Minnesota Part 1

I rolled into my destination, Duluth, MN, for my High School reunion early on the morning of July 29th....the first day of the reunion. After unpacking and chasing my cat down the motel hallway, I took a long nap, then got ready for the festivities. More on the reunion later. I am still recovering.

On the following day, I took the time to scrape off the dead bugs accumulated thus far on this odyssey. The photo shows the front end while just leaving North Dakota. It was worse when I finally got to Duluth. I hope a killed a zillion mosquitoes. I hate those bitches. As soon as I stopped in Moorhead, I got my first mosquito bite in decades. I was instantly reminded of another reason why I emigrated out of that state. It took all of five minutes for one to sneak through the gap in the sunroof. Bastards. I really hate them. One of the first questions I'll ask of God in the afterlife is why he created those things. He better have a good answer.

The roads in Minnesota really suck, too. Like I said on a Facebook status post, as soon as I crossed the border, it felt like I was driving in Soviet Russia. (In fact I was being generous. The roads in Moscow [c. 1989-90] were much better than in Minnesota. I know this because I drove them.) Those that blame the Minnesota climate for the road conditions are lying. Moscow's climate is just as bad, if not worse. I think Minnesota Communists are just inept. I would say Minnesota's roads are on the level of Nicolae Ceauşescu's Romania, but even he could build a decent highway .

On the plus side, Minnesota has invented the combination gas station/convenience store/pizza joint. And not just any pizza but Sammy's Pizza! I will do a separate post on this icon of Northern Minnesota later. Sammy's Pizza is the de facto standard of pizza excellence worldwide. I am not kidding.

I am burning daylight, so that's enough for now.

A reminder: to see the posted photos in their full glory, click on them.

Idaho

One of my readers was wondering how I managed to skip Idaho (HINT: He lives there). I guess it went by so fast I didn't notice.

Not really. It was pretty twisty through the mountains, so I didn't take any photos. Idaho is pretty much as I remember it (The northern panhandle). It's very beautiful with the trees, mountains and lakes.

One thing of note, I played the old rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar". It is a recent remastered edition of the original. Man...did it sound good. I had forgotten how good it was. I was also surprised I remembered so much of the lyrics. Back when it came out, I had a cassette version. I take that back. I had many of them. My old tape player used to eat them, because the tape was so thin, and I had to replace it many, many times. Good thing the old Musicland store would replace them at no charge. (Semi-related side bar: I played mostly old Black Sabbath driving through Montana)

This is a good time to update Aleksandra's status:

Well, she did finally poop. Unfortunately it was in her car carrier. As soon as she dealt it, I smelled it. No biggy. I was prepped for such an eventuality. I also have to give her kudos for "burying" it under her blanket. It was an easy clean up at the motel. She is eating well and using her potty pan now. And seems to have adjusted pretty well. She likes to perch on the room's window sill and watch the goofy tourists down below.

Oh, when I was unloading the car at 5:30 AM, she decided to escape the room! I didn't see her slip past me in the open door, but I had a feeling. I looked down the hallway and saw her butt end racing to the other end. She can run pretty fast for a fat ol' cat! I chased her down, and she ran past me to the other end. As I approached, she made a futile attempt to escape through the closed window. I opened the room door and she just went in. She knew the game was over.

She has no history of ever trying to escape before. Mebbe she just wanted to exercise after being cooped up for so long? Dunno. She's a cat. They will always surprise you.

The photo has nothing to do with this post. It's the black A4 Audi I played with and a sunset in the rear view mirror.

North Dakota 2

Now that's as green as you'll ever see North Dakota. I've been through here a few times going back to my first family 'road trip' back in 1959!

Yes, that was before the Interstate was finished. In fact, as I recall most of it wasn't done. There were brief patches where it was finished and it was heavenly riding on one, compared to the old highways. I was a little tyke back then, and I a remember the huge lime green earth moving machines. I wanted a Tonka truck of one just like them. Never did get one. Yellow just didn't do it for me. I wanted day-glow lime green, just like the 'real' ones.


All and all, North Dakota was a nice drive. The weather was perfect, traffic light, and it wasn't boring! I used to hate going through. This time the green helped a lot. The state almost looked normal.

The people are very nice.

I still can't get used to guys looking and taking pictures of my car, though. OK, to be fair a gal did too, but she was from Canada.



To celebrate, I had a Perkin's cinnamon roll & coffee at my last gasoline/rest stop. It was fantastic!

North Dakota

The Badlands don't look so bad, do they? A gal at the Tourist booth/rest stop said that North Dakota has experienced a lot of rainfall lately, so the place is pretty green. (She said that in response to my comment that ND looked a lot better than I remembered it.). I guess they must have been getting the wet stuff as out east near Fargo, the interstate still had temporary water "dams" along the road surface edges, keeping the flooded areas clear.


I remember seeing this area before. It looks a lot better with the greenery being green.

(Click on photos to see larger & clearer versions)

Montana

This photo was taken just before I had a speed "test" on the flats, and after a little "race" with an all black Audi A4.

The Audi and I were playing cat & mouse through some uphill twisties.

I did not know, but suspected my Challenger was up for the task.

Did you know that after cruising awhile at 100 mph, 80 mph seems slow?

150 mph on the other hand, does feel fast.

Tank Cat

Aleksandra has been acting weird. She likes the carrier enough, or so I thought. Most of the first day was her complaining about being cooped up, I guess. She was trying to get out pretty bad. I finally stopped and let her crawl out a bit on my lap. That seemed to calm her a lot. Then, she went back inside her carrier on her own.

She hasn't been eating much, but the food vanishes and I have seen her drink water.

She hasn't pooped or peed, yet. Mebbe that's why she's cranky & fussy. Then again, she is a girl.

Oregon

After another delay (got down the road only to discover I left my cell phone at home---DOH!) I finally got rolling . Then, I had a bit of a scare when my car died right in the middle of a Portland, OR rush hour. Luckily, after I pulled her over, She restarted without a burp and got moving again. Weird.

I had a quick smoke break along the Columbia River gorge. I don't smoke in my car. :) It was then then I noticed and remembered how windy it gets there. (For you rock hounds, that rock face is ancient basalt).

Aleksandra was a bit fussy all day, in her new carrier. I can't imagine why.















I also stopped for a quick burger along the way. It was very tasty and better than the "Five Guys" burger I had the next day. The homemade blueberry pie was not bad either.

It's Official!

My Dodge Challenger SRT8 (Yes, the one with the big-ass 6.1L V8 HEMI) gets 21mpg on the highway. (340.9 miles/16.18 gallons @ 55-70 mph)

Trip delayed!

Last minute checks revealed a faulty radar/laser detector. So, got a replacement. Not the one I would have liked, but the best available like NOW!. I had quite a bit of experience with my old BEL 745STi, so the new Beltronics Vector 955 should be no problem.

Now, before you start in, I am not a habitual speeder. I find that using a radar detector helps keep me more alert, while driving. The random 'beeps' alert me to pay attention more to the road. One of the more playful aspects is a little game I play called "Spot the Cop". A beep goes off, and I start looking for the 'bear in the bushes'. It's fun. Well, it's fun compared to the sometimes boring commute or long distance stretch of highway ahead. If you use one regularly along the same route, over time you can get a good idea where those 'killing zones' are. Cops are creatures of habit and have found the good fishing holes.

Since I was already delayed, I took advantage and did some shopping for the kitty, rather than put it off for a trip chore: I got some new elderly cat food (my kitty is on the old side), a new cat pan & accessories. I also got her two new collars. One is a purple 'girly' one, and the other is actually a small dog collar. That one is black w/skulls on it. That's her 'bad girl' one if I have to use her leash (or in case we run into a heavy metal music festival). BTW, she took to the purple one immediately. No fuss at all. Strange, because she used to hate the old one. I guess even she has mellowed with age.

I swear, I'll never bitch about a delayed space shuttle launch, again. Oh, that's right, we don't use them anymore.

Preface: Part 2

Fast forward to my retirement in 2008: Aha! Now I will have the time! I can tour to my heart’s content!

Well, life events didn't allow an immediate scheduling, or the exact methodology. My original intention was to get a Toyota FJ Cruiser and perhaps a small travel trailer. As events turned out, I inherited a 'hauler' vehicle (1994 Dodge Caravan) so getting another (the FJ) was rather redundant.

Lo and behold I discovered a hottie...the new Dodge Challenger.

I was looking at some car porn online, and I spotted a Challenger they had dropped a Viper's V-10 engine into. Man she was awesome. She was a 1970’s retro styled muscle car that reminded me of the days when I envied one from the seat of my Schwinn.

I got to wondering what a 'normal' Challenger was like. I became intrigued. Correction: I was getting a crush on a car. Since a Dodge dealer was only a few blocks away, I decided to see one 'in the flesh' to see what it 'felt like'. I did and I was smitten right then and there. Fortunately, they didn’t have the top of the line SRT8 I desired.

A few weeks later, I had received a brochure in the mail and had been contacted by a local salesman via email and phone. There was the exact model and color in transit. All I had to do was put down a deposit and she would be mine. I did, and in May 2009 I took delivery of the car I always wanted, but didn’t exist until 2008. It was almost like one of those ‘twist of fate time travel’ movies.



So, now I had the vehicle to make my ‘road trip’ fantasies come true. It is the perfect Grand Touring automobile for me, although it cannot tow a trailer. Looking at the car, it would be a crime to do such a thing. It would be like hooking up an oxcart to a thoroughbred race horse. It just isn’t done. I guess I’ll make do with hotel/motels, sleeping at rest stops, and mooching off friends.

2011 is also the year of my 40th year (!) high school reunion. For my 30th year, back in 2001 I flew to my hometown. This year, I would drive and make it the only scheduled stop. I planned out a very squiggly route there, giving myself about a month to get there to hit many places I wanted to see and visiting friends along the way. As events worked out, I ‘consumed’ most of that month being sick at home. I did manage to take a test travel trip from Salem OR to Bellingham WA and back. From this jaunt, I managed to not only see the car would be perfect (as predicted) but also managed to add to my ‘to do’ list of necessary preparations. Additionally, I also discovered my highway mileage was about 19.6 mpg! At least that’s what the car computer said. I will crunch the actual numbers later to find the truth. However, approximately 20 mpg is remarkably good for my Challenger ‘beast’ (which I have named “Blackbird” after the SR-71 spy plane).

My planned route had only been mapped to my high school reunion. I had no idea where I was going after that. Now, I will do a straight shot to Minnesota, and after that, I will take a leisurely route back, retracing much of my path but open for detours and whatever else takes my fancy.

I have waited to the last to introduce the final factor: I am traveling with my pet cat, Aleksandra. She is the one pictured on the header of this blog and inspiration for the title. She used to be quite a good car traveler, but that was many years ago. I decided against leaving her with a caretaker or kenneling her. Besides, why shouldn’t she be along? I have traveled w/cats before so I have an idea of what I am getting into. It will have its difficulties, but also its rewards. In any event, she will be my travel buddy.

Preface

Welcome to my travel blog!

This is the first entry in Grey's 2011 USA Tour! (aka: "The Road Trip")

The idea for this trip started in the summer of 1985, when I did the "Great Triangle Tour" from El Paso, TX to Salem, OR and then to Duluth MN and back. I had a very limited period of time to cover that much ground on the road, so I had to pass by every place I would like to have visited that wasn’t on my “must do” list (that trip was about 5,500 miles in 3 weeks including stopover time with family and friends).

1985 Road Trip (approximate route)












I said to myself, "Someday, I will take the time..."