Coast to Coast

The Dalton/Loflin clan descended upon San Diego to celebrate it's greatness with RBD3 one last time, or for the last time in a long time, as he is beginning a new journey at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.  No big deal.  A journey must have a beginning, and this beginning involves me riding shotgun 3500+ miles en route from San Diego to Cambridge.  It's pretty much as far as you can drive in the continental United States.  And there is plenty to see along the way.  We did our best to see as much as we could because, we had both driven across the country before, but taken routes that were, well, less scenic.  Neither one of us wanted to just see dust for the majority of the drive.

Day One: San Diego to St. George, UT.

Most road trips begin with that giddy, "this is going to be awesome" feeling as you get going.  We hit traffic 2 miles from the house.  Not a good start.  Between SD and St. George, there isn't too much to see.  Except Vegas.  Kidding, well, Vegas is on the way, but this time we would just be passing through.  The one thing we did see just past Vegas was "The Valley of Fire." I have to imagine not too many people see this as, like I said, it is just outside of Vegas.  Just imagine rocks on fire.  Every shade of red, orange, and yellow were displayed as the sun beat down on the earth, setting it ablaze.  Unfortunately, after that, there weren't many visually stimulating vistas the rest of the day.  But our journey had begun, and we were 9 hours closer, so that was good.  While we were weary from the road, that didn't stop us from watching "The Lion King", a movie we agreed was the best that Disney had ever put out, which is saying a lot.


Day Two: St. George to Jackson, WY.

Our second day is scheduled to be a long one, so we get an early start.  Fueled by a Hampton Inn breakfast (and their inexplicably terrible coffee) we cue up NPR's Morning Edition and watch the sun peek through the mountains as we head into Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park.  Zion is a pretty cool place.  The road was winding through the mountains providing more than enough to look at to take the focus off the daunting task ahead.  There were these crazy cool tunnels we had to drive through that were so winding and long, that you couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.  No man-made lights either.  Just darkness.  And headlights of course.  But, it was pretty neat.  Passing through cool areas makes the drive much (well, some) more bearable.  If there weren't times where we were able to be distracted, it would have been more painful.  We pulled over a number of times so the Silver Fox could be documented with cool backgrounds.  One pullout we used happened to be (or maybe by RBD3's design - I usually got semi-delirious 2/3 through each day) was the Lander Cut-Off of the Oregon Trail.  I joke that I think I've gotten dysentery here before and had to stop for a few weeks.  Little "Oregon Trail: the game" humor for you.  Onward.  It feels like we are so close, but there are still a few hours ahead of us.  We soon find an old friend in The Snake River.  The Fox takes us down to the bank for it's close up, but gets a little over anxious and runs into a boulder behind us.  She's very rugged, so it's cool.  We got the shot.

Finally, we reach Jackson, which is an underrated city.  Or, maybe it's not- but I like it.  The girl at the front desk recommends the restaurant next door.  We were a little skeptical that it was somehow tied into the hotel.  It wasn't.  What it was, however, was delicious.  I had the spicy pork belly salad and pork adobado.  The salad was delicious, and I found the waiters warning of the spice particularly funny.  He has to give a warning, because people weren't paying attention to the menu, then had their mouth on fire.  I did not expect to eat this well on the road.

Day Three: Jackson to Rapid City, SD.

Another long day planned.  I forgot to mention that we (RBD3) received a free annual pass to all the national parks.  Initially, it was believed that because he was traveling on orders, we would be granted passage through the parks free of charge.  However, we were informed that unless it was absolutely necessary to drive through the park, as in, the base was just on the other side, then no such passage would be granted.  The ranger went on to inform us, that while the orders did us no good, all active duty military personel could obtain an annual park pass free of charge.  Why we had to talk to the guy for ten minutes to get to that point is beyond me.  But, alas, the parks would be seen- fo free.

The Grand Tetons.  I feel like not many people are aware of the Tetons, or Teton National Park, but we are.  We travelers.  We explorers.

I'm struggling to find words to describe the Teton National Park, because it was in the morning, and I was still in the "don't talk to me" portion of my day.  I know I enjoyed looking at all the nature, the mountains, the green.  I know we listened to Jack Johnson's discography.  Those things seemed to go together nicely.  It was pleasant.

We had been to and through Yellowstone a number of times before, but not the way we would be traveling today.  It's certainly not the quickest drive, but the scenery certainly makes up for any "lost" time.  We saw a Bison/Buffalo grazing by the water and got out to take a cautiously closer look.  Until tourists showed up.  How dare they, and their RVs, encroach on us.  On our journey?  This is our experience.  Get out of our park, our nature.

Shortly thereafter, we had another encounter with Buffalo.  This time they were blocking the road.  We stopped for a moment to look and let them cross.  Let them go about their day.  One jabroni from NY decided his time was more important and squeezed by two lanes of traffic and two Buffalo.  We passed him later.  What a chump.

We passed through Casper, WY, or as you might (or might not) (probably not) know it as, "the rodeo capital of the world." Who decides that stuff by the way? Is there a committee?  Who sits on it? Elections? Anyway, they had this old western town set up, which was cool, but would have been more cool if we didn't read that is was not actually the old town, just buildings "of the time."  Though they did claim to have a house that Butch Cassidy stayed in.  We did, then, enter the country that the Hole-in-the-Wall gang roamed and we're pretty sure we saw their hideout.  Or at least it should have been.

Next up, Mount Rushmore.  It's sorta a long ways a away.  It's close to right on the way.  But a little out of the way.  Should we go? It's getting late, and dark.  But it's right there.  We've been in the car so long.  When are we going to be in South Dakota again?  Probably never.  We should do it.  Let's do it.  We're doing it.

Wow, this is awesome.

I'm not sure why you would ever be in the Rapid City area.  But, if you are, you should make the short trek to Mount Rushmore.  My expectations weren't that high, but it really exceeded them.  We got there at dusk, and there was a lighting ceremony at dark preceded by a presentation.  The presentation was fairly informative, but just the memorial itself was incredible.  They welcomed past and present service men and women to come on stage.  RBD3 didn't go.  I tried to make him.  We left.

Day 4:  Rapid City to Cedar Rapids, IA.

To be honest, I wasn't really that pumped about the badlands.  And at first glance- for good reason.  From the highway, you see the badlands, sort of, for about a quarter of a mile.  Thats it?  I took a picture because, well, just because.  Then we find the loop.  The loop is the long way, but you drive through the badlands and see everything they have to offer.  We were windows down on a dirt and gravel road, with no other cars.  Looking up at the raised ground, then eventually down at the valleys.  The Native Americans used the land to see when enemies were approaching, and to see where the herd was moving.  Even they knew there was something there before them.  That, at some point, the whole area used to be under water.  Also, there were about one million prairie dogs.  One million.  I think this was my favorite part of the drive.  On a dirt road, windows down, music playing, and history around us.

And then, corn.


Day 5:  Cedar Rapids to Erie, PA.

Is this heaven?
    No, this is Iowa.

Highway. Corn.  Highway.  Corn.
             Mississippi River.
                        Corn.
Great lakes.

The town of Huron to the right.  Great lakes to the left.  Why are they called lakes and not seas?  Is that Huron or Erie?  Huron.  Gotta be.  We just passed through Huron, the town.  Huron.

Cleveland.  Almost there.  Kinda.

Finally.

Erie in all its glory.

One king bed.
       Whatever.
              Sleep.


Day 6: Erie to Cambridge, MA.

This is it.  The last day.  Another decision.  Do we do Niagara?  It's definitely not on the way.  But, probably never be close enough to do it in the future.  It adds a couple hours of the trip.  I just want to be done driving.  We should probably do it.  It's just a couple hours.  It's a couple of hours.  We do it.

Parking flags.  Attendants tricking us.  We don't want to pay the trickster.  We'll pay more to not pay the trickster.  We do not condone tricking potential parkers.  It's immoral.  The park doesn't take credit card.  Their reader is down.  The trickster has an ATM in his lot.  We pay the trickster.

The whole place is very touristy.  We walk in, walk to the rail.  That is a lot of water.  Could you kayak to safety before falling to your death?  I could. Sure.  What about from that eddy?  Tougher, but yeah. I kinda thought it'd be a farther drop.  Farther?  Further?  Longer?  Bigger?  I don't know.  I could do that in a barrel.  The mist is deceiving in pictures.  In pictures you can't see the bottom.  It's supposed to be bottomless.  I can see the bottom.

We're glad we didn't go to Canada.  Border crossings would be wasting our time.  Our travel time.  Adventure time.  Should we do Maid of the Mist?  We'll walk down there.  How do we get down there?  We can't get down there.  There are so many people.  We've seen it.  We've taken the picture.

We've hit the road.

The drive through upstate NY is like a victory lap.  A victory lap that we want to be over.  I'm embarrassed I kinda didn't realize that Massachusetts was as north as it was.  Or that it was spelled like it is.  I mean, look at that.  Can't be right.  It is.  I mean, I knew it was up there, but, it's way up there.

Massachusetts.  Traffic.  60 miles left.  Is it going to be like this all the way in?  Well, it's 5PM on a Friday.

Re-calculating.
      Back roads.
               Close.
Charles River.
      We're here.
               We've made it.
Kennedy School on our right.
               47 Langdon.
                        Parked.
                               This is nice.
                                          It's pink.
                                                We'll paint it.
                                                              It's nice.
                                                                    We're here.

                                                              The journey continues.