Driving from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast and back in our Toyota Corolla
One of our road trip of objectives is for Nancy to visit all 48 of the contiguous United States. All she needed was to visit Oregon and California, Bill had finished all 48 during our road trip last September (2023).
The other goal, of course, is for me to shoot photographs of interesting things we find along the way – for USPictures.com.
Week 1
Day 1, Sunday, September 8, 2024
We managed to get on the road at 7:00 AM, a full half hour before the goal. It was a beautiful day to begin a road trip, cool and clear and almost no traffic. We ended up in Elyria, Ohio about 4:30 and checked into a Hampton Inn for the night. Tomorrow we plan to head toward Iowa on Route I-80. Interesting feature today was to see foliage beginning to turn color – already – this early in September .
We needed gas and I waited to fill up until we hit Ohio. Good thing, too. Fuel along the Pennsylvania Turnpike was 3.49/Gallon – but at the first rest stop on the Ohio Turnpike it was only 3.12. Why the big difference only 40 miles apart??? Red state vs Blue state, perhaps?
Mileage today: 515
Day 2, Monday, Sept. 9
Left Ohio after breakfast at the Hampton Inn. Breakfast was good as usual, but the room was disappointing – very surprising for a Hampton. We stay at Hampton Inn properties a lot and this was definitely not up to par. I talked with the manager in the morning – she wrote down the issues but, otherwise, didn’t seem to care.
Traveled through Ohio to Indiana, which wins the trophy for the poorest roads of he trip so far. Then we continued on to Illinois and tried to stay as far from Chicago as possible but still had horrendous traffic for the better part of an hour and a half. Myriad road construction and crazy drivers but, fortunately, we did not get shot at.
We landed at a nice Comfort Inn & Suites in Rochelle, Illinois. Nice place – (nicer than the Hampton last night) and we dined at a local diner that was right next door. The Sunshine Diner was “our kind of place.” Very good food, fine service and inexpensive.
Mileage today: 457
Day 3, Tuesday, Sept. 10
Another 400+ mile day, landing at a Quality Inn at Fairmont, Minnesota, sometimes thought of as the Muslim State. It does not have the largest number of Muslims, statewide – there are states with far more. It is the “Twin Cities” that have the call-to-prayer broadcast throughout the city.
Nice drive today, some construction/constriction zones, but not too bad. Great weather and light traffic. Sightseeing begins tomorrow with the Crazy Horse Monument, near Mount Rushmore – before we head toward Washington State and Mount Rainier.
Mileage today: 420+ miles
Day 4, Wednesday, September 1]1 (Yes it is the anniversary of 9/11.)
Headed west from Fairmont on I-90, heading into and most of the way across South Dakota. We landed for the night in Wall, SD. Home of the famous (?) Wall Drug. If you are from the east coast and have travelled south on I-95, you know about Pedro’s “South of the Border” with their hundreds of advertising signs as you approach their location. Well, Wall Drug has the same advertising approach – but crams all of the merch and services into a two city block area of downtown Wall. It is, however, an interesting and worthwhile stop on one’s way east or west across South Dakota.
Wall is also only a few miles from one of the two main entrances of Badlands National Monument – truly worth an exploratory visit. We toured the whole park a year ago and visited last night to try to catch a sunset. We did catch the sun going down behind clouds. We were hoping for red skies (because of forest fire smoke from the west coast) but that did not materialize. But it was still a great place to watch the sun setting.
Mileage today: Another 420+ miles.
Day 5, Thursday, September 12.
Today we headed to the Crazy Horse Monument (near Mt. Rushmore) before heading to our first “real” goal of Mount Rainier.
While Rushmore is finished and slightly better known, the backstory of the Crazy Horse Monument is fascinating and it, likely, will not be finished in our lifetimes. But it is an impressive project and done (thus far) without federal government funding (or oversite/restrictions).
Dinner tonight was at Old Chicago – we like their pizza and the HH specials are hard to beat. I usually try a “local” brew when we travel. I had an easy to drink amber beer called Sleep Speed Goat – that was “high octane” and a good taste (good enough that I had a second draft.
Mileage today was a bit over 300…
Total mileage for the first five days is 2000.1 – as parked at our hotel for tonight.
Day 6, Friday, Sept. 13.
Headed into Montana and made a brief stop at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (formerly the Custer Battlefield National Monument). We visited there last September but wanted to see the “finished” Indian Memorial (that was nearing completion last year). There were about 100 Indians killed in the battle, which was not their fault. Long backstory, but Custer was the bad guy in all of this and he was at fault for losing the five companies under his leadership.
After that stop we pushed on to Butte, Montana to spend the night as the Downtown Comfort Inn.
Mileage today: 465 (these semi-high-mileage days are getting to be a drag).
Day 7, Saturday, September 14.
We explored a bit of Historic Butte, a n area of the city where it all got started – around the copper and silver mines dating back to the 1870’s or so. We saw communities of original homes, mostly in very poor condition – but occupied. In front of a couple of houses we saw were pickup trucks likely worth more than the price of the houses.
Then we hit the road to Idaho and landed at a Quality Inn in Post Falls, ID, just west of Coeur d’Alene. Nice place, old and dated, but clean and reasonably priced.
Mileage today was 298, (including our short foray around the old mining town, Upper Butte).
Week 2
Day 8, Sunday, September 15
Continuing westward to get close to Mount Rainier National Park…but, first we stopped in Spokane to take in the “Vincent Van Gogh Immersive Experience” which was an awesome experience. If you ever have the opportunity, cough up the $30/ticket and go see it for your self. Even if you are not a big Van Gogh fan, the presentation, itself, is quite unique – and impressive.
Next we crossed most of Washington to land in Yakima for the night. We saw plenty of open high plains and also passed some of the world’s richest produce farms. Yakima County is the leading County in Washington State in the production of apples, sweet cherries, pears (including Bartlett pears).
Miles today – 315
Day 9 – Monday, September 16
We headed to Mount Rainier National Park…and, oh my, what a wonderful day to drive the switchback scenic roads of the park. We saw some totally awesome views of this majestic mountain – and shot numerous photographs.
We then pushed on to Longview, Oregon for the night at a Comfort Inn to put us within “striking distance” of the Pacific Ocean tomorrow.
Miles: 300 +/-
Day 10 – Tuesday, September 17
The first target goal today is Cannon Beach in Oregon where Nancy can chalk off her 47th state – AND – dip her toes into the Pacific. Y’know – from “sea to shining sea.”
Well, yes, we did make it to Cannon Beach and got our feet wet. Geeze, was that water COLD! But it was worth it to say we have been in the Pacific Ocean. We also grabbed some photographs of the iconic Haystack rock just off the beach. It was quite impressive to see.
Then we drove down the “coastal highway” – Route 101 – all the way to Newport, where we landed at a Comfort Inn for the night. The drive had some interesting scenery for the parts where the road paralleled the beach. But it was inland for many miles, was bouncy and narrow and it was foggy and rainy. It was not a pleasant drive at all. From the map it appears to do a better job of hugging the coast for the next portion heading south and into California.
We had a great dinner in Newport at a place on the working harbor called Moe’s. Dinner was wonderful but I should not have ordered the fresh salmon steak. I’m afraid it has now spoiled me and I will hesitate to order salmon when we return home. The salmon I had for dinner was just “off the boat” earlier in the day. I ordered it blackened, at the recommendation of our server. The blackening was perfect and the fish was about the best I’ve ever had.
Tomorrow will be another “shorter” drive – looking to head south to a “shelling” beach for Nancy – about 180 miles or so. Then we plan to hit Cali (Nancy’s 48th state) on Thursday.
Miles – 196, brining our trip total to 3326 in 10 days.
Day 11- Wednesday, September 18.
Some exploration of Newport…