Wrapping it all up

It feels strange and yet fitting to be writing this last post about my cross-country jaunt. When I told a friend I was planning this trip, she asked me why. I didn’t really have an answer for her. It was just one of my gut feelings – the need to hit the road. I guess I was hoping to shake up my life, which I certainly did. I had an amazing time. The trip – both the driving and the being-there parts – was wonderful. Even the Motel 6 in Toledo wasn't so bad once I was driving away from it. I enjoyed every day. And even though I was eager to get home on Thursday, I also hoped to have at least a little adventure my last day on the road.

I started the morning with a brief detour through downtown Winnemucca. I have to say, there wasn’t much to see. I visited a city park for a brief walk with Toby and saw a couple of beautiful buildings nearby. Otherwise, a quick fill-up and a cup of coffee at McDonalds were all that we experienced of Winnemucca.

I hadn't been driving for more than thirty minutes when I breezed past a really odd structure that had caught my eye on the way east. So I took the next exit for Imlay and back-tracked to the Thunder Mountain Indian Monument. According to the sign, this place is a "State of Nevada Historic Site." (You can find The Story of Thunder Mountain Monument at Smithsonian.com.) According to the flagger I had a chat with (while stopped for a long time a very short distance from the freeway on-ramp), the place is "no such thing." He said it was built by a bunch of stoned hippies back in the mid-seventies with stuff that could have come from a Burning Man celebration. Whatever it is (or was), the place was definitely strange. From the gate with a sign warning you to "Enter At Your Own Risk” to the fenced-off weirdness of the buildings, it was somewhat unsettling. But the location was striking in its desolation. And it felt completely remote, even though you could see the cars whizzing by on I-80. A very old travel trailer was parked within the compound. I didn’t know what was worse – some oddball living there and keeping an eye on lone visitors or being a lone visitor without the protection of even an oddball. I left in a hurry.

Sometime later, I saw a sign for the Mustang Ranch and began to hatch a plan. When I stopped for some coffee in Fernley, I followed a hunch and entered “Mustang Ranch” in my GPS. Sure enough, there it was: Mustang Ranch Brothel. How cool is that? I wonder what other secrets are lurking in the GPS. If I only knew what to enter as a destination, just think where it might take me! So now I had a plan. I was going to try to find the most famous whorehouse in Nevada.

To make a long story short, I did follow the directions on my GPS. I thought it strange that I never saw another sign for the place, but I took the turn-off and headed into the hills. When I turned down a gravel road with a bunch of derelict cars up ahead and a bend in the road I couldn’t see beyond, I chickened out and high-tailed it back to I-80. Only when I was getting back on the freeway, did I remember hearing that Mustang Ranch closed several years back. Oh well. I could always go back to the Old Bridge Ranch, if I get another hankering to visit a Nevada brothel. Maybe the next trip …

The rest of the drive was uneventful but beautiful, especially when I headed into the mountains and crossed the state line into California. Once I reached Truckee, I felt like I was home. I even stopped taking pictures, since it felt like the trip was pretty much over. But then I saw this truck and couldn't resist one last shot! (And yes, there was a tow truck involved.)

Total mileage for the day: 270
Total time in the car: 4 ½ hours
Beginning odometer reading (May 14th): 52,851
Ending odometer reading (June 10th): 59,842
Total miles driven: 6,991
Total days on the road: 28
Total photos taken: 2,879 (most while driving!)

Things I learned:

• You don’t need to pack that many clothes for a road trip. You tend to wear the same “road clothes” when you drive and laundry facilities are easily found (even in a Motel 6).
• The Motel 6 chain is a good place to stay – definitely no frills, but pets are always welcome and wireless internet is almost always available (usually for a small fee).
• If you bring along a big bag of yarn for a knitting project, you better make sure you have the right needles with you.
• Just because you bring a yoga mat and book along, it doesn’t mean that you will actually do any yoga. (Same for bringing running shoes too, I imagine.)
• Starbucks are not evenly distributed across the country but McDonalds are. (Fortunately, McDonalds makes consistently good coffee and always has half-and-half available.)
• Good friends are still good friends (really good friends!) even when you haven’t seen them for years.
• Farwell, Michigan, is a pretty nice place to live (at least in the summer) and has houses for sale at mind-boggling prices.
• I can multi-task while driving. Note-taking, picture-taking, GPS-fiddling, eating, drinking, singing and dancing – all were done safely and with minimal spills.
• Pictures taken out of a moving car sometimes turn out really well.
• Toby is not only an incredible dog but also a really good traveler.
• I really need to do this again!

Home at last

Greetings from Auburn, California! I made it home at 12:22 this afternoon and was never happier to walk in my front door! I would like to write a recap of my last day on the road (if only for a sense of closure) but must admit that I don't have it in me right now. So tomorrow, when I'm fresh and feeling more able to write with some coherence, I will finish up the saga of THIS road trip. Right now, though, there must be a margarita with my name on it somewhere around here!

This morning I just don't care!

Good Morning! I can say that with a smile even though last night was not a good night. Maybe three hours of sleep. I don't know what kept me up unless it was the sheer excitement of getting home. In any case - tired or not - I should be back in Auburn by the early afternoon. It is so great to be as excited about getting home as I was about leaving four weeks ago!

I'm almost home!!!

Greetings from Winnemucca, Nevada! I had a marathon day today – over 800 miles! I didn’t intend to go this far. In fact, I had my sights set on Elko, Nevada, but when I stopped there at 4:30 I found that the annual Mining Expo was in town and all the rooms were booked. So I got gas and drove another 130 miles! I am SO HAPPY to be out of the car and even happier that I have only 260 more miles to drive tomorrow!

So what can I tell you about this extremely long day? It started out with a lovely walk around the State Capitol Building and a latte at a familiar Starbucks. Our next stop was the Summit Rest Area, the highest point on I-80 at 8,640 feet. The view from the top was stunning, but the visit might have taken a very bad turn. When I was walking Toby, he darted into a drain pipe that ran under the access road, snagging his leash on a jagged piece of metal. As I was trying to free the leash and get him out of the pipe, a maintenance guy said “I wouldn’t be down there if I was you!” It turns out that the pipe is a favorite hang-out for skunks! Can you imagine having to put a skunk-sprayed Toby back in the car and driving another thousand miles?! Clearly, our guardian angel was on the job this morning.

The rest of the drive through Wyoming was uneventful. We had a little bit of rain and passed through miles and miles of open rangeland, saw snow fences, wind farms, and fast running rivers (the Medicine Bow and the North Platte), and crossed the Continental Divide.

In Utah, I began seeing the wonderful red rock formations along I-80. Of course, I was snapping photos like mad and trying to figure out how to get a decent shot through the bug-spattered windshield. Imagine my pleasure at discovering the Echo Information Center, a beautiful rest area with a network of paved paths that afforded picture-perfect and up-close views of the red rocks. Toby loved the place too, since there were prairie dogs nearly everywhere you looked.

Some other Utah sights: The Weber River overflowing its banks, the Morton Salt and Cargill salt plants, the abstract sculpture Metaphor: The Tree of Utah, and miles and miles of the Bonneville Salt Flats.

I hit Nevada nearly eight hours after leaving Cheyenne and was still feeling great. So Toby and I kept on driving through another 230 miles or so of sagebrush. In fact, I even toyed with the idea of making it home tonight. And I probably could have. But I am extremely happy to be in the Winnemucca Motel 6 right now with a full tummy and a loyal dog asleep at my feet as I type this.

Highlights of the day: Stopping at several incredibly scenic rest stops. Seeing numerous prairie dogs. Being back in the western U.S. Hitting the high notes in Evanescence’s Going Under (not always the right high notes, mind you!). Seeing the bright copper roofs in Park City, Utah, and the even brighter orange flowers growing along I-80 in Utah and Nevada. The heat mirages on the salt flats. And surviving the longest driving day of the trip!

Total mileage for the day: A whopping 809!
Total time in the car: 11 hours and 45 minutes
Destination tomorrow: HOME!!!!!
Miles to go: Only 260!

I know where I'm going this morning!

Good morning. Aside from some guys setting off a few fireworks right outside my door last night (which set off Toby for a couple of minutes), it wasn't too noisy here. Not a single giggling guy was heard. So I should have a decent driving day unless I hit bad thunderstorms. The rain is holding off right now, so I hope to take a brief walk before I hit the road. I have to admit, I'm pretty excited that I remember exactly where the Starbucks is and won't even need to look at a map! Plus, I remember seeing a Starbucks after I passed the last exit to Rock Springs when I was driving east. So if I want a second latte, I only have another 250 miles to go!

Cheyenne - Take Two

Greetings once again from Cheyenne, Wyoming! Despite a somewhat shaky start to the day, I made it back for another stay in Cheyenne. Even though I was pretty tired, I originally thought I might drive as far as Laramie (if not all the way to Rock Springs), since I got such an early start. But a visit to a Wyoming rest stop changed my mind. While there, I picked up a pamphlet for a "Historic Downtown Cheyenne Walking Tour." Stopping early and playing the tourist sounded so much better than several more hours in the car.

As I mentioned in this morning’s post, I left Des Moines early. It was pouring by the time I got on I-80 and the only real light in the sky came from some pretty intense lightning. Luckily for me, the nasty weather lasted no more than an hour. The farther west I drove, the bluer the sky became. All things considered, it ended up being a pretty decent day on the road.

My biggest challenge of the day was finding caffeine when I wanted it. I couldn’t even find a McDonalds at first. Later in the morning I decided I “needed” a latte, since the two cups of coffee I’d already had were a little hard on my stomach. It took me until 1:00PM to find a Starbucks – five hours after I left Des Moines. My GPS also acted up for awhile, but it fixed itself while I was having a quick lunch break.


Toby continued to be a trooper, even though he was stuck in the car for hours. Only now and then did he look at me with a “Dear God, are we EVER going to stop?” expression. I wish his cooperative behavior would have continued on our walk around downtown Cheyenne. He pulled on the leash for the entire hour. He also lunged at a passing bicyclist and really irked me when he charged after a rabbit he saw near the railroad tracks. None of that is unusual behavior, it just was extra challenging since at the same time I was also reading the tour guide, snapping countless photos, and dodging traffic. I discovered very quickly that Cheyenne drivers do not believe in stopping for pedestrians.

Despite the challenges, I had an enjoyable time walking through the downtown. There were some pretty amazing buildings within a several block radius. (The tour guide was great except for one major shortcoming – the printers left the numbers for the buildings off the map.) I started at the Union Pacific Depot, which is at the opposite end of Capitol Avenue from the State Capitol Building. I also ended my walk at the Depot, since it housed the only restaurant downtown that allows dogs. I had a pretty good dinner and an incredibly delicious beer - Odell's Cutthroat Porter (nitro-tap) - my new favorite!

Highlights of the day: Watching windmills slice through low clouds. Breaking out of the rain early on. Finding my latte in North Platte. Belting out Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger several times near the end of the drive. (“If you’re bored then you’re boring”) Walking around downtown Cheyenne. Watching a weird guy quickly bend down and grab Toby by his collar so he could get a dog kiss. Taking photos of an intriguing alleyway. Learning that a two block area that includes the old Becker Hotel once contained seventeen saloons with numerous upstairs bordellos. And finding a new favorite beer!


Total mileage for the day: 634
Total time in the car: 10 hours and 15 minutes
Destination tomorrow: Maybe Wendover, Utah again???
Miles to go: 1051

Just a quickie!

Arrived safely in Cheyenne, Wyoming (not Montana, which I typed this morning!) and am getting ready to head downtown for a historical walking tour and dinner at Shadows Pub and Grill with Toby. I'll write more when I get back to the room.

Postscript to a Perfect (Driving) Day

After nine nights of wonderful restorative sleep in Michigan, I am back to normal. I think I managed about three and a half hours last night. I had very noisy neighbors, which accounted for the hard time falling asleep. I don't know what to blame for the 3:45AM awakening, though. Maybe some trucker's early morning shower? Whatever the cause, I'm up, showered, almost packed, and hitting the road by 6:00AM. It's raining steadily right now with severe thunderstorms a possibility in this part of the country. So whether I'll make it as far as Wyoming today is anyone's guess.

A quick comment about my next-door neighbors. A group of foreign gents are presently sleeping on the other side of our connecting door, but last night they were extremely loud. They were speaking a language I couldn't quite figure out (Arabic?), and one of the guys had one of those voices that really carry. I couldn't ignore them due to the volume, nor could I follow the conversation vicariously because of the language barrier. It didn't sound like a normal conversation. There would be several seconds of blessed silence, followed by a weird half moan, then staccato conversation and giggles. The best I could come up with is that they had on a porn channel. If they had to keep me up, I wish I could have at least heard the commentary!

Déjà vu in Des Moines

Greetings from Des Moines, Iowa! Again!! I’m now in familiar territory and retracing the route I took east. I didn’t expect to be staying at the same motels, but it made sense to stop in Des Moines again. So here I am.

Today, I drove. And drove. I stopped (briefly) at two McDonalds, one Starbucks, one rest area, and two gas stations. Otherwise, my world was the highway. It felt like driving was my job - a job I really enjoyed. I slept well last night, which apparently made all the difference. Even though I drove for ten hours today, I felt like I could have gone another hour or two easily. But since I don’t have to get home on any particular day, I decided not to push myself.

I don’t have too much to say about the drive. Most of the scenery in Michigan was either woods or farmland, all beautiful. In fact, except for the area around Gary, Indiana, the entire drive today was through woods or farmland. The main attraction for me ended up being the sky. I started out driving under a cloudless sky, but the farther west I drove the darker the skies became . I eventually hit scattered showers in Iowa and then a heavy rain the last ten minutes of the drive. All in all, though, it was a lovely day.

Toby had a good traveling day too, or so it appeared. He started out with his usual first day nervousness – pacing back and forth between the front and back seats – but eventually he settled into a rather complacent state and spent much of the trip snoozing in his bed.

Highlights of the day: Taking a final walk with my brother and the dogs. The sign for KC’s Party Store. Seeing the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Walcott, Iowa. Seeing a cardinal (one of my favorite birds) in the parking lot of the truck stop. Trying to photograph the crepuscular rays that brightened a pretty dark sky towards the end of the day. Remembering what those rays are called. (Sometimes the old gray matter comes through!) And feeling so good for the entire drive!

Total mileage for the day: 625
Total time in the car: 10 hours
Total miles to go: 1669
Destination tomorrow: Perhaps Cheyenne again!

Heading Home

I’m finally heading home tomorrow after spending eight days in Michigan. I’m not ready to leave, but I don’t really see a day coming when I’ll be more ready. So I might as well start the long drive home.


The visit with family has been great – a mix of quiet lazy days and some noteworthy experiences: my grand-niece, Kendal, graduated from eighth grade while I was here, and my nephew and his wife bought three horses in the last several days.

I also spent a little time playing the tourist. I visited a lighthouse on the shore of Lake Michigan, had a great time at an Amish store near Clare, checked out a country auction near Lake George, and visited the famous Cops and Doughnuts bakery three times!

Probably the goofiest thing I did was to look at several houses in the neighborhood with a realtor today. I fell in love with a lakefront cabin, so decided I should get the facts about it instead of building it up as some sort of perfect fantasy get-away in my mind

Highlights of my stay here: Meeting my two grand-nephews and grand-niece. Going to Kendal’s graduation. Seeing the gorgeous expanse of Lake Michigan. Browsing the aisles at the Amish store. (Have you ever heard of a gasoline-powered iron?!) Making doughnut runs to Cops and Doughnuts. Shooting several different revolvers and a 9mm semi-automatic pistol on my nephew’s property. Meeting Scott and Cathy’s new horses. Hearing some pretty amazing stories about my brother. And spending so much time with my family.