Lebanon, OR

Monday Sept 27, 2010


Okay, Maybe I should blog a little more often. We made it all the way to Butte, MT, We couldn't find anyplace to buy dog food, so in the morning, we left. We finally got some dogfood in Missoula, and kept heading towards Seattle. Somewhere, later we had Subway.
We arrived in Seattle and parked at a Whole Foods Market to look around and stretch our legs. We drove around Seattle, and went to a few McDonalds' looking for internet. We Slept at a Walmart.
When we woke up, we went to a curiosities shop, complete with mummies, and headed out of town. I could see myself spending more time in Seattle, if I had a little cash saved up.We went to Boems Chocolate Factory, and got a big sampler bag. Amaretto was the best. We then leftfor the Vancouver area. We went to a Del Taco, and we slept at a Walmart. In the morning, Walmart called security on us because they thought the dog was to hot in the truck, but we were stitting with him, and it wasn't too hot for us. After some employees stared for a while, we left to kill some time.
We hung around a different walmart for a while, and then We went to a del taco again.
We got to my Aunt's house around 5 and let Riley run in the back yard. He needed that. We went to bed pretty early after checking our emails. Next morning, we hung around the house and I caught up on my cartoons. We watched Silent Running, and later Crowley made French dips. It was really nice to see my aunt again after so long.
We woke up and packed our things to leave. We stopped in a Polish festival in Portland and had some authentic fair food, before leaving for Eugene.
We arrived in Eugene Saturday evening, and looked at everything that seemed of interest. We hopped and skipped all ovewr town till wefound a Mcdoanlds that had wifi. It was the 6th one we went to. We went to Walmart and slept. We woke up and had Taco Time, it sucks. We then drove all over Eugene for no reason. We found a starbucks inside a grocery store that had free wifi. It was a Fred Meyer. We used till about 9pm and went to speep at Walmart. In the morning we went to the DHS and got some foodstamps. We had a lovely lunch of smoked ham and havarti on sourdough rolls, and we went to test drive a 76 Luv.
Lauren is hellbent on buying a $500 truck to learn how to drive a stick with. it saves the wear on my truck, and it gives us a project. So I'm going along with it. Whatever happens from here will be very interesting.


Since this was typed, we went back to Portland, and test drove a 79 Datsun, we passed on it. We slept at a Walmart, till the cops ran us off to another Walmart. We had some Jack in the Box, recycled some cans, and trued to use the internet at another Fred Meyer. Again at a Mcdonalds, and finally at the Library. I can't legally drive after tomorrow, so we need to find a place to stay stationary for a while.

Butte, MT

We slept right outside the Old Faithful Inn, and got moving pretty quickly in the morning. We toured the lodge in the daylight and filled our water bottles. We took a long, meandering route through the remainder of the park, and got to see another geyser go off. We saw a bison, right on the side of the road, and later an elk was munching on a lawn in Mammoth. We left the park, and made it all the way to Butte. It's 10 hours from here to Seattle. We are completely out of dog food, and tomorrow is Sunday in a small town, in the middle of nowhere, so we'll see what we can get. Once we got out of the park we had Taco John's for the second time; we are burnt out on it already. I'm ready to settle down and get on some government assistance. Maybe I shouldn't blog everyday...

Yellowstone, WY

I woke up early, made coffee, and decided to take the dog for a walk, I took my computer up to the lodge patio, and checked a few maps. I walked down a small trail behind the lodge and took a few pictures as I finished my coffee. I came back and Lauren went to fill a few water bottles and go to the bathroom. We were probably on the road by 10:30. We cruised into Yellowstone and checked out the first basin full of geysers and springs. They are bizzare. We proceded on towards Old Faithful, and arrived at about 2:30.
We got there just in time to see it erupt, then we walked downa trail and saw many other features. I went off a little bit on a few people giving me trouble for having a dog, but, thats fine; I educated them. We backtracked a few times to be able to catch Grand Geyser (and company) at 5ish, Castle at about 5:15, Grotto around 6, and finally Riverside at 7:55.
We walked al the way to the far end of the trail again and waited forever for Riverside. It was dark and cold by the time we got back. Riley was exhausted after "working" (wearing his service dog vest) all day. We got back around 8:30. I didn't plan to stay out after dark when I left the truck at 2ish with no water and just a t-shirt, so the Wonderland building was a welcome sight.
Its a huge lodgewood building, several stories tall, with bars, shops, and a restaurant. We went the 2nd floor and Lauren waited for me to go get the truck and make dinner. I heated up some Chinese out front and came back in to drink a beer, listened to the live piano, and take my shoes off. (And blog). But, I'm not burning up all my battery on this so, more to follow..  (typed 10pm mst 9-17-10)

Grand Tetons, WY

I've noticed that my post kind-of just run on. I'm going to try to be a little more detailed today. Everything went pretty well. I woke up first, as usual, and I walked the dog and went into Walmart. I completed my morning routine, did some browsing, and read an RV Magazine in the automotive department. I came back out to the truck and got Lauren up. We were on the road by 8am.
We had to go to a pert store to get Riley's special, expensive food, so I preset the destination in the GPS last night. They didn't open till 9, so we headed west on I-90. We deviated to US 16 because I trusted a plywood sign with hand painted claims of "faster" and "better scenery" better than I trusted my high tech, $200 connection to geosynchronous satellites. I was totally right, it was way better. We had bagels and got gas around noon. I'm averaging about 24-25 MPG. Not too bad for a two-decade old carburetor. We made it to the Hot Spring National/State Park/Thing, whatever at about 3, bathed for about 20 minutes and had some tuna salad wraps.
We arrived at the Grand Tetons just in time to see the sun set behind them. We still need dog food. My shoulder is completely useless; I can't lift my arm over my head. My neck has about a a 35 degree range of motion. My right knee is shot from standing on the gas. I had it floored for like 2.5 hours. My eyes can't really focus right, and my ears won't stop ringing from the engine noise. I'm too tired to sleep, and the money is getting tight. Every decision must be put through a series of mathematical formulas to make sure its not only logical, but even possible. This is what I was built for. The plan is 250 miles or so tomorrow; Tetons, Yellowstone, and hopefully into Butte, MT. Then, a 500 mile, 10 hour burn to Seattle, buy Monday. Then, a leisurely  5 hours through Portland and into Eugene. Then the real excitement starts. I'll keep posting...

Rapid City, SD

We went to the car museum in Roscoe, IL, but it was closed on Fridays, so we went to a McDonalds. Apparently, it was the happening high-school hang-out, because at now point were there less than 30 screaming kids in there. We went to sleep at Walmart. In the morning, while Lauren was in the bathroom, the police came by and told us to beat it. We went to the museum and saw the Family Truckster, and then headed for Milwaukee, and found a McDonalds that did not allow students between 8:30 am and 3:30 pm. I don't know what they meant by that, but they didn't have wifi anyway so we looked for Miller. We found it but we missed the last tour. We found a Staples parking lot in a dark neigborhood, but they didn't have wifi either. At nightfall, it became apparent that this was not the neigborhood to sleep in, so we went to a Radison parking lot. We stayed there all the next day, and into the next morning. Then it was Millertime. We arrived in the morning as they unlocked the doors. We had time to shop before the tour, but they didn't have any Milwaukees Best Ice stuff. The tour was a movie of old commercials and a tour of a few buildings. Then we had samples. We had pretzels, and I drank 7 free beers. The best thing they had was High Life. So, we left for the Mall from Mallrats.

We drove all day and found the Mall of America as it was closing. We went to the Walmart, and Lauren used her sweat pants as a leash for the dog.We got up in the morning and got free continental breakfast at the hotel across the street. Then we hit, not only the Eden Prairie Center (Mallrats), but also the flea market where the "dirt mall" scenes were filmed.

We drove through a tiny piece of North Dakota, but there was roadwork, and we were stopped at flagging light. It turned green, so we went, but I guess they changed it by mistake, because we had to sit off the road in a dirt mound, while 4 semi's go by in the other direction. We spend about 10 minutes in the state total. We wend through Suoix Falls, saw the Corn Palace in Mitchell, and found a hotel in Wall to park behind. This morning, I really had to poop, so I went into the hotel. I ended up getting free breakfast for Lauren, and running it back to the truck. But I still had to got, so I ran to the hotel across the street. After I was finished, I got some free biscuits and gravy, and came back. We wandered through Wall Drug,drove the Badlands Loop, and went to Mount Rushmore.

They had the nerve to ask me to pay $10 to park, in a national park, for which I had a park pass. Not only, is this public property, and is as much mine as it is anybody else's, and they make me buy a $100 annual pass. But, then that pass doesn't even let me park on publicly owned land. I told them I wanted to turn around and leave. When, I got out of sight, I parked anyway. Go to hell, Mount Rushmore, I hope the damn thing falls down. After we took some pictures, we headed back to Rapid City to charge up and blog. More Later...

North of Chicago

So the McDonalds in Bangor smelled like sewer, bad, so we left pretty early for Acadia State Park. We had a great time driving the park loop, checking out Thunder Hole, and driving to the top of Cadillac Mountain. We left the park and headed to a little lobster shack, right on the water. It was great, but nice things are lost on Lauren. We were going to take the ferry to Nova Scotia, but it was closed because of the hurricane. We drove about 3 hours through nothingness to Calais, ME, only to be turned around by Canadian Border Guards. They said my record was not sufficiently clean, and I need to apply for rehabilitated criminal status. We had our truck ripped apart and searched twice. I didn't feel much like driving, so we stayed at the Walmart (after their power came back on). We backtracked all the way through Bangor, Vermont, and headed for Buffalo. I drove about 12 hours and slept in a Walmart in New York near Lake Champlain. In the morning we had chicken at Walmart and headed for Niagra Falls. It was packed, and I couldn't go to the Canadian side, so after a few hours, we left. We stayed up for a while in a McDonalds on the way to Sandusky, OH, because it was open 24 hours. But, that means they let some colorful people in. We went to bed when we were tired of the hoopin' and hollarin'. We went to the Walmart next to the Mcdonalds and went to bed. It was nice, we parked against a big grassy hill. In the morning we watched the first 2 Mad Max movies and drove all the way to Sandusky and found a place near the hotel to park. We went for a walk and found out that the mini golf was free for the evening. We only got through half of a game before they closed though. We got about half way through Beyond Thunderdome, and I fell asleep. We had a blast in the park. Usually amusement park experience, complete with funnel cakes. We went out halfway through the day to have lunch, and I decided that I'd rather eat other people's trash than my own Taco Bell leftovers. That night, we tried to sleep in the smae spot, but security ran us off. We went to a Walmart and went to bed. The next morning, we found that we had internet in the Walmart lot, so we got some rice and chilled out. We went to a Koa so Lauren could shower and drove to the first rest sop in Michigan before we realized I lost my passport and credit card. I called Cedar Point and sure enough, they had it. I drove all the way back to get it, and re-drove everything I had just done. We were shot, so we went to Cracker Barrel to decompress. After that we got close to the Gilmore Car Museum and crashed in a Walmart. In the morning we had chicken and went shopping. We watched Tucker: The Man and the Dream, and went to the museum to see number 47. Then we drove through downtown Chicago, and found a Walmart about an hour north. The GPS has been screwing up alot, and I think its because I wont pay $120 to update the map software. It took 3 tried to locate a Walmart. We watched most of THX-1138, and went to bed. This morning we tried to finish it but I was out of power. We cleaned out the truck, refilled our water, had a nice brunch, and left. We were going to another car museum, but its a big one, so we decided to start early tomorrow. We're in a Mcdonalds now, charging everything we have. Signing off..

Bangor, ME

So, we agreed to stay an extra week at Lauren's aunt's house, so we could watch her dog while we went out of town. We stay 5 days of that, to find out "her landlord" does not want us to stay. We quietly left. We went to a Dick's to find Lauren a headlamp, but they didn't really have anything. We went to Panera for their internet, till they closed. We found an Eastern Mountain Sports to stay at. In the morning Lauren got her headlamp, and we got some bagels and did laundry. We headed all the way past Providence, RI and stayed in a Wal-mart parking lot. I was gearing up to "shop" for a few hours, but they closed at midnight. We went to Boston, but the traffic was incredible. It was moving-in day for the college students, and there was some street fair going on. We drove past Cheers and headed to a Panera to regroup. Then, we went to a park, but the music from the club next door was so bad we left. We stayed nearby the Sam Adams brewery. In the morning we were on the first tour. We tasted several of their beers (and their ingredients) all for free. We went across town to the USS Constitution, but the shit was closed that day for some reason. We went to the museum instead. We had lunch, and went back across town for a sampling at the Harpoon brewery. My favorite is still the Leviathan Imperial IPA. We headed up I-93, and found a McDonalds. They didn't have any wi-fi, so we went to another one, but it had no outlets. We used a light bulb socket adapter, but the assistant fat-manager said it wouldn't fly. He made up some story about how they were remodeling, because he didn't have the nerve to just tell us not to. We found a nice corner of a 24hr Wal-mart, and I got a 30 pack. We continued up 93 and drove out NH 112 and played in a  creek with the dog. He's doing pretty well, but he still had a few hard landings. We kept going North to what they call the basin. It had some very interesting stream beds. We  went all the way into Vermont for some cheese; I found an aged, maple smoked sharp cheddar. We headed east on US-2, and found a diner. We had good food and fantastic service. We continued on to a McDonalds, just north of Mt. Washington. It didn't have any outlets, but I was able to check the weather with my laptop battery. They had an amazing parking lot. We were so far away from the building, that we were able to leave the rear window open all night. We woke up to the sound of a small stream, just starting to flow out of a big pond. We, boogied for Mt. Washington. My truck doesn't have a CD or a tape player, so I had to put the "complimentary" audio tour on Lauren's laptop and run it through the truck's speakers. We went right up, stopping twice. Once to pick up some mica, and once to put on sweatshirts. We made it to the summit and took some pictures, but it was very foggy (cloudy?). We piddled around, and had some hotdogs, and eventually headed down. I didn't feel the need to cool my brakes, but I did go very slowly. After the decent, and a tour of their gift shop, we took off for Bangor, ME, and Lauren even got some wheel time on the way. We are headed to the Arcadia area in the morning, and maybe on towards Halifax. Hurricane Earl is supposed to hit sometime Friday...