MistahSinclair - Less Fatter, Mo’ Faster!

The last day of the marathon road trip went pretty smoothly.  Since it was just over half the distance of some other days with decent weather that shouldn’t be a shock.

The second half of Pennsylvania was a huge improvement over the first half…thankfully!  The roads were infinitely better!

From PA we had a short (70 mile) hop across New York state then into Connecticut and down to New Haven.

Some of the running jokes from the journey:

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Every time a horse went past in a trailer I said “Why the long face?”  - actually this is a full time poor joke by me

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As we came into Oregon this exchange happened:

12yr old daughter:  “What are those overgrown black sheep?”
Mom:  “Around here we call them cows!”

Every time we past a herd of cows we pointed out the overgrown sheep to the girl…she didn’t see the funny side after 3300 miles of that!

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Going over a bridge in Kansas the announcement was made “Now passing over the highest point in Kansas”.

This was repeated in southern Illinois and Indianana!

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The midwest had a huge number of adult stores and fireworks stores on the roadside.  This lead to a lot of jokes that shouldn’t be repeated!

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The 4yr old boy told a great many jokes…some were very bizarre and most referred to bodily functions - again not to be repeated!

He also repeated a couple of lines from Underdog  (the movie) which got much airtime on the DVD player on the drive.  His two favorites were:  “Freak!” and “Whoa, whoa, no stripes, they make me look fat!”

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Many jokes were also made about the muttroid (half dog, half mattress - derived from mattroid to describe someone who is half person, half matress - referring to Scout’s many sleeping positions)

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Finally there was the stalking hawk.  Not much of a joke here…we just saw a hawk, many times over during the drive (on lampposts, fences, flying overhead, etc).  Every day really!  Maybe it wasn’t the same hawk every time, maybe it wasn’t…but we know it was…and it was watching us!!!

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Ok, here are a few more pictures from the trip.

  The kids take in the scenery on day 6!!
  Scout takes in the scenery on day 6!!
  Now entering Connecticut!
  World’s Largest Fireworks Store!
  Now entering Ohio
  Downtown Indianapolis
  Sunrise over Kansas - can you see any hills??
  McBreakfast in Kansas, stalked by McHunter Dog.
  McHunter Dog says “Who me?  I’m innocent!”
  Biggest barn in Kansas (so the signs said - may also be highest point in Kansas)
  Erm…something we saw in a truck stop in Kansas
  Snowpacked roads on the way up Monarch Mountain, CO
  Eerie snow blowing across the road outside Gunnison, CO
  Summit of Monarch Mountain

Well, there’s been a bit of delay in getting this progress posted due to poor internet connection followed by a long day and being too tired to write yesterday.  Today was also a long one but I wanted to get something done.

Day 3 - Fruita, CO to Limon, CO - Through the Rockies

After a long run from Oregon, through Idaho and Utah to Colorado we got to Fruita to find out that Vail Pass was closed due to high winds and drifting snow.

A little bit of looking at a map and talking to locals pointed us to Monarch Pass (Hwy 50) through the Rockies.  Snow-packed and a bit off the main path, but it was open.  So off we went…

The start of the drive on 50 was pretty easy going, clear pavement and straight roads…that changed at Cimarron where the roads became snow-packed and winding.  After going gradually up to Gunnison we stopped for lunch at the Golden Arches with the temperature a balmy 6F (-14C) we headed on to the pass.

The entire drive was snow-packed with drifting snow and steep climbs.  It was slow going, 4-wheel drive at about 30mph but not too difficult and ended up 11,312ft above sea level.  From there it was a steep run down the other side into a meandering canyon system that went for about 40 miles…lots of spectacular scenery but tough driving.

From there we nipped through Colorado Springs and on to Limon.  This ended up being several hundred miles less than planned due to the backroads route, but it was more progress than going nowhere over Vail Pass!

Limon was -6F (-21C) that night which meant the dog was not a big fan of going to the bathroom and made the potty breaks as short as possible.

Oh yeah - Happy New Year in Limon!

Day 4 - Limon, CO to Greenville, IL

To make up for the short  (distance) day 3 we went for a monster.  804 miles I think was the total.

After Colorado we rolled into Kansas which is flat, flat, flat and the roads are straight.  This made for good speed, but not much in the way of scenery.

Kansas made way for Missouri which was more interesting to look at, but it was dark within half an hour of entering the state.  Straight through there and into St Louis, and right on out the other side…a few more miles later we were in Greenville, IL at about 10:30 at night…too tired to type anything!

Day 5 - Greenville, IL to Somerset, PA

Illinois and Indiana are pretty similar to Kansas.  Flat.

In ‘99 we drove Orlando to Minneapolis and the only state we didn’t stop in was Indiana.  It didn’t look much better this time through, but we did have to get gas once!

After Indiana came Ohio, which was decent as far as scenery goes but the weather was looking a bit grim.  Towards the end of the state the snow had started coming down pretty hard.  Whilst this wasn’t really slowing progress someone else wasn’t so lucky.  A crash on I-70 had us parked for an hour and a half about 30 miles from the end of the state.

Once we got going we finished off OH, went through WV then into PA.

The theme for the day was steadily deteriorating quality of roads.  This culminated with PA.  These have got to be some of the worst interstates in the country.  Certainly the worst I’ve seen.  We’ve made it about half way through the state so far and these roads suck.

After 50 miles or so the I-70 becomes the Pennsylvania Turnpike toll road.  Every other toll road I’ve been on in the country is better quality than the regular interstate…not this one.  What a chunk.

Anyway, there should be one last post on this adventure where I’ll go through some of the running jokes and stuff like that!