Day 1: Left
Florence's house just after 8 am after a lovely breakfast of oatmeal – my
choice, she did offer eggs and scrapple.
Was supposed to top up my gas tank, but the gas station was not open, so
I left with 1/2 a tank of gas. Travel
was easy with very little traffic, even on the Schuyllkill Expressway in
Philly. Stopped twice – first after 97
miles, then after a total of 223. Target
was to drive 360 each day. Stopped for
the day in Wheeling, WVa after driving 391 miles.
Most of the drive was on the PA turnpike which frequently
had posted speed limits of 70 MPH – although we were supposed to slow down in
construction areas of which there were many. But it being Saturday, no one was working and
mostly we didn't slow down too much. Average speed for the whole day was 59 MPH and
gas was at 52.8 MPG. Gas prices rose the
farther west you went into PA. I had to
get gas on the turnpike as I was running low. Will fill up in the morning before I set out
again. Turnpike toll was $27!
There was a farm market at the second rest stop, so I bought
the biggest peach I have ever seen – about the size of a softball! It was hard to get my mouth open enough to get
a starting bite, but once started was delicious.
Saw sights from the car, but didn't take any pictures as
driving and photos are not compatible. Saw a whole line of cows facing the corn in
the field next to them. I would like to
believe they were looking at it longingly, but since I could only see their
back ends, will have to surmise. Their
back ends were not at all expressive. Also saw a sign for "Lover" one mile
away. Would love to have had a picture
of that... It must be a town in PA.
Am staying at the Hampton Inn, which has an indoor pool. I ate supper at Bob Evans at the foot of the
hill where the hotel is - across the street from a huge Cabela's. (Didn't go there as I have no room for another
thing in my car!) Ate a chicken and
noodle thing which had a biscuit under it and a lump of mashed potatoes. Also got a wonderful salad to go with it.
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| View from my room in the Hampton Inn. |
It had a lovely big shower, but they must have assumed that some very short people would be using it!
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| Note the little shelf in the corner. |
Day 2: Got up today
to what looked like fog from my room, so I didn't hurry to leave. When I was finally ready to start carrying
things down around 9 am, found that it was raining really HARD, plus foggy. Don't quite understand that, myself, but
that's what it was. I left the hotel at 9:05
am. The TripTik indicated that I should
get onto 470 instead of staying on 70W, but would eventually rejoin 70W. Had no idea why they wanted us to do it that
way, but figured I would follow their advice. Except that I saw one pick-up that had spun
out and was being rescued from the center median by a tow truck. Then there was an illuminated sign that said
there was an accident on 470 and people should use 70W instead. So I did. Did not see any more accidents, but the rain
was steady and sometimes fierce until about Columbus, Ohio when it slowed
considerably and stopped. We had dry
pavement after that although there were still occasional spots of rain.
No tolls today! Wonder why the eastern states seem to need
them, but further inland they don't... Got gas from a local brand stations for $3.46
a gallon of regular. Ran through the
rain to pay first, but forgot to look at how much I really needed. So paid $30, but it only took $23, so I had to
go back in for my change. I said to the
girl at the cash register that I was from NJ where they think pumping gas is a
dangerous thing and won't let us do our own. She asked where I was from and I said
"near AC." It turned out she
was from Atco! So I then said EHT which
she recognized. Didn't ask how she got
to Ohio...
Stopped this afternoon at about 4:10 about 20 miles shy of
Terre Haute, Indiana. Am staying at a
Best Western. Have had a nice
"glass" – well, plastic cup of red wine. I have about 2 or 3 glasses left as I take
very small ones. May have another after
I get back from supper. Or may skip
supper in favor of wine and rice cakes. I'm
almost out of corn chips...
Gas mileage was much lower today. I don't know if it was because of the hills in
Ohio, or the cheap gas. I saw signs
for BP stations, but that required breaking the journey as there weren't any
near where I stopped last night and it doesn't look like there are any here,
either.
Did 372 miles today (for a total so far of 763). OK. It
looks like I screwed up my calculations... 763 is no where near half of 1800! I expected to be half way there at the end of
the second day. I guess I will have to
make up a bunch tomorrow!!! [OK. New calculations: need to do roughly 550 miles each of the next
two days. Maybe the flat of Kansas will
be good to me, but even at 70 MPH, it will take 7.5 hours of driving each day. Sigh. Don't you hate it when you can't do math???]
Anyway, only got 47 MPG today with an average speed of 63
MPH.
Day 3: Fortunately
for me, Labor Day wasn't! There were
tons of road work places, but no actual work going on. Most places had a posted speed limit around 65
MPH, with lower signs to be followed only if they were blinking. None were. Also no workers were out. Interesting the different laws about speeding,
etc., in work zones. In one state, if
you hit a "worker" (but aren't we all workers? Well, except for us retired folk...) there is
a $10,000 fine, plus 14 YEARS in JAIL! Another state just listed the $10k fine...
Weather was supposed to be dreadful to the west of where I
spent last night, with baseball- and softball-sized hail! Also scattered thunderstorms with very heavy
rains. It started out cloudy, then cleared
for a while, then got cloudy for most of the day, but I did not see a drop of
rain, let alone any hail. Roads stayed
perfectly dry which was great as the previous day was very wet. More traffic today. Probably the same number of transports, but many
more cars. Still, everyone on the road
is very considerate. They drive in the
right lane and only use the left for passing. They also move over so traffic can enter the
roadway. Very civilized! The only crowded spots were through St. Louis,
but even there we moved very quickly.
Their downtown roadway puts the Schuyllkill to
shame – both in surface conditions and in drivers. There were a lot of cars but no where near
Schuyllkill volume. We never dropped
below 60 MPH!
Trip stats are that I covered 672 miles today. More than I intended, but in Kansas, the hotels
are few and far between. I filled up my
tank ($30) before starting out (BP gas). Got another $20 (also BP) when I stopped for
lunch. (A quesadilla which I ate half
for lunch and the other half just now with my wine. I got it at a bar where there was a sign saying "We install and service hangovers!") I expected to gas up in the morning, but kept
not finding hotels and was down to my last gallon of gas – the car was not
complaining yet, but it would have soon – so I stopped at a no-name station and
almost filled up. For the day, I got
43.5 MPG at an average speed of 70 MPH.
I saw lots of interesting things, but wrote none of them
down as I was driving. Also took no
pictures. Camera is running out of
juice, and while I know I packed the charger in the car, am not sure where. (Well, yes, it is written down, but I haven't
bothered to look as I don't want to have to disturb the load...) Anyway, I skipped stopping at the world's
largest windchime although I would have liked to have seen it. (It was too early in the morning and I didn't
know how well the day would progress. Also did not know how far off I-70 I would have
to go to actually see it.) Also skipped
Eisenhower's home, Truman's home, Custer's Museum, and the Oz Museum. I don't understand how the Oz Museum can be in
Kansas as Dorothy distinctly said "We're not in Kansas any more!" but
apparently it is.
I did see some cows, maybe some buffalo, (they were buffalo
colored, but all were sitting down and I was going at least 75 MPH), 2 Appaloosa
horses – black and white; I'd never seen any before! (Unless they were seriously overgrown Springer
Spaniels...) Loads of wind mills, most
of them not turning, but those that were were mesmerizing!
Kansas is not flat. I
don't know who spread that rumor, but I haven't see it yet. It doesn't have huge mountains, more like rolling
hills, but very long ones. If there were
trees, it would look a lot like CT.
I am in Russell, KS tonight. It looks like I have about 500 miles to do
tomorrow, but will have to figure that out as I have the trip-tik that sends me
to Boulder, but my extended stay hotel is in Firestone, CO.
Day 4: Have arrived! Made incredibly good time. Absolutely no construction until the ring road
around Denver. But I got off before
then. Also, no traffic until about 25
miles from Denver – and even then, it was just that instead of seeing only 1
car in front of me and 1 behind, I saw 7. Got "heavy" on the ring road, but we
still managed to do at least 75 MPH.
Left Russell around 6:30 am local time. Dropped another hour into Colorado, so am now
on Mountain time. I got to the hotel
around 11 am local time!!! I was so
fortunate that they had a clean room and I could check in right away. So got car mostly emptied. (Sorry, Nancy, forgot to take a picture of it
totally loaded...) Then went out to find
something to eat. "Desk" clerk
suggested getting the freebie rental papers, but I haven't found one yet.
The view from my room is lovely. I am on the second floor and have to take pictures through the glass. If I try from the parking lot, there are too many shorter things between me and the mountains.
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| Sunset View from My Room in Firestone - Arrival Day. |
Today's stats are that I drove 385 miles, at 41.5 MPG and an
average speed of 74 MPH. (All posted
speeds were 75 except through one built-up area where it dropped to 65.)
Totals for the trip are 1822.6 miles, 45.4 MPG, 66 MPH. Crap gas makes a difference of about 10 MPG! Leslie suggested that ethanol is supposed to
drop your mileage by 10 %, but this was more like 25 %.
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| The Mountains Are Clearer Today! |
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