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3/24/04 [Trish]The plan was to leave Pete's house in Winter Park on Thursday morning. That plan fell by the wayside when Terri put on her major bitch hat. Refused to speak to me (Trish) or even acknowledge that I was there. On Pete like stink on shit, about everything. He had packed up 10 or so bottles of wine, souvenir bottles he'd been collecting on trips for 10 years or so. She hit the roof - even though she doesn't drink wine and the bottles were so dust-covered it was clear they hadn't been moved in years. That was the start, and it rapidly accelerated from bad to worse. Around 9 p.m. or so we decided to hell with it, made some phone calls, threw the last few armloads of our crap in the car and GOT THE FUCK OUT OF THERE. She called 2 or 3 more times but after that was over, a huge weight left all of us and we drove an hour, talking and listening to tunes to a Comfort Inn in Mt. Dora. Nice little pond/lake next to the motel. Sat in the grass near a gazebo and watched dragonflies and listened to frogs. Some really virtuoso frogs out there - at one point I swear I heard "Shave and a Haircut." Managed to catch several smiles and one or two near-belly laughs from Pete. DAY 1 - Mt. Dora - Ocala - Gainesville-Tallahassee We'll call this day 1 even though we left the house last night. Decent room, mellow morning, hit the road sometime shortly after 11 (after K-Mart trip for munchies/drinks and shorts for me.) Lunch found us in Ocala, FL, where we hit Big Rascals for barbecue sandwiches. Good shaved/sliced pork sandwiches. [Harold] And the "decore" was everything you'd want from a barbeque place in Florida... a big mural of the everglades on the walls, a TV with Keno in one corner and a TV with Fox News in the other. Ah.. god bless America. Rest area stop near Cottondale (NW Florida), picked up our butterfly mascot. Overnight at Pensacola, decent La Quinta. Dinner (breakfast) at Denney's next door. Pete slept hard and heavy for a change, it was Trish's turn for a short night. Had a 5 a.m. discussion with next-door neighbors, a couple of young, probably sailors and their Barbies. They were on a balcony talking rather loudly but they quieted down - "Yes ma'am. Sorry ma'am." When asked, also stopped by in a.m. to apologize. DAY 2 - FLORIDA - Pensacola - Mobile, Alabama - MISSISSIPPI - Gulfport - LOUISIANA - TEXAS - Columbus Up at 7:30, Pete in good spirits. Raided the continental breakfast in lobby, leaving with pockets and bags bulging with muffins, Danish and snack bars. Just a quick jaunt outside Pensacola and crossed water to Alabama. Mobile flew by at 9:45 or so, and then crossed into Mississippi at 10:10. Three states in an hour and 10 minutes - crazy! Made a quick rest stop just across the border in Mississippi. Nice place - several women serving coffee and drinks. Had a quick pug-pet, a retired couple with 3 pugs, all so gray hardly had any black mask left. The lady said they were 10, 11 and 12 - the 12 year old completely blind. Nice folks. I don't know if all Mississippi visitors centers are like this, but the place we stopped was an utter palace. Far from the dumps in some states, this visitors center had a fully staffed info desk, tourism information playing through ceiling mounted speakers in the hallways leading to the (very clean) bathrooms, free soda, lemonade, cookies and coffee, and a small museum inside. I was mightily impressed! Drove by lots of billboards for the Biloxi casinos - quite the entertainment lineup. In the next week or so they'll have Earth Wind and Fire, Chicago, Kansas, Jewel, Tony Bennett, Lone Star. Decided we'd better not stop - Pete said he'd just gamble all his money away. Lunch at KK's (wonder where the other K went?) in Bay St. Louis, Miss. Pert blond waitress who called us all "baby." Actually, it sounded more like "bAY-beh". Between the three of us, we had a shrimp po-boy type sandwich, seafood gumbo and a catfish po-boy. All really good and the conversation between the waitress and the cook was dialect music. Really nice folk. Crossed into Louisiana at 11:25 central time. (LARGE VERY JIGGLY NOTE) Drove through New Orleans shortly afterward at 11:55. As we approached there was a fair amount of debate about the body of water we traveled over. Once we were in the city, we hit the first major bit of traffic that we'd had on the trip. Overall, driving in New Orleans was awful! Bad slab roads, asshole drivers jumping in front of us, traffic….good to get out. In Pete's words, "Who needs cocaine when you can drive a U-Haul through New Orleans?" Afterward, as we drove over Lake Ponchartrain, Trish pointed out that we could have taken a bypass road. Oops! I can believe that this state is slowly sinking - 60% - 80% of the road we drove on through Louisiana was long bridges over water. 12:55 - Gas stop at Gramercy - a bit of a panic stop, we all needed to pee and this part of LA is not exactly rife with gas stops and exits - just long bridges over swamps. Checked out the "casino" that was part of the truck stop. Just video poker, slots, bad smells and darkness. 2:00 on an 18 mile stretch across the Atchafalaya swamp. If you weren't paying attention, you might miss that you were surrounded by swamp land. To the right of the car, it looks like bushes. They're really the tops of trees stretching 20 or 30 feet down into the swamp. Pretty creepy, especially with intermittent sunshine - it's really dark down there…. Crossed into Texas at 4:37. Stopped for the night in Columbus TX - too worn out to make it to San Antonio at 9ish. Decided to re-evaluate trip plan to shorten days, today was just too long. With new plan, will stop in Ft. Stockton, TX. DAY 3 - TEXAS - TEXAS - TEXAS - TEXAS - AAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!! Left Columbus at 9:00 sharp. Harold crashed big time last night. I had a medium night, Pete didn't do so well. He (Pete) is driving now to give Harold a break. 10:45 - San Antonio, 11:45 lunch in Leon Springs, TX, at Rudy's Bar-B-Que, self-billed as "the worst BBQ in Texas." Actually quite good. They cut your meat (pork, brisket, turkey), sell it by weight, throw it on some butcher paper, give you a bunch of wonder-breadish white bread in a bread case (kind of like a milk crate) and you go outside to put the fixins together with some great BBQ sauce. Harold had some really good creamed corn, literally corn in a thick cream sauce. All in all a yummy lunch. Stopped for the night at Ft. Stockton. Another La Quinta with 2 gas stations, a McDonalds and a Café, along with a KFC, our dinner choice. We kicked back in the room, talked a bit, watched "Paycheck" (ok but not earth-shattering) and " Matrix Revolutions," during which we all crashed. Up for a McDonald's breakfast to go, on the road at 9:30. DAY 4 - TEXAS - Ft. Stockton - El Paso - NEW MEXICO - Chaparral - Las Cruces - Albuquerque First headed to El Paso/Chaparral to take pics of Sandy and Louise's (Harold's Parents) property there. Vast plains and sagey desert slowly giving way to low hills and mesas, though no increase in green yet. A little more wildflowers, mostly yellow. 11:30 passing Van Horn, tiny town almost all built between highway and rail tracks - maybe 8 or 10 blocks wide at most. Population 2930. Makes me glad not to live here….Just past Van Horn time changed to Mountain time, so 11:30 becomes 10:30. On the way out of Texas (finally... thank God! We've been driving through this freakin' state for THREE DAYS!!!) we stopped at a roadside rest area. We did our business and walked around a bit. I happened to walk under a covered picnic table and look up... and there were a couple of magazines stuck between the support and the cover. I called Trish over, and we laughed thinking that some kid had hid his porn in the top of this covered picnic area. Then, I looked a little closer... "Pete, come look at this." So we all had a good laugh and put the magazine back up there for the next poor sucker. Had to call Harold's parents twice to get directions to Chapparral from El Paso, AND stop at a 7-11 near Fort Bliss. Made it to Chaparral around 1:20. Finally found the lot(s) that Harold's folks own. Sorry collection of abandoned vehicles, appliances, etc. along with a well-used single-wide trailer. Rattlesnake close enough to hear but not see. Basically just a collection (Chaparral, that is) of trailers and a few houses. Harold got pictures. Then to George and Iris Frandson's Chaparral General Store, but they weren't home. Made it to Las Cruces at 2:30, had lunch at Arby's and made fast bathroom break (raisins and corn last night, what a mistake.) The police had the Walmart next door to Arby's all blocked off, half a dozen cars and no one allowed to enter or leave the parking lot. Curiouser and curiouser - maybe we'll hear on news what that was all about. Hit Border Patrol stop on the way to Albuquerque around 3:15. I guess none of us were suspicious- looking enough to bother with since Patrol waved us through… Albuquerque and a nice Plaza Inn with a great view at 6:30. DAY 5 - NEW MEXICO - Albuquerque - Laguna - ARIZONA - Ganado - Fredonia Continental breakfast at hotel in Albuquerque and then a short jaunt to Laguna and the Laughing Eagle casino. Pete had an urge to feed his gambling bug so we made an hour's stop - he lost $100.00, we lost $10.00. But it was a quick fun stop and Pete had a good time. We spent quite a bit of time this morning talking about Rich, so his spirits were a little low and the stop seems to have helped. At 11:33, crossed the Continental Divide, 7225 ft. elevation. Hopefully ears will mellow out now? 12:35 crossed from New Mexico into Arizona. So, have you ever read any of Tony Hillerman's books set in the four-corners reservation (the Big Rez) featuring Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn? If you have, you'll have some idea of the territory we're driving through right now... the Big Rez. The largest indian reservation in the country. There are miles and miles of small houses and hogans, signs to Council Houses, and big empty stretches of nothing at all. A lot of quiet conversation in the Bronco at this point... about what it would be like to live out here, about the type of people who would be so tied to a land that's this harsh and yet this beautiful. Truly and contemplative stretch of road. [Pete] Stopped for lunch in Ganado, AZ. When we stopped for gas just prior to finding the BK, I went into the "convenience" store to ask if there was a restaurant close by. The proprietor looked at me like I was from another planet. He said "no" - yet we drove 5 miles and came across the BK. THIS IS A HUGE FUCKING COUNTRY!!!!! DAY 6 - ARIZONA - Fredonia - UTAH - IDAHO - Pocatello Stayed last night in Fredonia, AZ, just south of Utah border. About an hour or so before stopping, on our revised route (missed a turn in Ganado and ended up going west instead of north) we found ourselves at the north end of the Grand Canyon. Oops! A complete surprise. Turned a corner and there was the sign, "North Rim left, South Rim right." Had no idea we were even in the area. Gorgeous drive through the last hour of light, huge red sandstone cliffs everywhere. When we hit Fredonia, we decided we'd better stop, black dark and no clue if there were any other motels. (The next morning we found three more just down the street….) Ring around the moon a full quarter of the sky's width - HUGE. The moon, only at half, was so bright it was like a searchlight. (Go figure - 6,000 feet or so of elevation…) Up for breakfast at the "Crazy Jug Café," a stop at the gas station (over $2.00 a gallon for the first time on the trip - captive audience) and a quick walk across the street to a bunch of tables in front of a house that had chunks of glass and quartz as big as a watermelon - all colors, very pretty. Back in the car and moving at 10 or so, and crossed into Utah at around 10:10. Somewhere around here, we started up what looked like a good road, headed in the right general direction. But shortly after turning onto the road, we came to a sign that said something about 10,000 feet elevation. We all looked at each other, thought about our lack of snow tires or chains, turned around and went back the way we had come. Lunch - WOO! Hot dogs from a pre-cooked hot box in Scipio, Utah. Dying town shops, restaurants, 1 or 2 gas stations at the freeway, all closed, mostly permanently. Sad. As we got closer to Idaho border, flashbacks of the amusement park with the roller coaster near the road…. Crossed into Idaho at 5:20 p.m.! Reminisced about Lava Hot Springs when we drove past the sign. Made Pocatello at 6:30, stayed at the Red Lion on Pocatello Creek. Clearly loads of growth on this side of town. Pete's friends from early years and high school (Steve Bateman and Tom Turnbull) met us in the parking lot, Tom with his two kids and Steve with his wife Joanie. All really nice folks. We got separate rooms so we could have a solo night and Pete could have freedom to have his friends in and out. Pete went out for dinner and drinks with his friends and said he got back around midnight. We got up, had coffee and took a drive around town. Jr. High, High School (where they are building an entirely new building, in exactly the same style as the old ones) and downtown. Nostalgic. All in all, not substantial growth since the 60s - then it was around 42,000, now 52,000 (close to 70K with Alameda and another outlying area added.) And yes, Bill, the swamp cooler was on the side of the house. Hit the road around 11ish. DAY 7 - ALMOST THERE - IDAHO - Boise - OREGON - Baker City Lunch in Twin Falls at a truck stop, headed for Boise to check out the gravesite. Mary Lou says the stone should now have Rich's date of death engraved, we should check it out so she can pay the bill. The plan is to recon to plan the Rich interment trip (exits, route etc.) so when the bunch of us comes we'll be prepared. Took quite a while to find the grave, since as usual I remembered it being more on the edge of the cemetery and it's not. The grave is in the infant's section, Section I. The stone is a tall gray rectangle, the tallest in its area. When you enter through the entrance on Latah Street (the one closest to Emerald), there is a small section of graves to the left of the road, then you cross an intersecting road, and the next section on the left is Section I. If you drive toward the back of Section I, you run into Frank Church's stone, which is at a Y in the road, and right behind Church is a small building with restrooms. The grave is between halfway and two-thirds of the way toward the back of Section I, next to a large tree (there are 5 or 6 large trees in the area), so it's actually before the Church stone. Rich's carving was done and looks good, same font etc. as the rest of the carving. We didn't stay long, by that point we'd been walking around in the wind (it was pretty chilly) for close to an hour. We'll know right where it is when we come back. We crossed into Oregon (HOORAH!) around 5:15 - which I think is now 4:15, not sure exactly where the time zone is but I assume at the border. Will stay in Baker City or La Grande tonight. One more day and we'll be home! Made it to Baker City and decided that was far enough for the day. Hit a Ramada Inn, a bit outdated but ok. Pete had Taco Time (his usual crispy burritos, which he's losing his craving for) and Harold and I had Chinese. Uneventful evening. DAY 8 - HOME AT LAST!! Got up, and managed to find an espresso hut, our first espresso on the trip - thank god!! Espresso and croissants for breakfast and off we go, around 8:45. Should be in Portland by 4, maybe a little earlier. Made it to Portland at 3:45 - the rest of the day is undocumented. I guess we were just too excited about finally getting off the road to bother. Ok, you can close this window and go back to the main weblog now... -Harold |