Evenflow As You Are

Monday was the last big city of the trip - Seattle, Wash. No plaid, depressing grunge rock or rain here, though. It was a beautiful day, and it featured the debut of a special guest that will be joining me for the rest of the trip - Lauren, official girlfriend of the Drive For 5-0. She's done with finals and helping me make the 3,000-mile sprint home by Friday, which is awesome because I was starting to talk to myself and that's never good.

Anyway, Monday morning I made the short drive into the city from Marysville and settled into the city. I don't think I can overstate how nice the weather was/still is. Lauren said the flight attendant told her it was only the second time she could remember flying into Seattle and the sun being out. Needless to say, I've gotten lucky again. Here's hoping that it won't run out before North Carolina.

After walking down to the famous Pike Street Market, I eventually found what I was looking for - a place to eat sushi for lunch. I had three rolls - spicy crab, tuna with mango and cashews and shrimp tempura. They were all excellent, as you might expect.

I rested for a bit back at the hotel before picking up Lauren from the airport, and we immediately headed down to the Space Needle to get there before dark. It was worth the trip...(look for the fading Mt. Ranier in the background)

So the overwhelming thought for the day was that I was completely spoiled by a perfect day in Seattle.

Today we start the long, not-so-slow journey home, but not before a stop in Portland, which is located in Oregon, which is state No. 50! After that it's back east by Friday.

I'm fresh out of witty titles

Maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, today was my day to enjoy Vancouver, the only non-American city on this here journey. So after a lazy morning of watching the Braves, I headed out (and this will shock you, considering this is the Pacific Northwest) into the rain to see the city.

Vancouver is basically a giant peninsula, and the downtown is essentially another peninsula off that. So after I cracked that code and got the right bridge into downtown (driving without a map is a whole new experience on this trip), I parked to grab lunch.

I ate at Prima Taste, a restaurant that specializes in food from Singapore. Best that I can tell, it's a chain, but the only ones in North America are in Vancouver and San Jose, Calif. The rest are in Asia, which is fun. So it was something I couldn't get at home, which is basically all I'm looking for when eating on the road. And all the other people in the place looked to be of Asian decent, so I figured that was a good sign that the food was up to par, which it was. I had a chicken and rice dish as well as some curry chicken pastries (kinda like empanadas) which were fantastic.

After that I walked around downtown for a while until the rain chased me off. It was a little disappointing to miss out on really getting a good look at the city, but lucky for me there was an alternative.

I headed over to the Vancouver Art Gallery where they had an exhibit featuring, wait for it, photos of Vancouver. It was a great exhibit and it was neat watching the locals go through the photos pointing out places they'd been. Sort of a fun firsthand/secondhand way to see the city.

I then left downtown to drive through the campus of the University of British Columbia. With the crummy weather, I didn't have it in me to take any pictures, but it looked like a pretty standard college campus. There was a good looking golf course right at the edge of campus, which is always a good sign.

After another extremely annoying trip across the border, I was back in the United States. I'm holed up in Maryville, Wash., for the night before heading into Seattle tomorrow. After a night in Seattle, it's Oregon Tuesday and then...well, that's it, I guess. No more states, mission accomplished. Kind of unbelievable.

Until tomorrow...

Things to do in Idaho when you're dead

Dead tired, that is. Evidently communing with nature is exhausting, as I was in a funk all day Friday. But have no fear, dear readers. I made the drive from Butte to lovely Coeur D'Alene, Idaho without any trouble, despite some intermittent snow showers.

Before grabbing lunch I made a quick stop at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch, a National Historic Site that has preserved an old Montana cattle ranch. This turned out to be an unexpected highlight (I hadn't even heard of it until I saw the sign), as the views were amazing and it was awesome getting to see what life on the ranch must have been like over a hundred years ago.

I stopped in Missoula, Mont., for lunch, and did a quick drive through the campus of the University of Montana. It's amazing how much nicer a very bland campus can look when surrounded by mountains.

After a spicy grilled cheese with sweet potato fries at the Iron Horse (great value at $5.95), I made the 165-mile drive to Coeur D'Alene, where I stayed for the night. I'll take some pictures of the lake that shares a name with the town today, but it was another in a long line of beautiful towns here in the west.

No real plan for today, so if you have suggestions, give me a call. Also, I'm now in the Pacific Time Zone for a few days, rounding out the four time zones here on the Drive For 5-0.

Also, no new states yesterday, but Idaho is now red on the bobbymap.

They call me Mellow Yellow(stone), quite rightly

So today was a big one, making the relatively short drive from Billings to Yellowstone National Park. I could make you listen to me ramble on about how cool it was, but we both know you want pictures. I'll be here for witty banter when you get back from the gallery...

Yellowstone Park

Cool, huh?

A few things to note:

• The southern entrance/exit to Yellowstone was closed. This wouldn't be all that significant except that that road is the road to Jackson, Wyo., and Grand Teton National Park. So no Teton for me.

• It was a pretty snowy day in the park, but kind of what you would expect Yellowstone to look like. The snow was pretty light for most of the day until I got to Old Faithful at around 4:30. The next eruption was not due until around 5:45, so I had some time to kill. Over the next hour, the snow went from slow and steady to near-blizzard conditions. It got to the point where I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to see the geyser when it finally went off. But the Yellowstone gods smiled on us few brave souls, and around 5:40 the sky opened up, the sun came out and Old Faithful did its thing.

• The southern entrance closure meant I had to leave via the west entrance, which proved to be very lucky. First of all, the road to the west entrance had by far the most wildlife of any part of the park I'd seen. Second, US-191 was a beautiful drive through the Gallatin Mountain Range that lead to lucky thing No. 3 - dinner at the Bugaboo Cafe in Big Sky. There I had the top meal of the trip thus far, a bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin. Sadly, they don't have a Web site, but if you're ever in Big Sky, head on over there.

So that was Thursday, Day 10 of this adventure. I drove from Big Sky to Butte for the night, and the plan for tomorrow looks to start with driving to Missoula for lunch. After that, it's probably on to Spokane, Wash., via Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, but we'll see how it goes.

Close encounters of the Wyoming kind

(Note: If the Little Bighorn National Monument had been open when I drove past it, this post would have been called "Everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn. What this book presupposes is... maybe he didn't." But alas...)

After quite possibly the quickest oil change in recorded history (it helps when there are five guys and no other cars), I said goodbye to Rapid City and headed toward Wyoming. But not before stopping for lunch in historic Deadwood, S.D. Contrary to what I've heard about the HBO show of the same name, no one used any fowl language in my presence (I guess they've cleaned up their act since the 1800s) and it seemed like any other sleepy mountain town, not unlike Maggie Valley or Blowing Rock. Except for one thing...

...there was a casino in practically every building in town. Even the mild-mannered saloon where I had a buffalo burger for lunch featured an assortment of slot machines. I did mosey over to the Old Style Saloon #10 (they had $2 single-deck blackjack, resistance was futile), but it was quickly back on the highway for Wyoming.

Last night the plan was to go straight to Yellowstone, but when I got in the car this morning I remembered that there was something on the way that I definitely wanted to see - Devil's Tower.

Devil's Tower was the first national monument, and, with all due respect to Mount Rushmore, the best one I've seen so far. Unlike Mount Rushmore, you can't really sneak up on Devil's Tower. It is a 1,000-foot high stone tower jutting out of the ground, after all. It is also a sacred Native American site, and it's easy to understand why. Not to get too flowery with the prose, but you really get a sense of the awesome power of nature when you see this huge rock that was probably part of an underground volcano 300 million years ago. Very cool.

After the 1.3-mile hike around the monument, I got back in the car and headed west. I stopped for dinner in Sheridan, Wyo., before settling for the night in Billings, Mont., in what has to be the world's nicest Best Western. So tomorrow, if all goes to plan, I'll hit the daily double of Yellowstone and Grand Teton.

Oh, and only two more states to go (!).

Note: As promised, I uploaded a full gallery of the Badlands/Mount Rushmore.

And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper

(Sorry, they never made a movie about Bismarck.)

After another good night's sleep (traveling all day=sleeping like a rock at night), I headed back to downtown Minneapolis for lunch. I had a fantastic pot roast sandwich at The Local, then drove south to see the monument to commercialism that is the Mall of America. I really just wanted to see it and move along, but I did get a quick photo of the famed roller coaster.

And with that it was back onto I-94 to Bismarck with a stop in, yes, Fargo. Taking a suggestion from Newport, I stopped at the Roger Maris Museum, conveniently housed in the West Acres Shopping Mall. As ridiculous as a museum in a mall is, it was a pretty neat shrine, complete with some seats from Yankee Stadium pre-renovation.

I enjoyed a lovely dinner in the food court before getting back on the highway and heading due west to Bismarck. And I mean due west. As in, I barely moved the steering wheel for 200 miles. This stretch also marked the first appearance of a 75 MPH speed limit zone. And now that I have a car that can actually go that fast (how did I drive that station wagon to New Mexico, and without cruise control no less?), it makes for some easy driving.

Tomorrow marks one of the portions of the trip I've been excited about since the beginning - the Black Hills of South Dakota. If all goes as planned, I should see both the Badlands National Park and Mt. Rushmore. Tomorrow also marks the point in the trip when I'm not sure how reliable my Internet options will be. So if you don't hear from me tomorrow, don't worry, I'm just out communing with nature.

Why don't you purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka?

Good question Prince. And so it was on to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Minnesota, State No. 44 on this journey. I should mention that I spent a good bit of time in Madison this afternoon, mostly walking State Street and taking pictures of the Capitol. I also had to make a stop at Camp Randall (again with the football) before heading west.

I put my driving shoes on today and made great time from Madison to Minneapolis without really speeding to speak of (I rarely if ever speed much on the highway). Wisconsin is the first state since Tennessee to have any real scenic land to drive across, and the rolling plains dotted with dairy farms were very cool. One interesting landmark on the way was a place called Wisconsin Dells, which can best be described as Myrtle Beach on steroids. It was the ultimate in touristy kitsch, as evidenced by the vast number of amusement parks and other such silliness. Case in point, this Trojan Horse at the entrance to the Mt. Olympus park.

Upon arriving in Minneapolis, I parked near the Mississippi River at a place called Saint Anthony Falls. This is almost the extreme north end of the river and once featured the only waterfall on the Upper Mississippi. The falls have since been covered by a concrete apron and dams installed. Here's the view from just down river on the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Trail.

I finished the walk around the trail, had a quick dinner of fish and chips at Tuggs before heading to my home base for the night at Casey's friend Anne's house. Special thanks to Anne for the fine (and free) accommodations.

Tomorrow we start to get serious. Mall of America, lunch, then on to North Dakota.

Oh, and I know it's been the weekend and all, but don't you love me? No comments? I'm not blogging for my health here.

Tune in next time for "Hail to the victors" or "Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame"

It's been over a thousand miles and I'm titling posts with homages to Rocky and Bullwinkle...let's just say that I shouldn't have this much time alone with my thoughts. Anyway, today I wrapped up my impromptu college football pilgrimage today with visits to Michigan and Notre Dame.

First up was Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, the Big House.

It was raining, and the field was covered in preparation for graduation, but it was pretty awesome. It wasn't nearly as big vertically as I'd imagined a 100,000+ capacity stadium would be, but it wasn't hard to picture that many people in there. It was built in 1927 and felt like it could have looked exactly like it did today way back then. Very cool.

After a cheese steak at Mr. Spot's for lunch, it was off to South Bend. The toll road that runs east to west across northern Indiana (I-80 and I-90, cleverly-named the Indiana Toll Road) was closed due to an accident this morning, so I was forced onto US 20 from Angola into South Bend. It was extremely slow going with all the normal Toll Road traffic on the mostly two-lane road, but I did get to drive through some Amish country around Lagrange. You know you're going slow when you get passed by a horse-drawn buggy. But I digress...

I got an in-depth Notre Dame athletic facility tour from fellow women's hoops SID Chris, highlighted by the ridiculously-nice new football building which features hands down the nicest weight room I have ever seen. Carolina's football weight room is nice, but this place blows it out of the water. I was unable to actually enter Notre Dame Stadium due to construction (glad to know it's not just Chapel Hill), so I decided to walk around campus a bit.

After taking the requisite picture of Touchdown Jesus, I ventured toward the center of campus. With all due respect to Carolina (and UVa for that matter), I can't imagine a place looking more collegiate than Notre Dame. A very intimate, walkable campus with just the right combination of really old buildings and well-landscaped nature. And in the middle of it all, the famed Main Building, which you may recognize...

I made a quick pit stop at the bookstore for my first T-shirt of the trip before heading west toward Lake Michigan. It was still kind of rainy (and newly-foggy) as I got closer to Chicago, so I decided to call it a night in Portage, Ind., before driving into the city tomorrow. There is some clearing in the forecast, so hopefully I can spend most of the day walking around Chicago.

With that, good night from the Central Time Zone. Here's hoping this is the dumbest thing I do on the trip. (What can I say, I couldn't let my dad be the only one to lose money tonight).

Blue moon of Kentucky, keep on shinin'

When I left this morning, I imagined this post being relatively short with lots of whining about how lame driving through Kentucky and Ohio was. But you deserve better, I deserve better, the blog deserves better. So we'll start you off with this little beauty from Corbin, Ky. Wait for it...

That's right, the birthplace of KFC. In addition to being on the site of the Colonel's original restaurant (the building in the photo is a recreation), there is also a museum and a regular KFC. Not to mention a souvenir stand, complete with Colonel Sanders bobbleheads. I, however, opted for the $0.69 commemorative button. I believe I'll have to give this place an honorary spot on the Lunch List.

After lunch in Corbin, I headed to Cincinnati for dinner at the Montgomery Inn. This place came recommended by (ed.) Casey's roommates Rebecca and The Doctor (instead of the universally-panned Skyline Chili) and lived up to expectations. The "World's Greatest Ribs" were solid, but the highlight was a scoop (actually the size of football) of Graeter's Black Raspberry Chip ice cream. I ate at the Boathouse location, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone dining in the 'Nati.

A little site housekeeping to close...

First, you'll (probably not) notice a slight change to the bobbymap. First, Ohio has been changed from blue to red since I have now driven through it. Second, as I am spending the night in Ann Arbor, Michigan is now red as well. I haven't really done anything but check into the hotel, so Michigan will get some love tomorrow. One last thing is a new feature on the side bar, the Scoreboard. It will list four things from here on out - miles traveled, states visited, tanks of gas purchased and average miles per gallon. I haven't actually included totals yet (because I forgot to look at the odometer when I got out of the car), but I will update that in the morning.

So almost no whining and the Colonel...not too bad if you ask me. Kentucky was really boring though. And the traffic in Lexington sucked.