Day 13: Still catching up

On Sunday I had a nice lie in (much needed I'm sure). I rolled out around 10, and immediately into the Starbucks down the street to get my daily fix of internet news and nonsense. Vowing again to stay away from the toll road, I headed east towards the lake and took a nice local highway along the shore.

Graham says "Jesus would approve"

This eventually met up with the interstate (post toll section thankfully), which meant traffic. Sunday afternoon traffic going south into Chicago. My regiment of drinking as much water as I could was starting to catch up to me, as well as a slight irritation with the crowds of cars, so I took an exit looking for a bathroom. From here I decided to move towards the shore line again as I had heard the shore line road was interesting and goes right through downtown. This part of Chicago was pretty interesting, reminding me of a blend between northwest and southeast Portland.

Traffic began increasing as I approached the shore, which I realized was due to the giant public park the road I was on led to. A combination of traffic, stress of driving in an unknown city, and a renewed desire to use the restroom caused me to turn on what I thought was the correct road, but turned out to be one that ran parallel, with no way of connecting.

This began an adventure in navigating downtown Chicago trying to get on the right highway. Taking a wrong turn I eventually joined up with the correct route, however in the wrong direction. There must be some psychological effect that a full bladder has on the brain, because I was making some pretty poor judgment calls about turns and such. By this point, I was at the stage where had I been able to discover the proper logistics I would have used one of the empty bottles I had rattling around.

Once I was finally able to get on the shore line drive in the right direction, I decided to sacrifice my comfort in favor of not getting lost again. The road was nice, good speed and right on the lake; I was able to take in much of downtown Chicago at 60 mph.

Eventually, though, I was led into south Chicago. This is where my trip took a turn for the culturally interesting. I had this conversation with Graham, who helped me really flesh this out as he had the same general observations. Being from Portland, I hope to be a liberal and open person, and for the most part believe myself to be. However, with that in mind, the other element of being from Oregon is a lack of extreme economic diversity; for the most part, the state (at least the Portland metro area) has a range of middle class with few outliers on either side. Driving into south Chicago, I was abruptly thrown into a poor, predominantly African American community. In and of itself, not necessarily a threatening environment, but I was already lost (sort of) and quite out of my element. Against my intellectual self, I admit that I felt uncomfortable. I am unsure whether it was from expectaions and biases from what I've seen in popular media, a lack of personal experience in this kind of situation, or most likely a combination of the two. But the worst part was that I was frustrated in myself for succumbing to a fear that I know to be illogical. I know that the chances of anything adverse happening to me are low, and probably mostly equal no matter where I am, but I couldn't help but feel uneasy.

How do you combat those kinds of personal biases, when you know intellectually that they have no base? Putting yourself out there, out of your comfort zone, forcing yourself to confront your unease perhaps? I don't know the answer.

Needless to say, I found my way out of Chicago and into Indiana. This is where I had my first taste of the delicious institution known as White Castle. If what you want are tasty little burgers and fries, White Castle delivers. No frills or extras.

You provide compelling arguments.

I got out to Graham's around 9 (being in the Eastern time zone now). We went out to what is referred to as the "Oregon District" of Dayton, a street of shops and pubs that don't serve any Oregon beer. So why the name? Graham's housemates Bree and Ben postulated that it has something to do with the Oregon trail, and this district perhaps being a staging area. Probably the best explanation I heard. Despite not being from Oregon, the beer wasn't half bad for sure.

Monday we spent tromping around Dayton, visiting the Air Force Museum (very interesting), then heading out to Yellowsprings (the town Graham originally lived in when he first came to Ohio). The town is quite nice, but probably more suited for young families just settling down. We took a nice long "hike" through a nature preserve and rewarded ourselves with some beer (Stone Ruination IPA on tap!) and spinach dip.

On Tuesday, we began our journey north towards Cleveland...

Trip eh? Canadian
Kilometers eh? 6646
Music eh?
The Manchester Orchestra - Like a Virgin Losing a Child
Colour Revolt - EP
Lily Allen - Alright, Still

Day 10: A report on day 8

Fast food test results 1
Hardee's: It may look like Carl's Jr., but that is where the similarities end. Far inferior to it's western cousin.
White Castle: Succeeds in what it purports to do--cheap and fairly tasty no frills burgers and fries. You don't go here for quality, you go for quantity.
Skyline Chili: Not delicious. Apparent claim of popularity among midwesterners under much suspicion.

Since my last posting, I've made quite some progress. Day 8 was pretty uneventful, I stayed mostly to the interstates to save some time and make progress, as I needed to meet up with Graham soon so we could start that leg of the journey. I took a quick jaunt through Madison, Wisconsin and nearly got myself ran over by an ambulance while looking at the capitol building, but really nothing exciting. The town is quite interesting as it is built on a strip of land between two lakes. Driving down the main avenue from the highway, the capitol building stood as a culmination at the end, offering quite a distracting driving experience (also one of the reasons I nearly got myself ran over).

Milwaukee: Town from the highway

From Madison I headed east towards Milwaukee, where I tried unsuccessfully to get myself lost. The city seemed interesting, but I didn't really take the time to explore it much as I intended to reach north Chicago by night.

Around this time I did start to notice a distinct trend in the industrial landscape, favoring more factories but also containing many rundown and abandoned buildings. Much of the land that was once taken up by manufacturing plants has been left largely un-reclaimed. More on this and the atmosphere it seems to create later.

Heading down I-94 towards Chicago, I made the mistake of not taking the last exit in Wisconsin and simply finding a motel among the plethora available. Little did I know that I-94 becomes a lovely toll road right across the border. Luckily I had the $1.50 in cash and didn't need to find out if they would take my debit card (somehow I doubt it). Also, once in Illinois the abundant rate of interstate-side motels dropped off exponentially to basically zero. After about 20 minutes of this freeway (and needing to use the restroom badly) I decided to exit and try my luck blindly driving down local highways.

Lesson about toll highways: not only does it cost money to enter, it costs to exit too.

At this point I was in the north western area of Chicago, or what I know like to call land of endless suburbs. Each "town" flowed seamlessly into the next, with gated communities and tree lined winding streets around every turn. Where I had failed in Milwaukee, I overwhelmingly succeeded here to get myself completely lost.

After an hour or two, I had yet to find any motel in the area (although plenty of suite offering luxury hotels). My best bet, I realized, would be to return to Wisconsin and stay near the border at the exit I missed. However, I desperately wanted to avoid paying the toll to use I-94, so I stubbornly would my way on backroads and highways back to the state line. By the time I reached my destination it was past dark. I rolled into the local Super 8 Motel, crossing my fingers and wishing I had something to sacrifice to better my odds.

No dice.

Big surprise, though; it was Friday night (something I tend to lose track of). The desk clerk suggested I head west down the road to "one of the cheaper motels, they should have rooms". When Super 8 tells you to go to a cheaper motel, that should worry you.

I finally found what I was looking for at the Value Inn: a smoking room with a king sized bed priced at more than I really wanted to pay. Okay, perhaps not ideal, but it was the last room available probably in the state of Wisconsin, so I couldn't be terribly picky.

I know I'm about 2 days behind now in the blogs, but I'm tired so day 9 will have to wait until tomorrow. Tune in for adventures in confusing highways, bladder control, and race relations.

Current trippy status: quite trippy, but its good to be in Dayton and hang out with Graham.
Current trippy miles: >3000 (the couch is too comfy to get off to check)
Current trippy music: Nothing really today, but recently...
The White Stripes: Elephant and Icky Thump (the latter being amazing, truly the best that they have done so far)

Day 8: East of the 'ssippi

Who knew Graham offered free internet?

Throughout my trip I have seen increasing numbers of motorcycles on the roads, especially as I have traveled east. In fact, more and more these motorcycles have appeared in groups of at least three, and upwards of ten sometimes. I had suspected the reason for this since my first night in Montana, and yesterday this suspicion was confirmed; Sturgis, South Dakota. The annual biker rally has been going on this entire week I have been gone, and culminates this weekend. Never in my life have I seen such a multitude of bikers accumulated in one place. Literally thousands of motorcycles (and some of those funky tri-motorcycles) cruised around the streets of Sturgis, among hundreds of booths, vendors, and venues. It reminded me of a summer music festival like Lollapalooza or Warped Tour, except 100 times crazier. I didn't spend long in Sturgis (to be honest, I felt a bit out of place in my little Civic), I drove the main drag up and down just to soak in as much as I could. I imagine that had I been involved in the motorcycle scene I would have wet myself with excitement.

After Sturgis I headed south on some local highways through Deadwood. The town was kind of interesting, but seemed very cheesy, kind of like the gambling and drinking version of Disneyland. It was pretty bustling with bikers, though (which is fairly unsurprising considering how many signs advertised free draught beer for bikers).

Just down the road from the Bush Sr. stone
carving

Keeping on the southernly trail I ended up at Mt. Rushmore. I didn't have the cash to actually park in the official parking structure, so I ended up simply stopping by the side of the road (probably quite illegally, but I definitely wasn't alone) to snap a couple of pictures. To be honest, not terribly impressive. Maybe my expectations were just too high, but the sculptures seemed quite a bit smaller than I had imagined. Or maybe it was just further away than I realized. Either way, I'm glad I saved my money.

The rest of South Dakota was about what I had heard; that is, completely uninteresting. Maybe I just missed all the interesting things, but somehow I think that list is pretty short. For about 100 miles along I-90 there are advertisements for a place called Wall Drug, which purports itself to be a mecca of everything western. Of course I had to stop. Some of it was pretty interesting to look at, but once again the whole thing seemed so incredibly staged that I couldn't really get over the feeling of walking through "Western town" at some Disney park.

The rest of the interesting things in South Dakota

The next stop I made was Sioux Falls around 11:00 PM (which I think may have actually been 10:00 PM according to when I woke up this morning, but I'm beginning to lose track of what the current time actually is where ever I am; my cell phone can't seem to decided depending on what kind of signal it gets). I considered staying here for the night, but a quick survey of the motels proved futile (thank you Sturgis), and I couldn't find an area un-shady enough to park and sleep for the night. No worries, after two cups of coffee and a sandwich I was energized and couldn't sleep anyways, so I jumped back on I-90 and left South Dakota to those better attuned for it.

I like sunsets and don't care if they are kitsch

Entering Minnesota ended up being a good decision, as I was treated to an awesome lightning show far away on the horizon while I sped down the freeway. Unfortunately I wasn't quite close enough to get any pictures of the actual forks; hopefully I'll get another chance within the coming weeks (chances are probably pretty good).

Three cities later (all still booked), I ended up at Albert Lea. By this point I was pretty exhausted, and was only going to get a few hours sleep even if I did find a motel, so I kicked back in the parking lot of a Hy Vee, a 24 hour grocery super store.

I think I'm starting to get used to this sleeping in the car thing (by the way, my previous hypothesis of getting better sleep stretched out in the backseat is complete bunk; mostly due to "stretched out" being a very generous way to describe curling up in the fetal position just to fit). Falling asleep didn't take long, and I woke up much less than the first night. It's still overrated, though. Tonight is hopefully a motel night.

I'm already into Wisconsin now, it took quite a few stops in Minnesota and here to finally find some internets, things are looking good to push through Madison tonight, maybe even into northern Chicago.

Maybe it's because I spent so little time in South Dakota and Wyoming, but it seems like now that I am getting closer to the east coast the landscape seems to ahve drastically changed quite quickly.

Observation 2: One of the underlying similarities that all people seem to share, no matter which region of the country they are from, is that on average they completely suck at driving. Driving through South Dakota last night, there was this car that would consistently drive up behind me (nearly matching my speed), pass me very slowly, then immediately cut in front of me when they had passed even though there was absolutely zero traffic behind them. They then proceeded to lose about 10% of their speed, causing me to hit my brakes in fear of rear ending them at 70mph. Their speed would then stay below what mine had been on cruise control, so I would pass them back up at my cruising speed, and the whole process started all over again.

Seriously people, learn how the hell to drive.

Today I am: glad to be out of South Dakota.
Miles so far: 2784
Sounds of the drive:
Dustin Kensrue - Please Come Home
AFI - Decemberunderground and Sing the Sorrow
Otis Redding - The Ultimate Otis Redding
More Science Friday Podcasts

Day 7: Away from home, on the range

This looks oddly familiar.

Pushed on to Bozeman two nights ago after posting in Great Falls. I felt the need for a shower and a real bed for the night, so I ponied up the cash for a room at a local, only slightly shady motel. I brought up any valuables that the folk hanging out in the parking lot BBQing (a few of them shirtless, most of them beer'd) might feel inclined to appropriate, and immediately took a 20 minute shower. Feeling refreshed and clean enough to not offend the general public, I got ready to check out this town and get some grub. Unfortunately, it seemed my room didn't actually lock from the outside, so down came all my valuables again into my car.

Bozeman is actually a pretty nifty town, very reminiscent of Corvallis (it is after all a university town). The downtown area is particularly interesting, with quite a few bars and restaurants to choose from. I could see myself living there for a short while (say while at school), but probably not really long term, as it is slightly more isolated than I would prefer.

Drive by shooting

After a much needed night sleep, I headed south to Yellowstone. Now, I have been to Yellowstone years earlier, and at that time it had recently been ravaged by a forest fire. Although the trees have not completely grown back, the difference is quite noticeable.

Although the scenery was beautiful at Yellowstone, being one of the more popular national parks was a tad annoying. For this reason, I only made one major stop to walk around the geysers, and of course to watch Old Faithful do its thing (which I barely caught as I was walking up). I did see a bald eagle on the way in, though, which was pretty awesome having never seen on before in person.

Looks beautiful, smells horrible.

Apparently, unbeknownst to me, twenty five dollars is the standard fare to enter a national park (or at least the more popular ones), as once again Yellowstone cost me a quarter of a Benjamin to get in. On the positive side, it also include Grand Teton National Park, which I was planning on driving through anyways, so that was a bit of a bonus.

A note about the roads surrounding Yellowstone and Grand Teton: they are under some heavy construction. I probably lost about an hour in travel time yesterday sitting in a line of traffic waiting for a pilot car to drive us through.

After Grand Teton, I decided that I had not made enough eastwardly progress as I would like. Therefore, Gillette became my goal for the night, I drove pretty much the rest of the day (and some of the night).

As not much else happened to report on, here's a list of various thoughts or observations I've had so far, mostly unrelated to anything else.

Why anyone would blame it on the Tetons is beyond me

1. My car has become a mobile catastrophic event for the insect population of the western United States. The front of my car looks like I painted it yellow and I have to stop at almost every town to wipe my windshield clean.
   
2. The Red Cross of Montana has a campaign where they place little white crosses next to the road where someone has died in an accident on the highways (and multiple crosses if more than one person died at that location). It's slightly chilling to realize how many people have lost their lives on even the few highways that I drove.
3. Every state really seems to have something to offer, be it beautiful scenery, historical significance, or some undefinable quality. However, this does not indicate that I would actually like to live in every place I've been through so far.
4. My car gets extremely decent gas mileage with mostly highway driving. I've been averaging 38ish mpgs, but yesterday between Bozeman and Riverton I somehow got 41 mpg. Thank you Honda and you're higher efficiency standards.
5. While having your windows down is an okay way to cool off on the road, air conditioning may be the best invention in the automobile industry in the history of everything, with the possible exception of...
6. Cruise control. I'm pretty sure this is why I'm getting the gas mileage I am. Although, cruise control on a manual seems to pretty much give up when it encounters any kind of incline, though I'm pretty sure this is due to the mechanics of cruise control only really maintaining rpm's, and not the actual speed.
7. Being able to see the entire Milky Way is amazing.
8. Deer like to come out at night and stand on the edge of the highway staring down cars. This is some sort of game for them, and they are good at it. Coming around a mountain corner at 60 mph to see a buck staring directly at me almost made me mess myself.
   

Time to leave Gillette and keep on keeping on. Next up, Mt. Rushmore and South Dakota.

Trip status: can't believe it's almost been a week.
Total Miles put on this bad boy so far: 1839 (I put quite a few on yesterday)
Recent listenings:
Science Friday podcasts
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan

Day 5: Wait a tick...

I must have done something to Montana in a past life, like dumped a metric ton of toxic waste in some pristine lake or ran for government. More on this to follow.

Early yesterday I headed out of Whitefish towards Glacier. I arrived at the park probably around 9:30 or so (I don't quite remember and was too busy looking out the window to look at the clock). Note to anyone who has never visited Glacier, even if you only plan on driving through, it will cost you TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS just to enter the park. The pass lasts for seven days, so definitely plan on longer stays to really get the most out of your TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS. There is one main road through the park going west to east aptly named Going-To-The-Sun road. I'll give it an A+ for a name more interesting than Glacier Drive or Twenty Five Dollars to Drive On This road.

Being from Oregon, I've seen and driven through mountains before, but nothing like this. For as much as I was irked by the steep entrance fee, I must admit that once I got into the park those feelings were mostly abated. Awesome, in the true sense of the word. Nothing I write will really live up to it, so I won't even bother.














I arrived at my camp ground, Rising sun, near the east end of the park around noon. After setting up my tent and paying my fee, I packed my camera equipment and set off on a hike. From Rising Sun, the only official trail is to Otokomi Lake, a 5.2 mile hike that rises about 1900 feet. Keep in mind, you start from an altitude of over 5000 feet above sea level. After about 15 minutes on the trail, I was cursing myself for bringing so much equipment (would I really need a tripod and flash?), but I really didn't want to turn back.

Don't feed the bears bits of yourself.

One thing to note about Glacier, and specifically with respect to hiking/camping there: bears. Upon entering the trail head, there was a sign informing me that I had no guarantee of safety if I went any further. There are many useful tips to avoiding bear conflicts in the literature provided, however. For example, apparently bears don't like to be surprised, so make a lot of racket on your hike. One method of achieving this, which I resorted to since I was hiking alone, is to clap loudly every few minutes. It felt a bit goofy to be honest, but I survived unmauled.

The hike was pretty intense, especially carrying probably 40 lbs of camera equipment, backpack, and water on my back. Note to future self, most of the time all that equipment is not necessary. Seriously.

Probably should have used the tripod for this
shot to justify bringing it along.

I took a break for a bit on the bank of the river the trail followed. It was quite pleasant, and gave my blistered feet a much needed rest.

Inspired by the beauty of the river and determined to see the damn lake it originated from, I pushed on. I had been on the trail for a good couple of hours now, so I felt it must be close. A couple minutes up the trail, however, I met a couple on their way back. Apparently they had left the lake over an hour previous, and were coming downhill.

After weighing my options, and realizing that I was running uncomfortably low on water (I had filled a 2 liter Camelbak before leaving), I decided to head back. I had come about 3.5 miles and risen about 1500 feet; not bad, I thought, for my first major hike of the trip.

Coming back down was (obviously) much easier than going up, and mostly uneventful. I passed a man wearing an umbrella hat ("Gives me an excuse to stop," he said as I walked by), and caught up to a couple who thought they saw a bear on the trail, but which turned out to be a stump.

Not pictured: flies eating of my flesh.

I was bummed that I didn't get to the lake at the end of the trail, but luckily my campground was across the road from St Mary Lake. I bandaged up my feet, put on my lighter backpack and Birkenstocks, and set out again.

The lake was that beautiful shade of blue green, and very very cold (pure glacial waters tend to do that apparently). I sat for a while soaking my feet and soaking in the view, until I could no longer stand the multitude of flies that my salty skin attracted. Heading back to camp, it happened.

Here's the thing about nature. Walking around is like playing Craps with about 6 dice; you get snake eyes much less often than usual, but it still sucks.

Me: (throws dice) Ooo awesome I just got triple snake eyes! That must win something right?!
Nature: Oh bad lucky matey, triple snake eyes wins a tick in your leg.
Me: Bummer.

Yup, I joined the exclusive "I've had a parasite embedded in my skin" club (newsletter forthcoming). After cursing profusely for a few minutes, I decided I better do something about it. I booked it (as much as one can "book it" in Birks with blisters on both feet and aching leg muscles) back to the camp store to see if they had any handy tick removing devices, or if they could direct me to a park ranger.

They had tweezers and a book with an article on how to remove ticks.

I'll take what I can get, I thought, and purchased the tweezers. I sat down on the porch and proceeded to dig at my cafe with my newly acquired surgical instruments, chasing the bugger further into my skin. This was about as pleasant as it sounds, so I won't go into anymore detail. The story ends with me having the campground host dig out the remaining bits with a sterilized needle.

The rest of my night was comparatively boring. I ate, missed the ranger's talk on cats because my clock was an hour late, and went to bed pretty early.

This morning I packed up, and have pretty much been on the road since. I'm currently in Great Falls, Montana, deciding where to go from here. I'm thinking Yellowstone, although I may have had enough of nature for a while.

Trip status: itchy, I feel like I've been eaten alive by mosquitoes.
Total mileage: Just over 1000 (I can't be bothered to level Starbucks to check).
Soundtrack for the day:
The Ataris - so long, astoria
Story of the Year - Page Avenue
Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue & Lights and Sounds
(today was a flashback to sophomore year in college)