Mawr, PA sitting in Anna's new apartment on a king bed we picked up yesterday. We rolled into town around noon and almost 12 hrs later, finally stopped moving and layed down on the bed. We were both tired, a little bruised and battered and sore from hauling around furniture. After spending some cashola on the apartment, we brought in all of Anna's worldly belongings, emptying the car for the first time in 1 week. Boy the car looked light. We then ventured off (the long way) to Uhaul and picked up a moving truck for the day. (They really gouge you on the mileage. Wish I had my brown truck over here.) The remainder of the day (now 3pm or so) was spent driving through rush hour traffic, trying to follow google map directions on my Blackberry while picking up furniture we found through friends and craigslist. One crazy story in all this is that we picked up a nice table, 4 chairs and a love seat from Lorrie, a friend of Eve's mother. Eve's mother is friends of people my parents met only 1 month ago on a Habitat for Humanity trip in Paraquay. Talk about 6 degrees of separation. I love the small world!

In the end, we got back to the house around 9:30 with a loveseat, a kitchen table, 4 chairs, a lamp, a small computer desk, a dresser, a king bed w/boxsprngs, and an Ikea bookshelf. The Uhaul was full. And getting all the stuff in the apartment was a chore, but we did it. We returned the Uhaul and thought we would try and find Target to get some little items we didn't have - like toilet paper.... That was a futile mission.

After getting some grub and returning home, we discovered we were missing a piece of the bed frame - we had left it in the Uhaul. So, another trip out into Philly to recover the piece. What a night.

Our first night sleep was good. We're up early as we needed to get out and about for some food and shopping. We still have a huge list of items we need to acquire before I return to Portland on Tuesday. Wish us luck.

Night 7 on the Road

Wow. I can't believe it's been an entire week of road tripping. I have to say, the drive from Minnesota to Pennsylvania pretty much sucked. Ohio was especially painful. The rain. The turnpike. The semis on the turnpike. Yuck.

We met up with a high school acquaintance of mine, John, in Pittsburgh. He put us up and we ended up having the soundest, most comfortable nights' sleep our entire trip. Pittsburgh was AWESOME and I wish we had more time to investigate the city. We're way too tired to upload the photos tonight, so they'll just have until later.

It's just another couple hundred miles to Philly. I spent a few hours today on craigslist trying to find furniture, most especially a bed. Let's hope something comes together by tomorrow night. If not, no worries, it'll all work out somehow.

I'm a big bore tonight! I think I'm just a bit distracted. Ok, signing off for now. Must recharge.

Pittsburgh

We're in Pittsburgh tonight visiting and staying with one of Anna's
high school friends. Just got back from a great meal and conversation
with John.

Today was another long mileage day. I figured yesterday we did 625
miles, today was more like 525 or so. Today we finally left I90 which
we had travelled on since Buffalo WY for 1495 miles. Today also marked
the passing of Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. Wow, three states in a day.

Tomorrow we will take in Pittsburgh and well, the Steelers too. G'night.

A visit to the grandparents

Yup, a visit to Canby MN and Winona Mn. My parents are from Minnesota, so as a child we visited often usually during Christmas or the first few weeks of summer. Canby is a farming town, whereas Winona is more of a business town on the Mississippi. Each had its charm as a child. Oh, the memories. I relayed many of those memories to Anna as we got closer and closer to Minnesota and Canby this morning. Canby is a little off the beaten track, so it took some efforst to get there, but it was worth it to see my grandparents home and the cafe where I would eat lunch with Grandpa back in the 70's and 80's. Initially, I couldn't find the house based on my memories, so had to call mom (she grew up there) and she was overjoyed that I was visiting.

I was then told I was a day early because my aunt from Minneapolis was going to be down that way tomorrow for lunch with all of thier cousins. Oh well, you win one you lose one. We wandered around town a little, but realized we needed to get some miles under out belt, so took off. On the way out of town, we also snapped some photos of the church where my parents were married in 1961 and where we attended funeral services for my Grandparents many years ago. Once again, "oh the memories."

Then it was off across Minnesota. Storms storms storms.

After what seemed like the longest drive so far (which it wasn't,) we decided to take the turn up to Winona MN where my father grew up. Honestly, it was tough because I didn't feel like we had the time, but then I thought - when will I be past here again - and took the turn. It was all of a 30 minute departure - easy! We found my dad's childhood home and my Aunt Helen's house to boot. My memories are more of Aunt Helen's home and playing scrabble on the porch for hours on end. I wish the weather was better and we had more time as I wanted to show Anna the Mississippi. But alas, we're on a schedule.

Oh, and South Dakota and Minnesota have a mini mart that just makes me chuckle.

Minnesota: The State that looks the same from one end to the other

Highlights: Laura Ingalls Wilder's hometown, Walnut Grove. What little girl didn't LOVE her books back in the 4th grade? We were too cheap to pay the $10 to visit the LIW museum, but we had fun perusing the gift shop;

cruising through Brett's parent's hometowns, Canby and Winona, which, from what I understand, are in the middle of absolute nowhere, connected to nothing and close to nada in every directionyet charming and sweet and full of good people. Afterall, my inlaws are from Canby and Winona and they're pretty swell. Besides, the Canby boys wrestling team were state champs in 76, 77, 79, 86, 94, 95 and 06;

fantastically terrifying thunderstorm, which, at one point, we discovered there was a severe storm warning in the exact area we were traveling and we were encouraged to pull off the road and seek shelter (we didn't). I'm still sort of recovering from the stress of the drive, as the storm went on and on and ON for, oh, a 150 miles, from MN to Wisconsin and in fact the lightening got even closer to us as we passed through La Crosse;

pelicans on one of the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota, just off Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Highway

So, the lightening was terrifying for me, though I silently tried to convince myself that statistically the probability of being struck while moving at 68mph in a Jetta are tremendously small (ironically, I learned later by some act of coincidence that lightening strikes the planet Earth something like 6,000 times per minute and 1,000 people are killed by lightening each year).

I'm tired.

Nodding Donkey in South Dakota

nodding donkey in South Dakota
Originally uploaded by dieselboi

Thought I would share this - whenever we travelled across the US with the fam in the family truckster, it was a little game to see who could pick out the "nodding donkeys" in South Dakota first. I never won. I think I was always reading or something. Well, just before we left South Dakota a couple of days ago, I grabbed this shot of one of the donkeys.

Sioux Falls

O.k., for those of you left hanging, we never did find a safe watering hole near Atomic City. I vacillate between beating myself up for not having the guts to enter that lonely dusty bar/cafe, to thanking my lucky stars we left the car running and beat feet out of that place.



Another time zone crossed today. And so, while my computer's clock says it's only 9:14pm, all the clocks around here say it's 11:14pm. Another hour - vanished. Driving across South Dakota on I-90 really took a lot out of me. That, and the crappy night's sleep at the Spearfish Quality Inn, the crappy jumbo prawn dinner (just thinking about it sort of makes me gag) at the Rusty Spur in Murdo SD and last night's crappy Chinese food caked on my jeans makes me weary.

But Mt. Rushmore was cool, and so was Crazy Horse (I estimate it'll take about another 200 years to finish that sculpture at the rate they've been going the last 60 years).

Deadwood was trippy at 9am; a little like Disneyland and a lot like Las Vegas and completely socked in with feet of snow.


Oh yeah, so was Spearfish, where we spent the night. Not just a few inches, but FEET. I'm impressed with how the main roads are kept so clear and bone dry. I'm sure it helps that that sun is out and today it reached about 75. But we saw snow well after Rapid City. My gosh, and the wildlife. I'm in love with deer and their sweet little faces and RIP all you dim little dead deer on the side of the road. And the prairie dogs are beyond cute, the way the stand up and stare at all the cars like we're the only entertainment in town.
Phoebe is holding up well. She just has this issue with early mornings at the hotels and all the comings and goings of guests in the nearby rooms. It's really annoying and I'm pretty sure I'm sleep deprived.


I need some sleep!