May 2013
17 posts
DAY 8 - 10 My Computer Took a Dump!
I have had many computer problems this past week. It appears, in Hindsight that they were caused by a virus picked up through a motel WIFI connection. On Saturday, when I was in Kittery, Maine my computer completely crashed. It did a total data “dump” and I got that infamous “BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH”!
That means I got a blue screen with a lot of words that basically said...
DAY 7 – May 17 – MA to ME…Massachusetts to Maine
I was up at 6, went to the lobby that has bullet-proof glass to protect the desk clerk, found a coffee machine, filled my mug with some vile tasting instant coffee and ate two stale powdered sugar donuts. I am out of here!
Well, after one hour and twenty minutes I was able to drive twenty-five miles through downtown Boston during rush hour. Wow,...
DAY 6 – May 16 – Cape Cod Area
I had originally planned on meeting up with a guy just north of Boston today to talk about the YT, but he called me and put it off until Friday morning. So, 1I was off to explore Cape Cod, that long hooked-finger-looking (and expensive) sand spit that curls out and up towards Boston. It wasn’t a bad drive but Rte. 6 is through the center of the Cape and there is no...
DAY 5 – May 15 – A Whale of a Time!
When I was at Wood’s Seafood yesterday, I asked about Captain John’s Whale Watching Tour, located right next to the restaurant. They highly recommended it, so I called and made a reservation for this morning on the 8:30 tour…the only one scheduled for the day.
I was up early at the hotel, had a bite to eat and coffee, and headed down to the dock. I found easy...
DAY 4 – May 14 – To Plymouth Rock!
Left 8:45 am Sunny with temps in the 50s. My GPS took me a long way through old city streets in Schenectady and Albany before I got to the I-90 bypass. It was a nice ride from there through some very pleasant parts of the Berkshires…they call them mountains…that are reminiscent of the hills and bluffs in western Wisconsin near the Mississippi River. It is...
DAY 3 – May 13 –Schenectady - 6 States / 3 Days
I Left the motel at 6:15 am.
I have been in parts of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York since Saturday. Woke at 3 (couldn’t sleep), got up at 4, had some coffee, fought with e-mail problems. Cloudy, windy, and cold with 40s temps and light rain showers. I planned a visit to the Remington Arms Co. Museum & Factory...
DAY 2 - May 12 - Toledo to Buffalo Left 8:45 am, 38 degrees…“An unseasonably cold air mass will continue to take hold across much of the Eastern part of the Nation.”
Up at 6:30, coffee, net, hotel breakfast of mini-muffins, left 8:45. Light rain at times, and cloudy. I had only brief views of Lake Erie while...
DAY 1- May 11 - Home to Toledo, OH ...
Left home 10:00 am, 60 degrees, tolls paid: Il. =$17, IN =$12, OH =$3.75, so far.
I hit a lot of construction and traffic in Illinois, Chicago’ loop was a mess at noon on a Saturday. Once Out of IL, traffic was light with rain, cold 50s temps through Indiana and into Ohio. I stayed at a slightly shabby (but not cheap) hotel in Toledo. I ate some food I brought from home and went to bed early.
Packing up! May 10
I am leaving tomorrow morning, so I’m doing a lot of last minute stuff today. I decided not to use my trailer hitch carrier this year, as I anticipate a lot of traffic…there will not too many open prairies or mountain Forest Service roads out east. That means carrying a few less items and packing a bit more carefully, but I got it all in, even my $10 lawn...
April 2013
1 post
I'm setting up my Tumblr posts for this year.
July 2012
10 posts
Day 36 + 1 – July 8, 2012 Final Trip Report
(write your own caption)
I spent today unpacking and sorting out the many items that I either took along or accumulated on the trip. I also ran my friend of 7 ½ years, Kia, through a “deluxe super-duper” car wash, as she deserves nothing but the best. After the faithful service of 6,650 miles on Interstates, two-lanes, one-lanes, gravel, and mud, while serving as my bedroom for eleven nights, Kia...
Day 36 – July 7 Back in Packer and Badger...
I left that sleazy motel in St. Paul at 6:15 a.m. and hurried over the St. Croix River on I-94 into my home state of Wisconsin, where I stopped in Hudson, a key YT town, for a donut and coffee…well, 2 donuts actually, as they were on sale. (good excuse, huh?)
It was a glorious day, cool and sunny, so I followed the Yellowstone Trail / US 12 route from Hudson to Menomonie, also on the YT and home...
Day 35 – July 6 Long Drive, Rain Like Car Wash, Then Hot
I woke in the dark, had a coffee and donut, and left Bismarck in the rain at 5:30 am. I hit some areas where it seemed like hurricane conditions…almost a white-out of rain and wind across North Dakota and into Minnesota. (OK, I bootlegged that photo, there are not really palm trees in Fargo {:>) )
I was following the storm that...
Day 34 – July 5 Eastbound and down, Big Prairie...
I pulled out of Forsyth, MT this morning at 9:30 and pounded eastbound on I-90. My intention was to go 200 or so miles to Mandan, ND and camp again with the wild horses and prairie dogs at the Teddy Roosevelt Nat’l Park.
I have already explored the YT in eastern Montana, both last year and last month, so it was Interstate time. I drove past Fallon, where I waved good-by to the Yellowstone Trail,...
Day 33 – Happy 4th of July! Parade...but No...
Most of central and eastern Montana, and a lot of other areas of the country, are designated Red Flag Fire Danger areas. Camp fires, BBQs, and fireworks are banned. Local fireworks shows are usually produced with or by the Fire Departments, but are cancelled or postponed this year. Thus, no fireworks for me…but I did see a parade, a really little one.
My day started in Livingston with clear...
Day 32 – July 3 P-burg Scenic Loop, Three-Forks,...
My R&R in Missoula over, I worked my way east on I-90 for a while. Tonight is the full moon, and the license plate I saw this morning may be a warning to me.
I had read about the scenic Phillipsburg Alternate “loop” to Anaconda last year, so I decided to check it out. It is an easy and very nice ½ day drive, just west of Yellowstone Park, south through a long and flat river valley, then over...
Day 31 – July 2 “Down Day” for R & R in Missoula...
I have been on the road for one month as of today, so I am taking a day “off” and just messing around here…doing laundry, trimming my whiskers a bit, and washing the windows on the Kia…stuff like that. I took a short ride down the Bitterroot Valley this afternoon, mostly because it is such a beautiful day. And, I dropped a couple bucks at the “low prices” place, too.
The hotel window is wide...
Day 30 July 1 Kellogg, Wallace, Lookout Pass,...
Some internet work started my day in the Trail Motel with black clouds and drizzle outside, but about 10 am I left and took another slow tour of the Kellogg, Wallace, and Mullin area: places I explored pretty thoroughly last year. This is the heart of the historical mining district, with a history also of a 1910 forest fire, “The Big Blowup”, the largest and most destructive fire in...
Day 29 - June 30 Outlaw Cowboys, Hoopfest, and...
A quiet camp this morning greeted me with a few raindrops early and 65 degrees. By 7:30 I was heading towards Wilbur, with clouds breaking up and temps rising, through seemingly endless fields of wheat.
Not much to see or do in Wilbur that early, so I did my best Mr. Ed imitation…WILLLL-BURRR!…and wandered my way towards Davenport, locating some interesting sections of the old YT near US...
Day 28 - June 29 Coulee City to the “The Dam”
OK, right off I’ll tell you that the dam-ed big coulee I’m referring to is the Grand Coulee Dam, located 19 miles north of Wilbur, WA. When you compare the Grand Coulee to the Hoover Dam in Nevada, they each top the other in one statistic or another. Let’s agree that they are both “really big”, for many years the largest in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Coulee_Dam
I started the...
June 2012
28 posts
Day 27 - June 28 Wenatchee to Coulee City, with...
After a night in a motel with a messed-up WIFI signal, I was up early and bailed out of there first thing to the nearest McD’s, where I was able to post yesterday’s blog. I then left town on US 2 northeastward, first to Orono, on the river, with scattered orchards where water can be pumped for irrigation.
Then it was up out of the Wenatchee Valley on a newly resurfaced US 2 to Waterville, a...
Day 26 - June 27 Mountains, Apples, and Cherries
After I left Dave yesterday, I took US 97 back north over the modern Blewett Pass route (where trucks still blast past you) and took a side trip, first to Leavenworth; a small community in the Cascade foothills that was struggling in the ‘70s so survive. They decided to re-invent the town as a Bavarian Alps village, as the geography here looks amazingly like the Alps. All of the businesses now...
Day 25 - June 26 Over Blewett Pass with Dave
I arranged a meeting with Dave; a YTA member, supporter, and our “Washington State Correspondent” for the Arrow newsletter. We met at the Sunset Café in Cle Elum, appropriately located on the old Sunset Trail, which shared part of its route from Spokane to Seattle with the YT after 1925. Dave has many interests, including photography and many old roads, so getting together with him was a treat....
Day 24 - June 25 “lost Camp” and “Lost Roads”
I had a fun day today as I searched out a few places and roads that we are not quite sure of their locations. The first was Gold Creek Camp, an auto camping site listed on early travel guides and maps. There were many auto camps in 1914 when the YT was routed in Washington. One that is still a very nice mountain camp operated by the USFS is Denny Creek Camp, shown on a 1911 map, and now nestled...
Day 23 - June 24 Mile Zero to Snoqualmie Pass
I left the motel in Federal Way at 8:45, with 55 degrees and drizzle. I plugged “100 Yesler Way” into the Garmin and hit GO! 17 miles later…over, under, and on various freeways I ended up at the Ferry Terminal in the heart of downtown Seattle, where it was not raining. I parked (not quite legally) and scooted over for a few pix at the terminal, but there was a toll booth so I couldn’t...
Day 22 - June 23 Both LeMay Old Car Museums
Today I had the pleasure of visiting both LeMay Museums in the Tacoma, WA area: the LeMay Family Collection at Marymount Event Center, 36 miles from Seattle, and the brand new LeMay – America’s Car Museum, about 25 miles from Seattle.
Over many years, the family, led by the late Harold LeMay, amassed a fine collection of over 3,000 both rare and common automobiles. You name it they had it,...
Day 21 - June 22, 2012 - Rainier to Seattle Area
Today started cool and dreary, with light rain. Looks like my sunny, short-sleeved days are over for a while. I left Big Creek camp and stopped in Ashford for a coffee, danish, and a bag of ice; then proceeded to Elbe where I was able to get a signal for my smart phone. Elbe is a nice little town and its highlight is the old time railroad station, old train rides through the Rainier foothills,...
Day 20 - June 21, 2012 - St. Helens, Rainier,...
One more day “off the Trail” was spent doing more of the tourist thing. I eventually made it to Paradise…which is the Visitors Center for Mt. Rainier. I was a lot closer to heaven than the other Paradise I have visited in Michigan’s U P…and probably as close to it I’ll ever get. The drive into and through Mt. Rainier Nat’l Park is a wonderful curvy two-lane with some areas of undulating bumps...
Day 19 - June 20, 2012 Columbia Gorge to Mt. St....
I turned 3,500 miles from home today, got refused entry to see the Bonneville Dam site because I’m carrying a firearm, and saw my first “Volcano Area” warning sign.
I followed the Gorge eastbound to The Dalles, where I crossed the river back into Washington. The scenery in this area is outstanding, especially when it’s in the 70s and sunny for a drive and a few walks. Wildflowers are in bloom...
Day 18 - June 19, 2012 Beaches to Columbia River...
I slept like an old hound dog ‘till 8 and then worked on blog posts for a while. It was 55 degrees and sunny at 10 as I headed over the Astoria bridge into Oregon and the Lewis & Clark visitors Center at Fort Clatsup. This is where L & C and the Corps of Discovery spent the winter of 1803-04. A sign noted that it rained 94 0f those 106 days…kinda like my time in Washington this...
Day 17 - June 18, 2012 Rainforests to Redneck...
Day 17 - June 18, 2012 Rainforests to Redneck Riviera
I woke up in Willowby camp at 4:30 am to pounding rain…it sounded like rocks hitting the Kia’s roof. By 5 am it was only 50 degrees, buy I could no longer stand it, so I got up and took my Jetboil into the spacious restroom and made a travel mug of coffee for wake-up and another back-up insulated mug for later. I sat in the Kia for a while...
Day 16 - June 17, 2012 End of the Road at the NW...
I woke at 6 to rain and 54 degrees. The heated bathroom key does not work and there is no one at the office to fix it, so I went to the General Store, also owned by the tribe, like everything else in town. They have decent restrooms and very tasty coffee, so I was OK and on my way.
I drove north through re-planted forest on a winding 2-lane to Neah Bay, another Tribal town, this time the Macahs,...
Day 15 - June 16, 2012 Seal Rock to La Push and...
I made coffee under the giant old growth cedar trees in the Seal Rock camp, and headed north on US 101. I then took a slow ride on a USFS gravel road up 2,800 ft. Mt. Walker (not named for Wisconsin’s Governor), up through the clouds to the outlook on top. If you have flown on commercial airlines, you know it is not unusual to fly above the clouds…but it is a first for me to drive above the...
Day 14 - June 15, 2012 Follow the Red Brick Road,...
It was 63 degrees and sunny in North Bend this morning. After the numbering system of US highways began in 1926, the Yellowstone Trail through this area officially became US 10, also known after that as the Sunset Highway. As they shared the route (what we YT fans call the “Northern Route”) from Spokane to Seattle after the YT switched to the Blewitt Pass route from Ellensburg...
Day 14 to Day 18 - June 14 - 18, 2012 Temporary...
I have camped for the past three nights and therefore have not been able to post. I came across a “Golden Arches” place this morning so I am doing a brief status report using their free WIFI. I will post the daily reports as soon as I find a motel tonight or tomorrow.
It’s been rainy, foggy, and cold (40s & 50s) since I left Seattle Friday. I have toured most of the Olympic Peninsula of...
Day 13 - June 14, 2012 Ellensburg to North...
My plan was to leave Ellensburg and slowly follow the route of the YT into the Cascade Mountains near Snoqualmie Pass, where I would spend one or two nights at a U. S. Forest Service (USFS) campground. It was easy to follow my YT map to Cle Elum, Where I took a short, but interesting 5-mile side trip to Roslyn.
Roslyn, WA may not ring a bell with you…how about Cicely, Alaska? What…you ask?...
2012 Day 12, June 13 Yakima to Ellensburg and...
2012 Day 12, June 13 Yakima to Ellensburg and “Best Name” Old Road
I woke up early at about 6 am (Pacific Time zone, 2 hours different from home – 8 am in WI - It takes the sunrise two hours longer to get here, you know). I booted up my laptop and went down for a mug of coffee. When I got back to my room, I went to sit the mug on the desk and accidentally spilled about ¼ of my travel mug on...
2012 Day 11, June 12 On The Road With Ray,...
I had an opportunity to meet up today with Ray from Yakima, a YT member and longtime supporter. We had exchanged a few e-mails in the past, so when I knew I was coming his way, I let him know. He immediately volunteered to travel in tandem with me for a stretch and share his knowledge of the YT route with me.
I left early from Walla Walla, with its very nice historical downtown, and worked my...
2012 Day 10, June 11 Texaco Man, Wheat Fields,...
Nice day in Spokane, as I packed up and headed southwest through the “Palouse” area (Google it). Wheat fields are everywhere through here, and a few small towns are scattered along the way. The Yellowstone Trail route is pretty easy to follow and a very nice ride. There is one stretch that is dirt, but mostly two-lane blacktop.
One stop that I really enjoyed was Rosalia, where I met Mike, the...
2012 Day 9, June 10 Exploring Spokane
Cool and partly cloudy this morning. I spent the day exploring the YT from the Idaho / Washington state line, through the city of Spokane, and down to “Hangman Valley”. The route is pretty easy, but I discovered a few glitches in our new maps-in-progress. I was able to figure them out and had a good “Sunday drive” of about 35 miles, each way, and I drove both ways of the YT on mostly old city...
2012 Day 8, June 9 Kellogg, ID to Spokane,...
42 degrees and rain! Not the most pleasant morning for a road trip. After some internet time with a very frustrating weak WIFI signal in the Trail Motel, I was back on the road. I drove the YT through this area very thoroughly last year, but after reading Dave’s great article in our latest Arrow, I knew I would visit the Old Mission State Park west of Cataldo.
There I met Scott, a Montana...
2012 Day 7 June 8 St. Regis, MT to Kellogg,...
2012 Day 7 June 8 St. Regis, MT to Kellogg, ID
I woke up at 7 am to 52 degrees and light rain. St. Regis is on the YT and I can see it through the window, so I got organized, left the motel, and started driving west on what is now a nice two-lane blacktop. First up was the well-known “Camel’s Hump”, a 13 mile winding and climbing road through forest that was pleasant even in the rain, with...
